Mistress expected marriage to Coleman after planned divorce (2024)

WATERLOO • Tara Lintz, whose romance withmurder defendant Christopher Coleman was said by prosecutors to behis motivation to kill his wife and children, testified for about20 minutes this afternoon.

Escorted into the courthouse about 12:20 p.m. by twoplainclothes police officers, Lintz wore a black pantsuit, a pinkblouse, black patent leather heels with pink trim, sunglasses and across on a necklace. She had flown in from her home in Largo,Fla.

Lintz testified that she and Coleman met in November 2008, begana sexual relationship the next month and planned to marry.

When Monroe County State's Attorney Kris Reitz asked about apromise ring she was wearing, she said yes, it was a gift fromColeman.

Lintz said she and Christopher Coleman regularly texted eachother, including the night before the murders. How often did theycommunicate, Reitz asked.

"All the time," she said. "Constantly."

She said Coleman told her he would serve divorce papers on May4, 2009, but later told her a typo meant it would be moved back aday to May 5.

That ended up being the day Coleman's wife and children werefound dead.

Lintz's answers were in a matter-of-fact, even tone. No oneasked if she had any inkling that the relationship might turn tomurder. At one point, Reitz asked whether they were planning ongetting married.

"The divorce had to happen first," she replied.

Reitz did not press her further.

She said she does not remember making a sex video with Colemanin Hawaii. The video was described to the jury by a police officerjust before her testimony. When Reitz asked if they had had sex inArizona, she answered, "That's questionable, but probably."

She testified that she was unhappy that Coleman planned a tripto Disney World with his family for July 2009, and told him shedidn't want him to go. She said Coleman told her he cancelled itbut that Sheri Coleman had rescheduled it for that fall. Lintz saidshe posed as Sheri Coleman in a call to Disney World to check.

Under cross-examination by defense lawyer William Margulis,Lintz said she was aware of threatening letters the Coleman familyhad received.

GRAPHIC PHOTOS AND VIDEOS

Before Lintz took the stand, jurors in the Christopher Colemanmurder trial saw graphic photos Lintz had taken of herself and sentto Coleman, and photos he had shot of himself and sent to her. Theyalso saw or heard snippets of a recording he made of himself in ashower and sent to Lintz.

The recording was made in video, but only the audio was playedduring the more explicit parts. In it, Coleman is masturbating, andsays, "You are the only person I have ever done this for ... Icannot wait to see you in Hawaii. I love you, baby."

Judge Milton Wharton did not show another video police have thatshows Coleman and Lintz together. But Granite City police officerKenneth Wojtowicz, who worked on the case with the Major CaseSquad, described the scene in a hotel room in Hawaii, and how thetwo talked of having sex the night before.

Wojtowicz said Coleman's computer had a file with Lintz'smeasurements, her ring size and a description of her sexualfantasies. An entry in the file read "11/5/08 the day Tara changedmy life." It also lists a name for their prospective daughter: ZoeLynn Coleman.

The same officer said that Coleman routinely misspelled the word"opportunities" as "oppurtunities" in routine emails. Wojtowiczsaid the same mistake shows up in threatening emails received bythe family in the months before the murders. Prosecutors haveclaimed that Coleman wrote the threats himself, to invent someoneto blame for the murders to come.

Lintz, 33, a co*cktail waitress and former hostess at agentleman's club, unsuccessfully fought an order to appear attrial. Lintz had been a high school classmate of Sheri Coleman.

ANOTHER SUSPECT?

Earlier today, Justin Barlow, a key detective in theinvestigation of the murders of Sheri Coleman and her two sons,testified that Christopher Coleman was the only serious suspectpolice considered.

In cross-examination of Barlow, the defense tried to plantdoubts about Coleman as the killer.

In one instance, they raised questions about Coleman's brother,Keith Coleman, who they said had at some point sent Sheri Coleman avideo of one of the Coleman brothers strangling a deer, and whothey said had not been cooperative with police.

Defense lawyer Jim Stern noted in his questioning that KeithColeman had been a past guest at Christopher's and Sheri's home inColumbia, Ill., but that for some reason was later no longerallowed to stay there.

Barlow said that Keith Coleman, who lives in Arkansas, had aviable alibi for the time the killings occurred.

The defense also asked about a report that someone in a browncar had thrown something off the Jefferson Barracks Bridge on themorning of the killings. That is along the route that ChristopherColeman, who drives a different kind of car, would have taken to agym that morning. Potential evidence was found along the route nearthe bridge.

Barlow said that had been investigated.

When Monroe County State's Attorney Kris Reitz asked Barlowabout suspects in the investigation, the officer said, "We hadone."

Barlow also said a report that a neighbor heard a quarrel at theColeman house on the night of the killings did not check out.

Christopher Coleman is accused of strangling Sheri Coleman, 31,and sons Garett, 11, and Gavin, 9. The alleged motive: to avoid adivorce that would cost Coleman his job as a bodyguard fortelevangelist Joyce Meyer and to start a new life with Lintz.

Coleman has said his family was alive when he left the Colemans'Columbia, Ill., home about 5:43 on May 5, 2009, to go to a gym.Prosecutors have tried to establish through expert testimony frompathologists that they were already dead hours before Coleman leftfor the gym.

Prosecutors are seeking a death penalty for Coleman, 34.

Tuesday and Wednesday, jurors heard a videotaped interrogation ofColeman that showed police learned about the affair with Lintzearly in the investigation and pressed Coleman about it. On thetape, Coleman first says she was a friend, then admits a sexualrelationship but says it had started recently.

Prosecutors say it actually started months earlier, in November2008. They say Coleman planned to marry Lintz and told her he wouldbe filing divorce papers on May 5, 2009 — the day the bodies ofSheri Coleman and the Coleman children were found.

Coleman had complained of threats late in 2008 and early in 2009from someone targeting him because of his work for Joyce MeyerMinistries. Graffiti in that vein was scrawled in the house withred spray paint when police officers discovered the bodies.

Prosecutors said they will show that Coleman sent the threatshimself and wrote the messages found on the walls of their suburbanhome in an effort to throw police attention elsewhere.