Murder Suspect Chris Coleman Was "Trustworthy" Said Mega-Church
COLUMBIA, Ill. (CBS/AP) He's charged with murdering his family, but he was a model employee. That was the assessment from the far-reaching Joyce Meyer Ministries of its security guard Chris Coleman, the southwestern Illinois man accused of strangling his wife and two sons.
Employment records say Coleman was "hard working, diligent and very trustworthy."
However, Coleman also took a personality test for the ministry where he described his weaknesses as being withdrawn, moody, tactless, and unaffectionate, according to the St. Louis Post Dispatch.
Some of Coleman's work records – including evaluations and a resignation letter – were released Friday by the mega-church, which televises its services in over 25 languages and 200 countries.
Joyce Meyer Ministries had to sought to keep the employment documents confidential. Hundreds of pages have been filed in a wrongful death lawsuit filed by the family of murder victim Sheri Coleman.
The 31-year-old woman and the couple's children, 11-year-old Garett and 9-year-old Gavin, were found dead in their Columbia, Ill. home on May 5, 2009. Chris Coleman is charged with three counts of first degree murder in the deaths. Authorities have said that all three victims were strangled with some type of wire, rope or cord.
Coleman was hired as a security guard in 2000 for the Jefferson County-based ministry. He was promoted to head of security.
The day of the funeral for his wife and two young sons, Coleman also found time to text his girlfriend in Florida, messaging that he missed her and he loved her, according to court documents.
Coleman was having an affair with Tara Lintz, who once worked at a strip club in Florida. Lintz admitted to investigators that she had sexually explicit communications with Chris Coleman by phone and email. She said their sexual relationship began in November 2008 and the two planned to get married in 2010 after Chris Coleman had divorced his wife. Lintz was a high school friend of Sheri Coleman.
During a coroner's inquest, Columbia Police Chief Joe Edwards described the crime scene and Coleman's claims that the killings happened while he exercised at a nearby Missouri gym.
Edwards said the slayings followed months of anonymous threats Coleman insists were sent to his home. Investigators believe Coleman sent them to himself to set up a scenario of a stalker killer.
Edwards also testified that "vulgar" graffiti was found spray-painted on walls at the crime scene and a "rather disturbing" obscene message was found on the bed sheets covering the 9-year-old's body. He testified last month that a handwriting expert believed Coleman's writing matched the statements spray-painted in red throughout the home.
According to court papers, Coleman's mistress, Lintz, claimed Coleman told her the night before the killings that he would be serving his wife with divorce papers the next day. Lintz also told investigators that Coleman assured her by e-mail the next day that he was not the killer and had an alibi.
Coleman told police his wife was alive when he left for the gym. But Chief Edwards has said by the time investigators arrived, it was clear all three victims had been dead for some time, with autopsies indicating they were likely killed between 11 p.m. on May 4 and 3 a.m. on May 5.
Chris Coleman maintains his innocence. He has pleaded not guilty and has been ordered to stand trial. He remains jailed without bond.
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