Who is alton coleman

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This flood came 88 years after the infamous Great Flood of that killed more than 2, people in Johnstown. As they had in the first flood, the dams Once there, Coleman and Brown removed Tamika's shirt and tore it into small strips, which were used to bind and gag the children. Tamika was suffocated and stomped when she began to cry, and Annie was raped. The attack happened in the midst of the couple's crime spree that took them through Indiana, Illinois, Ohio, Michigan and Kentucky.

They were finally captured in Illinois on July 20, In the wake of her arrest, attorneys for Brown argued that the year-old woman was borderline mentally disabled and acting under Coleman's domination at the time of the killings. But Brown and Coleman were both sentenced to death, and each made multiple unsuccessful appeals to have the sentences overturned. Coleman was executed April 26, , in Ohio, while Brown was awaiting an execution date. She was slated to be the first woman executed in Indiana, since the U.

Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in However, unbeknownst to Brown and Coleman the young girl had only blacked-out, when she awakened she stumbled out of the woods and was discovered by a local man. She was immediately taken to a local hospital where she was treated for her injuries. She was lucky. A search was quickly launched for Tamika. On June 19, , the body of Tamika Turks was found in a swampy area of woods.

The same day the decomposing remains of Vernita Wheat were discovered in Waukegan, in an abandoned building. She amazingly was able to save herself by intentionally smashing into a truck, and fleeing on foot. The couple quickly fled in her damaged vehicle. On June 27, , the stolen model car was found abandoned in a southwest Detroit alley. On June 30, , Coleman and Brown carjacked two men at gunpoint, throwing one an invalid out of the moving vehicle. The other man was fortunate enough to be released.

On July 2, , Another Detroit couple was attacked in their home; this time savagely beaten with a pipe and subjected to an incoherent harangue by Coleman on how blacks were forcing him to kill blacks. Shortly thereafter, Coleman and a Toledo bartender exchanged shots when Coleman tried to abduct one of the bar's patrons. Around this time in Cincinnati the mother of fifteen-year-old Tonnie Storey, reported her daughter missing. The mother and daughter were soon to be raped and murdered.

Their bodies later discovered stuffed in a crawlspace. On July 11, , the decomposing corpse of Donna Williams was discovered. It was soon apparent that she had been strangled to death with a pair of panty hose. Alton Coleman was now added to the FBI's ten most wanted list. On July 13, , Marlene Walters became the first white victim; she was bludgeoned to death in her Norwood, OH, home.

On July 16, , forty-five-year-old Oline Carmichael Jr. They drove his car to Dayton, Ohio and then locked him in the trunk. He was found unharmed hours later. Also later that same day, an elderly minister and his wife were found, battered in their Dayton home, they were lucky to be alive. The minister's stolen station wagon was later recovered at a car wash in Indianapolis, where seventy-seven-year-old Eugene Scott, and his car were now missing.

Police however, soon found him dead in a ditch near Zionsville. His hands had been slashed with a knife, and he had been shot four times in the head with a. In Waukegan, Coleman's seventy-two-year-old grandmother issued a tape-recorded appeal, "Alton, please, in Jesus' name, for God's sake, give yourself up so you can go and get well," she pleaded, "Please, your killing me.

I'm worried to death. On July 19, , in Cincinnati, the partly nude decomposing corpse of fifteen-year-old Tonnie Storey, was found. She had been raped, brutally stabbed and shot twice in the head. On July 20, , shortly before noon, the bloody seven-week reign of terror finally came to an end in Evanston, IL. An anonymous tip, lead to the couples arrest in a local park where they were watching a neighborhood basketball game. Police discovered two blood stained knives and a.

The manhunt was over and authorities in five states suspected the couple of at least eight murders, numerous abductions, sexual assaults, beatings, and thefts involving both local and federal offenses. It was quickly decided that Ohio authorities should get the first crack at the couple. Before the trials began the couple signed legal documents entering them into a common-law marriage.

During separate trials in Cincinnati, both Coleman and Brown were convicted of first-degree murder in the death of Mrs. Coleman was sentenced to die in Ohio's electric chair, and Debra was sentenced to life in prison. The jury was shocked during the penalty phase when Brown took the stand and insisted that she alone had killed Mrs.

Her own trial had already been concluded. I had fun out of it," Debra boasted, in what seemed to be a desperate plea to save her lovers life. She also claimed to have murdered several other people during the couple's crime spree, and said that she did not "give a dam about anyone" except Coleman. Regardless, her lover was to her dismay, sentenced to death. For the murder of Tonnie Storey, the killer couple was convicted and sentenced to death. During the trial Coleman boasted that if he had not been so mentally exhausted when arrested that he would have easily killed the officers.

The next trial took place in Indiana where the couple was both sentenced to death for the murder of Tamika Turk. Back in Waukegan, Coleman was sentenced to death by lethal injection for the murder of Vernita Wheat.

During the trial Coleman told the jurors that he did not want mercy, "I'm a dead man. I'm dead already. You are talking to a dead man, not a live man. Prosecutors believe that Coleman was the only man in the United States under four separate death sentences at the time. There are no plans to prosecute Coleman or Brown on the remaining deaths in the Midwest murder spree. In June of , Debra Brown, residing at the Ohio Reformatory for Women in Marysville, Ohio, launched a self serving campaign to try and overturn her death sentence in Indiana where she is the only female among 51 people under active death sentences.

Three months after her 9-year-old daughter's body was found strangled in an abandoned house, Juanita Wheat packaged up her baby's clothes, her toys, stuffed animals and her books and donated them to charity.

Each time she looked at Vernita's possessions, she would think about the happy girl who loved to hold a pencil like a microphone and sing "Let's Hear it for the Boy.

Juanita Wheat would think about the last time she saw her only daughter, and she would think about the nice man who took the girl to his Kenosha apartment to pick up stereo speakers he planned to give Juanita Wheat as a belated Mother's Day present. It's been almost 18 years since Coleman and his girlfriend, Debra Brown, left a trail of carnage in the Midwest.

In the summer of , the couple were linked to 8 murders and more than a dozen robberies, rapes, abductions and beatings in 6 states - ranging from a college professor who was abducted in Kentucky and left unharmed in his car trunk to an Ohio woman who was beaten to death in her home.

The multistate crime spree landed Coleman on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted list as frantic police found more bodies and checked out hundreds of sightings as the couple moved around the Midwest. One of about 3, people on death row in the United States, Coleman is the only person facing death sentences in three states, said Brenda Bowser, communications director for the Death Penalty Information Center.

Brown was not a suspect in Vernita Wheat's death. But she was convicted in Ohio of Storey's murder and sentenced to death. Her death sentence was later commuted to life in prison. On the day Vernita Wheat's body was found, the body of Tamika Turks turned up. A 9-year-old girl abducted with Tamika testified that Coleman sexually assaulted them and then stomped on Tamika's head and chest, killing her.

Soon, other bodies were discovered. Coleman's rampage started in this community of 88,, only a few miles from the Illinois border. Barring a last-minute reprieve, Coleman's life will end at 10 a. April 26 in a death row chamber in Ohio. By the time Coleman and Brown were arrested while sitting on an Evanston, Ill. Her decomposed body was found in the bathroom of an abandoned house in Waukegan on June 19,trussed with nine-feet of television cable and her hands bound.

Coleman's fingerprint was found on a door leading into the bathroom, and he was seen with Vernita in Waukegan, according to testimony at his trial in where a jury deliberated for 3 hours before convicting him of killing the Kenosha girl.

Although the clothing matched the shirt and pants Vernita was wearing when she left with Coleman, authorities wanted to use dental records to determine her identity. But Vernita had perfect teeth and had never visited a dentist. So police ended up matching fingerprints from the 3rd-grader's schoolbooks to the body. She recalled getting the awful news about the little girl she called by her nickname, Tracy, who often came to her house to snack on sandwiches and watermelon.

We sat in a room and they got Juanita and took her somewhere to tell her Tracy was dead," Peebles said. I still can't believe he'd do that," Juanita Wheat said in an interview last week in her Kenosha apartment. Coleman met Wheat as she stood outside her apartment hanging her laundry to dry. He said his name was Michael Knight and that he lived nearby. He helped her with her laundry and a few days later offered to take Vernita and her 5-year-old brother Brandon to a carnival.

Shortly after returning from the carnival, he asked Juanita Wheat if he could take the kids to his apartment to pick up stereo speakers.

She said Brandon was too little to go since it was getting late but that Vernita could help as long as she returned soon because it was a school night. Brandon Wheat said there's no doubt in his mind that he would have been killed had he gone with Coleman. Out of sight - Aside from the victims who survived the attacks and the families of the victims who didn't, the memory of Coleman and Brown has dimmed.

But during the summer of , Coleman and Brown were big news as authorities in several states published their pictures and warned residents to lock their doors. Coleman was smooth and likable, said Kenosha police Lt. Doug Stein, who was a detective when Juanita Wheat reported her daughter missing. He was a personable person. If I had to pair him up with somebody, who was that guy who killed all those girls in Florida? Ted Bundy? He reminds me of Ted Bundy," Stein said.

Once Kenosha police realized Vernita Wheat wasn't a runaway but likely a kidnap victim, the investigation quickly focused on Coleman. Authorities learned Coleman didn't fit the profile of an outwardly scary man, Stein said. Coleman never admitted to any of the crimes he was convicted of, though there were plenty of witnesses and physical evidence, said Marc Hansen, a Waukegan police lieutenant at the time of Vernita's homicide. Detectives talked to people who saw Vernita in Waukegan with Coleman.

The time of her death was pinpointed through insect larvae, and his fingerprint was found on the door leading to the room where her body was found. Coleman refused a written request for an interview. His public defender, Dale Baich, did not return a phone call seeking comment. However, Baich faxed a statement from Coleman's brother and 2 sisters, who live in Illinois. We offer sympathy and prayers to the victims and their families," the family said in the statement. They said that while there's no excuse for Coleman's actions, there's an explanation.

He never received the help or treatment that he needed when he was a baby, a child and a young adult. Instead, he was forgotten and ignored by society," hisfamily said. Justice will be served," she said. But he hasn't suffered enough yet. For Brandon Wheat, much of his life has been haunted with memories of his beloved sister, who fixed him breakfast, combed his hair, tied his shoes and played with him every day. He, like his mother, wants Coleman to die. Now serving a year prison sentence for robbery and delivery of a controlled substance, Brandon Wheat said his life would have turned out differently if his sister were alive.

Though he was only 5 when he saw his sister leave with Coleman, the memory is still fresh. Panel weighs arguments about killer's fate. Alton Coleman: born damaged or pure evil? Those were the positions staked out yesterday at a clemency hearing to determine whether Coleman -- the only person under death sentences in three states -- should be spared from execution April 26 in the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility near Lucasville. A decision by the Ohio Parole Board is expected Friday.

Harry Walters of Norwood -- whose wife, Marlene, 44, was killed by Coleman -- made a simple plea. Walters' son-in-law. Hamilton County Prosecutor Michael K. Allen called Coleman "pure evil,'' a smooth talker who "convinced all those people into their grave. He's a con man. He's trying to con you. In support of mercy, Dale Baich, Coleman's federal public defender, argued that he was born with a damaged brain and suffered a brutally abusive childhood, rendering him unable to control his violent actions.

Robert Evans, a north Chicago Baptist minister who has known Coleman since childhood. The board will consider the arguments presented during the three-hour hearing in making a clemency recommendation to Gov. Bob Taft.

Under state law, the governor has final life-and-death authority in capital cases. Taft, a death-penalty supporter, has rejected three previous clemency requests; all three men were subsequently executed. Coleman, 46, of Waukegan, Ill. Walters also was beaten. He suffered permanent brain damage and required repeated surgery over a period of more than two years.

Coleman's death sentence for the murder of Tonnie Storey, 15, of Cincinnati, was overturned on appeal. He also has been sentenced to die in Illinois and Indiana. Coleman's execution would be Ohio's second in , making it the first year since that the state has had more than one. The peak was 15 in Coleman and girlfriend Debra Denise Brown went on a six-state rampage for seven weeks in the summer of , leaving at least eight people dead and 15 others beaten, robbed and scarred for life.

Four of the dead were Ohioans, including Virginia and Rachelle Temple, a mother and daughter who were raped and killed in their Toledo home. Members of the Temple family attended the clemency hearing yesterday but were not allowed to speak because the charges in the case were dropped in by Lucas County. However, the family delivered a powerful, silent message, wearing T-shirts with the victims' pictures on them. Coleman's attorneys said he is "truly sorry'' for Mrs.

Walters' death but continued to claim that Brown was the real murderer. Marlene Walters or even know she had died,'' Coleman said in a letter delivered to the parole board. Thomas Thompson, a neuropsychologist from Las Cruces, N. He was a "damaged container filled with damaged contents'' because of a childhood in which he was beaten and exposed to bestiality, violence and sexual abuse.

Meanwhile, Coleman's attorneys yesterday filed an appeal with the Ohio Supreme Court claiming that his constitutional rights were violated during his trial when potential minority jurors were unfairly dismissed. Psychologist to argue for sparing killer. Alton Coleman, accused of at least seven murders during a crime spree, was born with a dysfunctional brain and could not develop into a normal adult because of a childhood filled with abuse, a psychologist said yesterday.

Attorneys for Coleman, 46, were to plead with Gov. Bob Taft to spare his life during a hearing today before the Ohio Parole Board. Coleman, 46, is not allowed to testify at his hearing under board policy. His attorneys want Taft to reduce Coleman's death sentence to life without parole.

Also yesterday, the U. Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal on a technical procedure and refused to postpone the April 26 execution. Last year, Coleman was evaluated by Thomas C.

Thompson, a neuropsychologist from Las Cruces, N. Coleman's brain never fully developed, in part because his mother abused alcohol and other drugs during her pregnancy, Thompson said yesterday. Courts in the Walters case consistently have ruled that the death sentence for Coleman is appropriate, said Joe Case, spokesman for Attorney General Betty D.

The U. Supreme Court yesterday refused to block Coleman's execution. Coleman's attorneys appealed on the grounds that only one judge of the 6th U. Circuit Court of Appeals had remanded the case to state custody, allowing the execution date to be set.

The attorneys said at least a three-judge panel was needed to return the case to the state. Supreme Court disagreed. Supreme Court denies Coleman appeal. April 16, - Associated Press. Supreme Court on Monday rejected an appeal by convicted killer Alton Coleman, scheduled to die by injection on April 26 for the murder of a Cincinnati woman.

The court, without comment, also refused to block Coleman's execution. Coleman, 46, was accused of at least 7 slayings during a multistate crime spree in He also faces death sentences in Indiana and Illinois for crimes committed there during the spree. Killer convicted in 2 states remains behind bars in Ohio. Brown faces a death sentence in Indiana, while Ohio's case against Brown is dormant, thanks to a commutation by former Gov.

Richard F. So why is she imprisoned here? The answer is simple: Indiana hasn't asked for her. Brown, 39, the girlfriend and killing mate of Alton Coleman during a summer murder rampage across four states in , was convicted and sentenced to death in both Ohio and Indiana.

However, Celeste -- a death-penalty opponent -- commuted Brown's death sentence to life in prison on Jan. Celeste said he spared Brown's life because she was retarded, had childlike emotional development and had a "master-slave'' relationship with Coleman.

Brown's death sentence for the murder of 7-year-old Tamika Turks of Gary, Ind. She is appealing the Indiana conviction in U. District Court in Columbus. Indiana officials are prosecuting the case; Brown's attorneys are court-appointed public defenders from out of state. Indiana officials, including former Gov.

Evan Bayh, said immediately after Celeste's commutation that they planned to file a request to extradite Brown. However, that never happened, perhaps in part because of criticism about the cost of bringing Coleman and Brown to Indiana for trial in after Ohio already had convicted them of murder. Ohio kept her,'' Pattison said. She offered no reason why Indiana has not extradited Brown.

He was sentenced to die for the murder of Marlene Walters of Cincinnati. The case is being appealed. Although Coleman and Brown were close at the time of the murders in , they no longer communicate or have any kind of relationship, one of Coleman's attorneys said.

Convicted killer to testify in clemency hearing on April The member board will review Coleman's request to be spared from execution April 26 at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility near Lucasville. The 2 p. The hearing originally was scheduled for April 9, but was moved to April 16 after Dale Baich, one of Coleman's attorneys, complained to Raymond E.

Capots, chairman of the board. Baich argued that Coleman wants to testify at his clemency hearing, but would not have time to prepare by April 9. Capots then moved the date back a week. Bob Taft will make the final decision once he receives a recommendation from the board. Taft's unlimited clemency power allows him to suspend death sentences, delay an execution, or do nothing and allow it to proceed.

In three previous cases -- Wilford Berry in , Jay D. Scott last year, and John W. Byrd Jr. Coleman, now 46, was sentenced to death for murdering Marlene Walters, 44, on July 13, The Norwood woman was bludgeoned with a wooden candleholder; her husband, Harry, was also badly beaten, but survived.

Coleman also was convicted for killing Tonnie Storey, 15, of Cincinnati, but the death sentence in that case was overturned. When Coleman and Brown were arrested in Evanston, Ill. Brown, incarcerated at the Ohio Reformatory for Women in Marysville, is sentenced to death in Indiana.

Her Ohio death sentence was commuted by former Gov. Coleman is the only person in the country under death sentences in three states -- Ohio, Illinois and Indiana. Lawyers for Alton Coleman have asked the U. Supreme Court to halt his execution. His execution is scheduled for April Coleman also faces death sentences in Indiana and Illinois.

He was sentenced to die in Ohio for the strangulation death of Tonnie Storey, 15, of Cincinnati, and for the beating death of Marlene Walters, 44, of suburban Cincinnati.

Circuit Court of Appeals threw out the sentence in the Storey case after concluding that Coleman's attorneys didn't adequately represent him in a trial. But the court upheld Coleman's conviction in the Storey case and his death sentence in the Walters case. Coleman's attorney, Dale Baich, on Feb. Supreme Court to overturn an appellate judge's denial of Coleman's request so the high court could resolve conflicting issues on attorney representation in the two cases. Montgomery said she believes the execution should go forward.

The two different cases had separate defense teams, and one of the attorneys in the Walters case said Coleman had ordered him to not introduce certain evidence in the sentencing phase, Montgomery spokesman Joe Case said.

March 7, Waukegan serial killer could be executed in Ohio. Serial killer Alton Coleman of Waukegan, convicted of slayings in the Midwest in , could be the next inmate scheduled to die in Ohio.

The state on Tuesday executed John W. Byrd, the 3rd inmate to die since Ohio reinstated the death penalty in and the 1st to proclaim his innocence. It was the 2nd execution in 8 months, following Jay D. Coleman's attorney Dale Baich would not discuss the likelihood of an execution date for his client this year. Coleman received 2 death sentences in Ohio. One was for the July 11, , strangulation death of Tonnie Storey, 15, of Cincinnati. The 2nd was for the July 13, , beating death of Marlene Walters, 44, of suburban Cincinnati.

An execution date for Coleman could depend on the resolution of conflicting rulings by the same federal court. A 3-judge panel of the 6th U. Circuit Court of Appeals threw out Coleman's death sentence in the Storey case after concluding that Coleman's attorneys didn't adequately represent him in a trial.

The court, however, upheld Coleman's conviction. A different 3-judge panel of the court had already upheld Coleman's death sentence for Walters' death. Supreme Court to review the Walters' ruling. They argue that since the same 2 attorneys represented Coleman in both Ohio cases, it is inconsistent that his sentence be overturned in the Storey case and upheld in the Walters' case.

Supreme Court will resolve this conflict. Senate President Richard Finan, who helped write the law reinstating Ohio's death penalty, on Wednesday criticized the long appeals process for death row inmates. Direct Appeal. On the morning of July 11, , Tonnie Storey, a fifteen-year-old black female, left her home in Cincinnati to attend a computer class at a junior high school. Eight days later, Storey's partially decomposed body was discovered in an abandoned building; it was determined that she had been the victim of a homicide.

The defendant-appellant, Alton Coleman, and a female companion, Deborah Denise Brown, were subsequently indicted for the homicide in a true bill containing two counts of aggravated murder and one count of aggravated robbery.

The two counts of aggravated murder contained death-penalty specifications under R. Appellant Coleman was tried separately before a jury and found guilty of purposely, and with prior calculation and design, causing the death of Tonnie Storey as part of a course of conduct involving the purposeful killing of or attempt to kill two or more persons first count with first specification. The jury also returned a verdict finding him guilty under R. Coleman was acquitted on the remaining charge of aggravated robbery.

In the sentencing phase of the trial, the jurors determined that the aggravating circumstance found to exist in the case outweighed the mitigating factors, and they accordingly recommended that Coleman receive the death penalty. The trial judge, after independently weighing the evidence, accepted the jury's recommendation and sentenced Coleman to death for the aggravated murder of Storey. No further sentence was imposed in connection with the guilty verdict separately returned for the lesser included offense of murder.

The record reveals the following pertinent chronology of events:. January 7, Coleman was returned to Hamilton County to stand trial on two separate capital indictments the one here at issue and another involving the murder of one Marlene Walters, see State v. With a ruse, the two were brought to a secluded wooded area and tied up.

When Tamika started crying, she was brutally stomped by Coleman, carried away, and left for dead. Annie was then forced to perform oral sex on both Coleman and Brown, and raped. When the two heard Tamika moaning from the woods, they went to her and strangled her with a belt. They attempted to do the same thing with Annie, but she miraculously survived and was found by a passerby.

That evening, Williams was reported missing, last seen leaving her church to pick up her new friends. The badly decomposed body of Williams was eventually found on July 11, inside an abandoned building near the place where the car was found. She had been strangled, while it could not be determined whether she had been also sexually assaulted or not.

On June 24, the duo kidnapped at knifepoint a year-old Detroit woman in front of her home, and demanded to be driven to Ohio. The hostage intentionally crashed her car into a parked truck and ran away.

The Jones were badly beaten, robbed, and their car was stolen. On July 2, they entered the Detroit home of fifty-five-year-old Marion Gaston, the companion of a woman they had befriended earlier: Mary Billups, also Both Gaston and Billups were tied up, gagged, and beaten with a wrench.

Gaston's car was stolen by the pair, who moved to Ohio. Through the latter, the pair learned the address a single mother who had come visiting him: thirty-year-old Virginia Temple. On July 6, Coleman and Brown went to the house where Virginia lived with her five children, including her older daughter, ten-year-old Rochelle, and had dinner with them.

During the night or early morning of July 7, the two forced Virginia and Rochelle in the basement, beat and strangled them, then placed their bodies inside a crawl space. Again, it could not be determined whether Virginia was sexually assaulted or not, but Rochelle surely was, as she was found bleeding from her private parts. The house was also robbed of clothing and jewelry. The very same day of the Temple murders, the couple entered the home of Frank and Dorothy Duvendack 77 and 73 respectively , bound them, gagged them with paper tissues, then stole some money and a car.

On July 12, in Cincinnati, fifteen-year-old Tonnie Storey was reported missing by her parents. She was last seen the day before in the company of an African-American male and woman. The male was later identified by a witness as Alton Coleman. On July 19, the badly decomposed body of Storey was discovered in a vacant apartment building. She had been strangled, while the state of the body once again did not make it possible to ascertain whether the victim was raped or not.

Forensic evidence, along with a bracelet belonging to the late Virginia Temple, pointed to Coleman and Brown. On July 13, the latters entered the house of Harry and Marlene Walters 45 and 44 respectively , using the pretext of wanting to purchase a camper the married couple had put on sale.

When the Walters' nineteen-year-old daughter, Sherri, came home in the afternoon, she found the house ransacked, and her parents bound, gagged, and badly beaten in the basement.

Marlene had died from multiple blunt-force injuries inflicted with a crowbar and pliers, while Harry was still semi-conscious and was later able to identify his assailants. Then, the three placed a phone call to Carmichael's wife, demanding ransom.