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Thread: Federal Death Penalty Off the Table for Matthew Taylor Coleman in 2021 MX Murders of Kaelo Coleman and Roxy Coleman

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    Moderator Bobsicles's Avatar
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    Federal Death Penalty Off the Table for Matthew Taylor Coleman in 2021 MX Murders of Kaelo Coleman and Roxy Coleman

    75FA51E4-E602-4941-96E4-DA84A867ED27.jpg
    Kaelo and Roxy

    73060F67-DA72-420A-8D17-7F14B87D59AC.jpg
    Coleman


    QAnon follower faces death penalty on charges of killing two kids with spearfishing gun in Mexico

    Justin Vallejo
    New York

    A California surf instructor alleged to have killed his two-year-old son and 10-month-old daughter to “save the world” from serpent DNA faces the death penalty on two murder charges, according to authorities.

    Matthew Taylor Coleman, 40, was indicted on two counts of foreign first-degree murder of US nationals, Kaelo and Roxy, in Mexico. The attorney general will decide whether to seek the maximum death penalty or life imprisonment and fines up to $250,000.

    Mr Coleman was a devout Christian who went from praising God for the birth of his daughter less than a year ago to being an apparent follower of QAnon enlightened by the Illuminati. He allegedly stabbed his children to death for possessing "serpent DNA" passed down from their mother that would see them grow into "monsters".

    “He knew it was wrong, but [said] it was the only course of action that would save the world,” the FBI said in a criminal complaint.

    While the arrest affidavit didn’t go into further detail on his “enlightenment” by QAnon and the Illuminati, their references in connection to monsters and "serpent DNA" align with the “lizard people” conspiracy.

    The lizard-people conspiracy claims blood-drinking reptilian humanoids have controlled the world for centuries since they established the Illuminati.

    Court documents claim Mr Coleman began “receiving visions and signs” revealing his wife, Abby Coleman, had become possessed by serpent DNA.

    Ms Coleman reported her husband and children missing on Sunday, 10 August, after he left the day before without saying where they were going.

    They hadn’t had “any sort of argument” and she wasn’t worried that they were in any danger or her husband would do harm, according to the affidavit.

    Using Ms Coleman’s “Find my iPhone” app, authorities tracked Coleman’s phone travelling between Rosarito, Mexico and San Ysidro Port of Entry in San Diego.

    Mr Coleman was stopped by authorities as he tried to return to the US at the Tijuana border. When the FBI learned he was alone and without his children, they contacted their Mexican counterparts and learned of the two dead bodies matching the description of Kaelo and Roxy. When confronted by authorities, Mr Coleman allegedly confessed to the killing.

    Acting US attorney Randy Grossman said in a statement that they’re determined to achieve justice for the two young victims.

    “There are no words to describe the profound grief that envelops an entire community when a child is murdered,” Mr Grossman said.

    https://www.independent.co.uk/news/w...17492.html?amp
    Thank you for the adventure - Axol

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    Matthew Coleman 'Poured Out His Heart' in Jailhouse Letter to Friend After Children's Killings

    Matthew Taylor Coleman, 40, is accused of killing his 2-year-old son and 10-month-old daughter in Mexico on Aug. 9

    By Steve Helling

    Months after he was arrested for allegedly killing his two children with a spearfishing gun in Mexico, Matthew Taylor Coleman has sent a handwritten letter from prison to at least one friend, asking for forgiveness.

    "He's really despondent and hopeless," the longtime family friend tells PEOPLE. "He's alone with his thoughts 24/7. He's reflecting on the mistakes he made in life and wondering if there's any chance for redemption."

    "He poured out his heart," the friend says. "He begged for forgiveness, but says that he's now where he deserves to be."

    On August 7, Matthew and his wife, Abby were packing for a family trip when authorities allege he abruptly put his two kids — Kaleo, 2, and Roxy, 10 months — into his van and drove away from their Santa Barbara, Calif., home.

    Police say Coleman drove the children into Mexico. Two days later, authorities say he took the kids to a ranch, where he allegedly killed them with a spearfishing gun and returned to his hotel a few hours later. He was arrested when he attempted to cross the border back into the United States.

    ccording to an FBI criminal complaint which was obtained by PEOPLE, Coleman allegedly told police he was motivated by the QAnon conspiracy theory, which holds the false belief that former president Donald Trump has secretly been battling a cabal of Satan-worshipping pedophiles at the highest levels of political power and influence.

    In the criminal complaint, FBI special agent Jennifer Bannon wrote that Coleman claimed to be "enlightened by QAnon and Illuminati conspiracy theories and was receiving visions and signs revealing that his wife, A.C., possessed serpent DNA and had passed it on to his children."

    "M. Coleman stated that he believed his children were going to grow into monsters so he had to kill them," Bannon wrote.

    The FBI seized Coleman's computers and phones, and believe that he spent hours surfing and posting on conspiracy theory message boards and groups.

    Coleman was indicted on murder charges in September. If convicted, he is eligible for the death penalty. Coleman is now being held in protective custody in a federal prison. He has pleaded not guilty to the charges, and the public defender's office has not returned PEOPLE's calls for comment.

    His childhood friend tells PEOPLE that he's unsure if Coleman sent letters to anyone else, but that he was dreading the holidays in jail.

    "He said he's sorry, that he never wanted to cause pain, and that he's working through why he made the choices he made," the friend says. "It was a very sad note."

    https://people.com/crime/matthew-tay...XrRSa9sg6fYwgY
    Thank you for the adventure - Axol

    Tried so hard and got so far, but in the end it doesn’t even matter - Linkin Park

    Hear me, my chiefs! I am tired. My heart is sick and sad. From where the sun now stands, I will fight no more forever. - Hin-mah-too-yah-lat-kekt

    I’m going to the ghost McDonalds - Garcello

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    Federal Government may seek the death penalty in QAnon father accused of killing his children in Mexico

    A new search warrant also reveals DOJ is working to dispel any insanity defense from Matthew Coleman.

    Author: Dorian Hargrove

    SAN DIEGO — The Department of Justice may seek the death penalty against Matthew Coleman, the Santa Barbara father, and QAnon conspiracist, accused of murdering his young children with a spear gun in Baja Mexico last August.

    In a May 13 court filing, U.S. Attorneys in San Diego asked for additional time before moving forward with the trial against Coleman as they "contemplate" whether to pursue the death penalty.

    In addition, a new search warrant filed in federal court on June 3, shows the federal prosecutors continue to scour through Coleman's computers in hopes of determining whether or not he has a "legitimate mental illness."

    https://www.cbs8.com/amp/article/new...9-b172c2fd4bcd
    Thank you for the adventure - Axol

    Tried so hard and got so far, but in the end it doesn’t even matter - Linkin Park

    Hear me, my chiefs! I am tired. My heart is sick and sad. From where the sun now stands, I will fight no more forever. - Hin-mah-too-yah-lat-kekt

    I’m going to the ghost McDonalds - Garcello

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    Senior Member CnCP Legend Mike's Avatar
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    Under what jurisdiction is giving Federal prosecutors in San Deigo the right to try this case?
    "There is a point in the history of a society when it becomes so pathologically soft and tender that among other things it sides even with those who harm it, criminals, and does this quite seriously and honestly. Punishing somehow seems unfair to it, and it is certain that imagining ‘punishment’ and ‘being supposed to punish’ hurts it, arouses fear in it." Friedrich Nietzsche

  5. #5
    Administrator Helen's Avatar
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    Because he crossed into Mexico. Same as if he crossed into another state.
    "I realize this may sound harsh, but as a father and former lawman, I really don't care if it's by lethal injection, by the electric chair, firing squad, hanging, the guillotine or being fed to the lions."
    - Oklahoma Rep. Mike Christian

    "There are some people who just do not deserve to live,"
    - Rev. Richard Hawke

    “There are lots of extremely smug and self-satisfied people in what would be deemed lower down in society, who also deserve to be pulled up. In a proper free society, you should be allowed to make jokes about absolutely anything.”
    - Rowan Atkinson

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    A Year After QAnon Surfer Killed His Kids, Members of His Church Fear More Violence

    Santa Barbara surf instructor Matthew Coleman confessed to killing his children last year, telling the FBI he thought they would “grow into monsters.”

    By David Gilbert

    In the early hours of Aug. 9, 2021, Matthew Coleman woke his 2-year-old son, Kaleo, and 10-month-old daughter, Roxy, in a room at the City Express Hotel, where they were staying in the Mexican seaside resort town of Rosarito. He bundled them into his van and drove them to a remote ranch a short distance away. Then he murdered them both by stabbing them over a dozen times each with a spearfishing gun.

    This is what Coleman himself told FBI agents just hours later, when he was arrested crossing the border back into the U.S. He immediately tried to justify his actions by citing QAnon conspiracy theories, claiming he believed he had to kill his children to “save the world.”

    A year later, despite this confession, the Department of Justice is still making up its mind about whether or not to seek the death penalty, and any possible trial in the case is still months away. A recent court filing reviewed by VICE News suggested that an update on the case won’t be available until October. The lack of progress on the case has left the community of Santa Barbara, where Coleman and his wife, Abby, ran a surf school, in limbo, unable to process what has happened.

    In particular, the insular and often secretive church communities to which Coleman belonged have failed to address the heinous crime. Now, some members of those communities fear that if Coleman was radicalized within the church, similar acts of violence could happen.

    “I really think that the church let this family down, let these children down, and it should be a clarion call to all the churches within the Santa Barbara community that if this can happen to a loving beautiful young family that was really entrenched in the cultural aspects of Santa Barbara, it can happen everywhere. And we need to be aware of the warning signs and I do not believe that it’s been addressed yet,” a Santa Barbara resident who knew the Colemans and attended some of the same churches told VICE News. The source was granted anonymity to speak openly about sensitive issues.

    Abby Coleman was preparing for a camping weekend with her family when her husband took the two kids without warning and drove the family van to Mexico, on August 7. Initially, she does not appear to have been worried, sending her husband text messages, according to a court filing.

    “We are doing this together, babe,” Abby wrote in a message to her husband on the morning he claims to have killed their children. “Praying for clarity over you and your mind this morning. Everything you’ve believed and known to be true is happening right now. I’m partnering with you from SB. Let’s take back our city. The gateway of revival for the state of California and the nation and the world. You were created to change the course of world history. Take care of my little giant slayer and my voice of heaven’s dove. They sure are special.”

    The court documents that have been filed in the last year also revealed that Abby Coleman admitted to the FBI that she had been researching QAnon conspiracy theories alongside her husband, though she said he had become much more paranoid.

    In the year since the tragic murders of her son and daughter, Abby Coleman has not spoken publicly about what happened. She is now living in Texas with members of her family, according to a family friend who spoke to VICE News.

    The revelation that Abby Coleman was also involved in researching QAnon conspiracy theories, and that she was sending text messages to Coleman while he was in Mexico, has led some members of a Facebook group that is closely tracking the case to speculate that she was aware of what was happening.

    However, one friend of the family has claimed that is completely untrue.

    “She in no way thought it was remotely possible that Matthew could harm their children,” Helen Rose, who claims to have grown up in the same house as Matthew Coleman, posted on a private Facebook group in April. “I know this because I know them both very well. She was being supportive toward him because he was her husband, and she had no idea what had transpired.”

    In another now-deleted post, Rose added that she believed Coleman was radicalized at least in part within the church communities he belonged to.

    “I believe that Matt has an undiagnosed mental illness to an extreme that may have been recognized in other communities, but the community he was an integral part of, the fundamentalist Christian evangelical community, seeing ‘signs and interpreting messages from God’ is accepted and encouraged,” Rose wrote.

    One of the churches that Coleman attended, Veronica Springs, has been in frequent contact with Abby since last year’s horrific incident, a source with knowledge of the matter told VICE News. The church didn’t respond to VICE News’ repeated attempts to contact it to ascertain what support it was providing, but its lead pastor Bob Ryan did send a message to his congregation in the wake of the tragedy last year, soliciting financial donations for the family, according to an email reviewed by VICE News.

    But the church has not publicly addressed the deaths of the Coleman children, and during a sermon livestreamed on Facebook almost a year to the day since they were killed, Ryan didn’t mention them.

    “Nobody’s addressed it and if they have, they’ve only done it privately because, all these churches that [Coleman] attended, I have friends and family that go there, I occasionally go to these other churches, and all they did was just pray for [Abby] and they didn’t address the underlying narrative of why this happened,” the Santa Barbara resident said.

    The family has also received over $115,000 in donations made to a GoFundMe campaign organized by Abby Coleman’s brother Amory Droogsma. The page, which is still live, says the money will go to “cover the financial burdens that come along after the devastating loss of her beautiful children.”

    The page features a picture of Abby with Roxy and Kaleo, but has no photo of Matthew. The majority of the donations made to the campaign have been anonymous.

    Coleman has been in custody since he was arrested on August 9, 2021, as he traveled back from Mexico. He was arrested at the U.S. border and almost immediately confessed to FBI agents that he had murdered his children.

    In an initial interview, Coleman claimed that conspiratorial thinking had led him to abduct his children, who he believed would “grow into monsters” because they had inherited reptilian DNA from their mother. Coleman told the FBI agent interviewing him that he felt the only way to “save the world” was to murder his own children.

    Over the course of the last 12 months, some clues have surfaced about where Coleman encountered these ideas. In one search warrant application, the FBI revealed that Abby told them in an interview that both she and her husband were researching QAnon conspiracies online, though she claimed her husband had gone much further down the rabbit hole than she had.

    In another court filing, an FBI agent revealed that Coleman said he first learned about the “lizard people” conspiracy from the Twitter account of British conspiracy theorist David Icke.

    The case was last before a judge on July 28, for a status hearing. The hearing was conducted by phone and Coleman was not present, according to a court filing.

    The judge sought the hearing after both prosecution and defense had sought a continuance until October. In a court filing reviewed by VICE News, the parties outlined their reasons for seeking another delay: “The Department of Justice must decide whether to seek the death penalty in this case.”

    The document revealed that in June, defense lawyers met with officials from the U.S. Attorney’s office and “presented mitigating information for consideration.” While the U.S. Attorney has submitted a recommendation to the DOJ, the case will now need to go through “multiple levels of review and may include another defense presentation to DOJ officials of mitigating information” before they can make an decision about whether or not to seek the death penalty.

    Additionally, the application said both sides were still reviewing mountains of digital evidence sourced from Coleman’s devices and social media accounts.” For example, in June 2022, the prosecution provided Coleman with “years of unfiltered data recently received through search warrants on three social media accounts,” the application states.

    Judge Cathy Ann Bencivengo initially denied the application, but at the July hearing she granted a continuance on the condition that the parties both submit a status report no later than three days after the DOJ submits their recommendation.

    Prosecution and defense lawyers did not respond to repeated attempts to seek comment on the case.

    For now, the case, and the community in Santa Barbara, remain in limbo. But at some point, those who knew Coleman, especially those who guided him within the church, will have to face up to the scale of the horror he perpetrated and what role—if any—they might have played in his radicalization.

    “It cuts deep to the core of the Santa Barbara community,” the local resident told VICE News. “The evangelical church and surfing communities are really an essential part of the Santa Barbara culture and I don’t think it’s been reconciled [by them]. And when it comes back up, when this goes to trial, the community within Santa Barbara is going to have to deal with this but so far I don’t think that they’ve dealt with it, it’s too atrocious.”

    https://www.vice.com/en/article/bvmj...-barbara-qanon
    Thank you for the adventure - Axol

    Tried so hard and got so far, but in the end it doesn’t even matter - Linkin Park

    Hear me, my chiefs! I am tired. My heart is sick and sad. From where the sun now stands, I will fight no more forever. - Hin-mah-too-yah-lat-kekt

    I’m going to the ghost McDonalds - Garcello

  7. #7
    Administrator Helen's Avatar
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    No death penalty for California surf instructor who killed his two young children in Baja

    Federal prosecutors say they will not pursue the death penalty against Matthew Coleman, the QANON conspiracy theorist who believed his children had lizard DNA

    By Dorian Hargrove
    CBS 8 News

    SAN DIEGO — Federal prosecutors will not pursue the death penalty against Matthew Coleman, the Santa Barbara surf instructor who brutally killed his 2-year-old and 10-month-old children because he believed they had "serpent DNA" in them.

    Coleman confessed to taking his two young children from their Santa Barbara home across the U.S.-Mexico border to Rosarito in August 2021 before shooting them with a spearfishing gun on the side of the road.

    On January 30, after more than six months of deliberations, San Diego U.S. Attorney Randy Grossman notified the court that the government will "not seek the death penalty for defendant Matthew Taylor Coleman."

    According to search warrants obtained by CBS 8, the 41-year-old surf instructor from Santa Barbara was obsessed with a QANON conspiracy theory and believed that his wife was genetically infused with "serpent DNA" and passed that DNA along to the couple's children.

    Following his August 9, 2021 arrest at the San Ysidro Port of Entry, Coleman told authorities that he had to kill his children to prevent them from becoming monster lizard people.

    Coleman later told authorities, according to the search warrants, that he first learned of "Lizard People" from British conspiracy theorist David Icke's Twitter account. Icke posted theories that reptiles are interbreeding with Nordic people.

    Since June of last year, federal prosecutors have pondered whether Coleman was insane at the time of the murders or whether Coleman was using a possible insanity diagnosis as a legal defense.

    An excerpt from the June 3, 2022 search warrants reveal prosecutors' research into Coleman's state of mind.

    "...[S]ome people who are arrested for violent crimes will feign mental illness whereas others may suffer from legitimate mental illness. One way to determine if a person has a legitimate mental illness or is malingering, or to determine the extent to which a person understood the nature of their actions, is to examine their conduct and communications with others during the time around and leading up to specific events," reads the search warrant for Coleman's computer.

    A status hearing in the case is set for February 9.

    https://www.cbs8.com/article/news/in...2-0303cbecb821
    "I realize this may sound harsh, but as a father and former lawman, I really don't care if it's by lethal injection, by the electric chair, firing squad, hanging, the guillotine or being fed to the lions."
    - Oklahoma Rep. Mike Christian

    "There are some people who just do not deserve to live,"
    - Rev. Richard Hawke

    “There are lots of extremely smug and self-satisfied people in what would be deemed lower down in society, who also deserve to be pulled up. In a proper free society, you should be allowed to make jokes about absolutely anything.”
    - Rowan Atkinson

  8. #8
    Administrator Helen's Avatar
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    Edited:

    QAnon follower dad accused of killing kids with spear gun to ‘save the world’ deemed incompetent to stand trial

    By Brandi Buchman
    Law & Crime

    Matthew Taylor Coleman, accused of killing his 2-year-old son and 10-month-old daughter with a spearfishing gun because he believed they had “serpent DNA” and executing them would “save the world” has been deemed incompetent to stand trial, according to a judge in California.

    According to the federal case docket, U.S. District Judge Cathy Ann Bencivengo issued an order Wednesday “finding defendant not competent to stand trial and committing defendant for treatment.” The finding pauses Coleman’s criminal case. Bencivengo set a status hearing for Dec. 1 and a competency hearing for March 8, 2024.

    Coleman admitted to the tragic slayings, saying he was “enlightened by QAnon.” Prosecutors said Coleman drove from his home in Santa Barbara, California to a ranch in Mexico in August 2021, where after two days, he killed his young children by stabbing them each with the speargun. Then went back to his motel. The children’s lifeless bodies were found by a local ranch worker who reported the grisly find to authorities.

    According to court records, Matthew Coleman was deeply entrenched in bizarre QAnon conspiracy theories and believed his wife was a “shapeshifter.”

    Bencivengo, a Barack Obama appointee, set a hearing in March 2024 to reevaluate the 42-year-old’s competency, according to the docket.

    https://lawandcrime.com/crime/qanon-...o-stand-trial/
    "I realize this may sound harsh, but as a father and former lawman, I really don't care if it's by lethal injection, by the electric chair, firing squad, hanging, the guillotine or being fed to the lions."
    - Oklahoma Rep. Mike Christian

    "There are some people who just do not deserve to live,"
    - Rev. Richard Hawke

    “There are lots of extremely smug and self-satisfied people in what would be deemed lower down in society, who also deserve to be pulled up. In a proper free society, you should be allowed to make jokes about absolutely anything.”
    - Rowan Atkinson

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