Alton Coleman was executed by the State of Ohio for two murders
According to court documents Alton Coleman and his girlfriend Debra Brown would abduct and murder 15 year old Tonnie Storey. Later the same day they would force their way into a home and murder 44 year old Marlene Walters
Earlier in the month Alton Coleman and Debra Brown would murder Virginia Temple and her nine year old daughter Rachelle
Alton Coleman and Debra Brown would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death for the Tonnie Storey and Marlene Walters murders
Debra Brown death sentence was later commuted to life in prison without parole
Alton Coleman would be executed by lethal injection on April 26 2002
Alton Coleman and Debra Brown were also responsible for the murder of 9-year-old Vernita Wheat in Wisconsin, 7-year-old Tamika Turks in Indiana, 25 year old Donna Williams in Indiana and 75-year-old Eugene Scott in Indiana
Alton Coleman Photos
Debra Brown Photos
Alton Coleman FAQ
When Was Alton Coleman Executed
Alton Coleman was executed on April 26 2002
Where Is Debra Brown Now
Debra Brown is incarcerated at Dayton Correctional Institution in Ohio
Alton Coleman Case
Alton Coleman, who left eight people dead in a murderous rampage through six Midwestern states, was executed today by lethal injection. He was pronounced dead at 10:13 a.m. EDT. Coleman, 46, who was baptized three days ago, was put to death at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility for the savage beating death of Marlene Walters, 44, in her Norwood home on July 13, 1984.
In a holding cell 13 steps from the death chamber, Coleman spent his last hours scribbling notes to family and friends, meeting with his spiritual advisers and watching videotapes recorded by an evangelical Christian minister. Prison spokesman Andrea Dean said Coleman woke up about 5:15 a.m. after watching television and listening to music late into the night. He had expected that his two sisters and a brother would visit with him in the death house this morning, but they did not show up. Sixteen witnesses related to Coleman’s victims, including Harry Walters – who was attacked along with his wife but survived the vicious beating – arrived this morning to watch in person and on closed-circuit TV as Ohio executed the only man in U.S. history sentenced to death in three states.
After an 0-for-6 showing in the courts on Thursday in a last-gasp bid to keep their client alive, Coleman’s public defenders told the office of Ohio Attorney General Betty Montgomery there was a less than 1-percent chance they would file further appeals.
Coleman, of Waukegan, Ill., became one of the most notorious serial killers to ever stalk the Midwest in murdering four adults and four children during a six-week reign of brutality that wove through Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio and Kentucky. That rampage took him to Lexington in mid-July where Mrs. Walters’ auto was found abandoned in a cornfield near Lexington July 15, two days after her murder. On July 17, Oline Carmicalof Williamsburg was kidnapped in Lexington and left in the trunk of his car, which was found in Dayton, Ohio.
Coleman, who was black, largely preyed on other African Americans, with Mrs. Walters his only white murder victim. Coleman also was convicted of the rape and strangulation murder of Tonnie Storey, 15, of Mohawk, during his stay in the Cincinnati area. Coleman made no request of prison officials to contact Debra Denise Brown, his girlfriend and companion in crime who is serving life sentences for the murders of Mrs. Walters and Miss Storey and who faces execution in Indiana.
Coleman arrived at the death house in Lucasville shortly after 10 a.m. Thursday for what would be Ohio’s fourth execution – after a 36- year hiatus in capital punishment – since 1999. ”He had a very peaceful evening. He appears to have accepted what lies ahead for him,” Ms. Dean said this morning.
Prison officials served him his final meal last night, the largest yet ordered at Lucasville by a condemned man. His menu included a filet mignon with mushroom gravy, biscuits and gravy, fried chicken, French fries, broccoli with cheese, collard greens, onion rings, corn bread, a salad, sweet potato pie, butter pecan ice cream and cherry cola. He ate part of the meal at 4 p.m. and snacked on it through the evening. He declined breakfast this morning, saying he was still full from dinner.
In motions objecting to the closed-circuit TV broadcast of his death to the large number of witnesses to ineffective legal counsel, Coleman and his lawyers failed to win a reprieve in six attempts before four courts – the 10th District Ohio Court of Appeals, the Ohio Supreme Court, the 6th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals and the U.S. Supreme Court. Harry Walters, who was to watch in person with sons-in-law Michael Blunt and Scott Lillard as Coleman died from a $43 dose of generic chemicals, had said ”execution is the solution” to winning the justice and closure he feels his family long has been denied.
Coleman and Ms. Brown were invited into the Walters’ home after they pretended to be interested in purchasing a camping trailer posted with a ”for sale” sign outside their Floral Avenue residence. Coleman’s other murder victims were small girls in Waukegan, Ill., and Gary, Ind., an Indiana woman kidnapped and taken to Detroit, a mother and her daughter in Toledo and an elderly man in Indianapolis. Relatives of those victims, plus Cincinnatians Harry Storey and Paulette Anderson, the father and aunt of Miss Storey, were to watch Coleman’s death on two TVs in J Block adjacent to the death house at Lucasville.
Coleman and his lawyers unsuccessfully pleaded for mercy from the courts and Gov. Bob Taft, contending his violence was the outgrowth of growing up in a brothel where he was abused and brain damage he suffered in the womb from his prostitute mother’s alcohol and drug abuse. Coleman denied he killed Mrs. Walters, with Ms. Brown confessing to her murder, but the Hamilton County Common Pleas Court jury refused to buy their story.
Ms. Brown was sentenced to death for the Storey murder, but her sentence was commuted to life imprisonment in early 1991 by outgoing Gov. Richard Celeste. She remains imprisoned at the Ohio Reformatory for Women at Marysville.
http://www.cincypost.com/2002/apr/26/cole2042602.html
