Coleman home sold at auction; Judge recused in similar case
</element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA[The Columbia home where Sheri Coleman, 31, and her sons, Garett, 11, and Gavin, 9, were found strangled to death last year was sold at auction last Tuesday.
The sale was conducted at the Monroe County Courthouse by Jackie Ortiz of Judicial Sales Corporation. The sale lasted a mere 30 seconds.
The sole bidder was Wells Fargo Bank, which held the mortgage on the house. They purchased the property for $256,419.06.
Susan Walla, a representative of the Columbia Lakes Homeowners Association, who attended the auction, expressed surprise the sale didn't attract more bids.
Not far from the auction, Christopher Coleman, 33, awaits trial in the Monroe County Jail. The trial date has been set for Oct. 25. He faces charges of murdering his wife and sons.
Coleman grew up in Chester.
Although the trial will be conducted in Monroe County, the jury will be imported from another county per order of 20th Judicial Circuit Judge Milton Wharton.
Wharton, 63, made news last Tuesday, too. He took himself off another case, in which Lee Crutchfeld, 34, will stand trial for beating his girlfriend's six-year-old son to death on Dec. 25, 2005. The boy was beaten so severely that officers said they had difficulty ascertaining his race.
Wharton's action followed a motion filed by St. Clair County Robert Haida the previous day. Haida sought to have Wharton replaced.
At a hearing on Haida's motion, Associate Judge Vince Lopinot ruled that Wharton could hear the case. Nevertheless, Wharton, while maintaining that he believed he could be fair, took himself off the case to avoid "the sideshow that has developed." Wharton called police conduct in the case "morally reprehensible."
Haida contended that Wharton was prejudiced against the prosecution. He noted that Wharton wrote a letter to the judges of the 5th District Appellate Court, Richard Goldenhersh, Stephen Spomer, and Bruce Stewart, in which he labeled the police conduct in the Cahokia case, "a miscarriage of justice."
Wharton found that police officers had denied Crutchfeld an attorney when he first requested one and subjected Crutchfeld to psychiatric intimidation before taking a statement. Wharton ruled that the prosecution could not use Crutchfeld's statement to the police during trial.
The appellate court overturned part of that ruling, granting prosecution use of Crutchfeld's statement.
Haida told the media he didn't make the motion to remove Judge Wharton for cause lightly. He's only made such a motion once before.