Lisa Ann Coleman

Case record: Lisa Ann Coleman

Personal details

Lisa Ann Coleman was a Black female born on 10/06/1975. She was 30 when her case was received and 28 at the time of the offense. She was sentenced to death and later executed in Texas.

• Name: Lisa Ann Coleman
• TDCJ number: 999511
• Date of birth: 10/06/1975
• Gender: Female
• Race: Black
• Hair color: Black
• Eye color: Brown
• Height: 5' 3"
• Weight: 189 lb
• Native county: Tarrant
• Education (highest grade completed): 10
• Prior occupation: Laborer

Offence and victim details

The offense occurred on 07/26/2004 in Tarrant County. The victim was a nine-year-old black male, Davontae Williams.

Authorities called to Coleman's residence found the nine-year-old black male deceased.

Co-defendant and relationships

Coleman was involved with Marcella Williams, Davontae Williams’s mother. The case record described Marcella Williams as Coleman's partner and identified her as a co-defendant in the incident.

Prior criminal history

During the penalty phase, jurors were presented information about Coleman's prior criminal conduct. The jury learned that Coleman was previously convicted of:

• burglary of a habitation
• possession of a controlled substance
• unlawful carrying of a weapon

The jury also learned that Coleman had previously been arrested for evading arrest.

Coleman also had prior prison record entries:

• TDCJ #667321 on a five-year sentence for possession with intent to deliver a controlled substance from Tarrant County.
• TDCJ #1002130 on a two-year sentence for burglary of a habitation from Tarrant County.

Background (custody and prior involvement)

The case record described Child Protective Services involvement. In 1999, CPS removed Davontae from Marcella Williams’s custody because Coleman was abusing him physically. CPS returned Davontae to Marcella Williams’s custody on the condition that he “not be around Lisa Coleman.” Coleman nevertheless continued to interact with Davontae.

Davontae’s sister, Destinee, testified that Coleman would tie up Davontae with an extension cord. Coleman denied use of an extension cord but admitted that she and Marcella Williams had tied up Davontae on “several occasions.”

The case record also stated that toward the end of Davontae’s life, he received some treatment, including over-the-counter medicines and care materials placed on his body.

The offence (facts of the crime)

On July 26, 2004, authorities were summoned to Davontae’s home upon report of his “breathing difficulty.”

• Emergency services and arrival: Paramedic Troy Brooks arrived only minutes later and found Davontae “obviously dead,” inferring that Davontae had passed away several hours earlier. Davontae was clad only in bandages and a diaper.
• Appearance and estimation of weight: Brooks testified that Davontae was “emaciated and underweight,” and each paramedic believed he weighed only twenty-five pounds. Later testimony described Davontae’s weight as 35.8 pounds and the separate case summaries stated 35 pounds as well.
• Crime scene injuries: Crime Scene Investigator Regina Taylor testified that Davontae had “numerous injuries throughout ... his entire body,” including a disfigured ear, swollen hands, a slit in his lip, and “ligature marks around his wrists and ankles.”
• Autopsy and wound count: Pediatrician Nancy Kellogg identified over 250 wounds on Davontae’s corpse.
• Cause of death (medical testimony):
  • Dr. Konzelmann testified that injuries to Davontae’s hands, arms, and ankles were consistent with his having been bound repeatedly. Konzelmann initially believed Davontae had “life-threatening blunt-force injuries, perhaps bleeding on the brain, broken bones, et cetera” but ultimately deemed the cause to be malnutrition with pneumonia.
  • Dr. Peerwani, Chief Medical Examiner for Tarrant County, testified that Davontae’s pneumonia resulted from malnutrition.
  • Dr. Kellogg testified that although Davontae was born prematurely, he previously had “a normal growth velocity,” and that a metabolic disease was not responsible for malnutrition.
  • A defense pathologist, Dr. Lesther Winkler, testified that Davontae died from aspiration pneumonia, which he defined as “the result of sucking food or particles of material which don't go into the stomach properly through the esophagus and are sucked instead into the trachea,” which leads to the lungs. Winkler disagreed with Konzelmann about the significance of fat around the heart and agreed Davontae was malnourished.

The case record also described injury details:

• Numerous linear marks on Davontae’s wrists, with some scarred and some described as “giant sores[s],” indicating wounds that were not healing.
• Similar markings on Davontae’s ankles.
• A significant ear wound beginning to heal.
• A lower lip ulceration and tear making it hard for Davontae to eat and drink.
• Evidence described as indicating Davontae was continuously bound.

The case record stated that Davontae was intentionally starved and restrained from accessing food.

Over-the-counter medicines and ingestible items were described as:

• TheraFlu
• Alka Seltzer
• NyQuil
• chicken-noodle soup
• PediaSure
• Pedialyte

Dr. Konzelmann testified regarding the food he received:

“it was inadequate [on the whole], too late, and possibly too much [for a malnourished person].”

The record included a statement from Dr. Konzelmann about the attempt to treat:

“[t]he attempt to treat ... is as much an attempt to prevent [Davontae] from coming to the attention of the physicians who would have reported” his condition.

The record included another explanation of contribution of external injuries:

“I believe that some of these injuries were infected and that it's possible that this did relate to the pneumonia that he had. Also some of these were evidence to me that he had been bound and that this would have prevented him from either seeking care on his own or getting food on his own.”

Dr. Peerwani described malnutrition as the primary component:

“even if he had aspirated, the pneumonia is not a very significant component in this child's death. Perhaps the most dramatic component is malnourishment . . . . He died because of malnutrition.”

The case record also described evidence about Davontae’s meals and vomit:

• Paramedics noticed traces of yellow vomit or bile around his mouth and nose.
• A paramedic testified that Williams said she tried to feed Davontae Pediasure, and that Williams said Davontae was breathing when she called 911; this statement was believed not to match what she saw on the bathroom floor.

Statements and testimony at trial

Detective Jim Ford questioned Coleman during the investigation.

Coleman told Detective Ford that:

• she lived with Williams about half of the time
• she lived with her son and mother the other half
• she used to beat Davontae with a belt but stopped in February or March of 2004 because the beatings left welts
• she and Williams tied up Davontae on several occasions
• Williams woke her up screaming
• Williams attempted to administer CPR to Davontae
• Coleman put Davontae in a warm bath to revive him
• she did not know how Davontae injured his arms and legs

Coleman also acknowledged an earlier incident described in the record:

“[a]bout a month and a half ago Davontae sneaked downstairs in the middle of the night and stood on a chair and turned on the stove and was going to cook him some eggs. He already had the eggs broken up in a bowl with salt and pepper on them. Marcella and I were afraid that [he] was going to poison himself or set the house on fire in the middle of the night, so I tied his arms with a shirt.”

Davontae’s sister, Destinee, testified that Coleman would tie up Davontae with an extension cord in the bathroom. When Davontae was tied up, Destinee testified that:

“couldn't move around much”
and did “[n]othing.”

Child Protective Service investigators testified that Davontae was removed from Williams’s home and placed in foster care in 1999 because Coleman physically abused him. The record stated Davontae was returned about a year later.

After her arrest in the case, Coleman told CPS investigators that she bruised Davontae by beating him with a belt in 2004. Coleman admitted she tied up Davontae on two occasions with clothing to keep him from hurting himself or others. Coleman told CPS investigators that Williams did not want to take Davontae to the doctor because Williams was afraid a doctor would call CPS. Coleman also told CPS investigators that Williams did not want Davontae to go to school because Williams feared he would report the abuse and school officials would call CPS.

Regarding Davontae’s whereabouts, Coleman told CPS investigators that when people asked where Davontae was, they were told he was with “his mother's people,” even though Davontae was actually in the apartment.

The case record included DNA evidence about a golf club found in Marcella Williams’s apartment. Carolyn Van Winkle testified that:

“was a male DNA profile and it was the same as Davontae Williams' DNA profile.” She further testified that: “the probability of selecting an unrelated individual at random that would have the same DNA profile that was obtained from the golf club head ... is approximately one in 54 quintillion in Caucasians, one in approximately eight quintillion in African–Americans, and one in approximately 44 quintillion in Southwest Hispanics.” Van Winkle testified the grip of the golf club had: “a mixture of DNA.” She excluded Marcella Williams from possible contributors, but Lisa Coleman was “not excluded,” and Van Winkle added: “99.9 percent of unrelated individuals would be expected to be excluded,”
“but [Lisa] was not.”

Coleman denied locking Davontae in a pantry, which the record described as a pantry with a lock several feet off the ground and a dry urine stain found on the floor.

Indictment and trial proceedings

A Tarrant County grand jury indicted Coleman on Sept. 22, 2004 for murdering Davontae Williams in the course of committing a kidnapping.

The record stated that Coleman was charged with capital murder and with two counts of injury to a child committed in July 2004. Count Three, injury to a child, was severed on April 18, 2006.

On June 19, 2006, a Tarrant County jury convicted Coleman of capital murder.

On June 21, 2006, after a separate punishment proceeding, the same jury sentenced Coleman to death.

The record described sentencing details also including an assessed prison term:

• The jury also convicted Coleman of injury to a child and assessed a ninety-nine year sentence.

The case record also stated that a Tarrant County jury found Coleman guilty and sentenced her to death.

Procedural history and appeals

• Direct appeal: On Dec. 9, 2009, Coleman’s conviction and sentence were affirmed by the Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas on direct appeal.
• Supreme Court: Coleman appealed to the Supreme Court of the United States. The Supreme Court denied certiorari on Oct. 4, 2010.
• State habeas: Coleman’s application for habeas corpus relief was denied by the Court of Criminal Appeals on Aug. 25, 2010.
• Federal habeas: On Oct. 3, 2011, Coleman filed a petition for a writ of habeas corpus in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas, Fort Worth Division. The federal court denied the petition on Jan. 20, 2012.
• Fifth Circuit habeas: On May 23, 2013, the Fifth Circuit rejected Coleman’s appeal and affirmed the district court’s denial of habeas corpus relief.
• Supreme Court again: On Oct. 11, 2013, Coleman filed a petition for a writ of certiorari in the U.S. Supreme Court. The Supreme Court denied certiorari review on Feb. 14, 2014.
• Execution date setting: On April 24, 2014, the 297th state district court issued an order setting Coleman’s execution date for Sept. 17, 2014.

Fifth Circuit habeas decision (Certificate of Appealability)

The Fifth Circuit denied Coleman’s request for a Certificate of Appealability and stated the request for a certificate was denied.

Execution

Coleman was scheduled for execution on Sept. 17, 2014 after 6 p.m.

The execution details included:

• The record stated Coleman received a lethal injection about an hour after the U.S. Supreme Court rejected a last-day appeal.
• She was pronounced dead at 6:24 p.m. CDT or 6:23 p.m. (the record included both times in different quoted passages).

The record included statements made at the time of execution, including words directed at fellow inmates and statements to witnesses:

• Coleman urged other women on Texas’ death row to “keep their heads up.”
• The record included: “Tell them I finished strong. ... God is good.”
• The record included: “Love you all,” “I’m ready, I know where I am going. I’m not bitter, just ready,” and “I just want to tell my family I love them, my son, I love him,” along with statements to “The girls on the row.”

Other details (charges and legal framing described in the record)

• The capital murder charge included intentional murder in the course of committing or attempting to commit kidnapping.
• The record included that an aggravated factor of kidnapping made the charge a capital murder case.
• The record included discussion of CPS involvement, restraint, malnutrition, and competing expert opinions on cause of death.

Timeline

• 1999 — Child Protective Services removed Davontae from Marcella Williams’s custody because Coleman was abusing him physically; CPS returned Davontae on the condition that he “not be around Lisa Coleman.”
• 07/26/2004 — Emergency services were summoned to Davontae Williams’s home for “breathing difficulty”; Davontae was found dead at the residence.
• 09/22/2004 — A Tarrant County grand jury indicted Coleman for murdering Davontae Williams in the course of committing a kidnapping.
• 04/18/2006 — Count Three, injury to a child, was severed.
• 06/19/2006 — A Tarrant County jury convicted Coleman of capital murder.
• 06/21/2006 — The jury sentenced Coleman to death.
• 06/22/2006 — Coleman was sentenced to death (as reflected in the case status field).
• 12/09/2009 — Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas affirmed Coleman’s conviction and death sentence on direct appeal.
• 08/25/2010 — Court of Criminal Appeals denied Coleman’s state habeas corpus application.
• 10/04/2010 — The U.S. Supreme Court denied Coleman’s petition for a writ of certiorari.
• 10/03/2011 — Coleman filed a petition for a writ of habeas corpus in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas.
• 01/20/2012 — The federal district court denied Coleman’s petition.
• 05/23/2013 — Fifth Circuit rejected Coleman’s appeal and affirmed denial of habeas corpus relief.
• 10/11/2013 — Coleman filed a petition for a writ of certiorari in the U.S. Supreme Court.
• 02/14/2014 — The U.S. Supreme Court denied certiorari review.
• 04/24/2014 — The 297th state district court issued an order setting Coleman’s execution date for Sept. 17, 2014.
• 09/17/2014 — Coleman was executed by lethal injection in Texas.