Matthew Taylor Coleman, the California man accused of killing two children in Mexico, remains paranoid and sometimes cannot even comprehend that his children are dead, officials said. he told the Post.
“He sometimes talks about them in the present tense,” said a family friend who keeps in touch with Coleman. “Sometimes he doesn’t seem to understand that they’re gone.”
On August 7, 2021, Coleman was preparing for a family vacation with his wife, Abby. Authorities say he then abruptly and silently loaded his two children, 2-year-old Kaleo and 10-month-old Roxie, into a van and drove away from his home in Santa Barbara.
Authorities say Coleman crossed the border into Mexico with the children and stayed at a resort hotel for two days. Investigators say he then took the children to his farm, where he stabbed them with a spearfishing gun.
He was arrested while attempting to re-enter the United States.
Coleman, now 42, is charged with two counts of murdering an American national abroad. He is being held at an undisclosed federal prison medical facility in Southern California and has pleaded not guilty.
Last October, Judge Kathy Ann Bencivengo ruled Coleman incompetent to stand trial and sent him to intensive care. His next competency hearing will be held on March 8th.
However, Coleman’s family still does not believe he is fit to stand trial. “I don’t think there’s been much improvement,” said a family friend who also speaks regularly with Coleman’s family. “Nothing seems to be working.”
The newspaper revealed that Coleman had undergone intensive psychological testing over the past few months, including meetings with multiple psychiatrists. His defense team also ordered a psychological evaluation of his client.
When Coleman was arrested in 2021, federal authorities said he killed the children because he believed in the QAnon conspiracy theory that the children had snake DNA and needed to be killed to protect humanity. He is said to have made a statement. time.
Coleman, at times rambling incoherently, told FBI agents, “I’m watching all the pieces being decoded, like in The Matrix, and I’m Neo, the main character in the movie.” He is said to have said.
“He said visions and signs revealed his wife’s AC. [Abby Coleman]had snake DNA ([He] The affidavit states that he is not sure if his wife is a shapeshifter and that it has been passed down to his children, who have damaged DNA that will spread if nothing is done about it. He stated that everything indicated that he was thinking,” the affidavit states. .
After Coleman’s arrest, his wife Abby left California and returned to her home state of Texas, where she currently lives, surrounded by family.
Although she currently goes by a different name, there is no record of her divorcing her husband. She had never spoken publicly about her murder.
The murders shook the close-knit Santa Barbara community that knew Coleman as a gregarious and friendly surfing instructor who was passionate about his faith and doted on his wife and children.
“He’s my friend and I want the best for him,” says his childhood friend. “I really want him to go to trial because that might be the only way to get answers as to why he did what he did.”
