Man to stay in prison for ’94 rape, murder while DNA tests checked

A Chicago man who has spent 23 years in prison for a rape and murder will remain behind bars for at least another month, as Cook County prosecutors investigate new DNA tests that his attorneys say prove he’s innocent.

Nevest Coleman was sentenced to life in prison for the 1994 murder of Antwinica Bridgeman, but his attorneys say recent testing of evidence from the decades-old case rule Coleman and his co-defendant out as the perpetrators, and points instead to a serial rapist who remains at large.

After a brief hearing Thursday at the Leighton Criminal Courthouse, Judge Dennis Porter— the same judge who handed Coleman a natural life sentence in 1997— denied a motion filed by attorneys for the 48-year-old.

Coleman’s attorney said DNA testing not available at the time of his trial showed that material from Bridgeman’s clothing and beneath her fingernails could not have come from Coleman, his co-defendant Darryl Fulton and a third man who was also implicated in the case, but never charged. Instead, the DNA matches an unnamed man whom a national database has linked to at least four rapes, said Russell Ainsworth, a lawyer for University of Chicago’s Exoneration Project.

Mark Rotert, head of State’s Attorney’s Conviction Integrity Unit, had said prosecutors wanted more time and additional testing before making any decisions about Coleman’s case. Porter ruled that releasing Coleman now would be “premature.”

The ruling brought tears to the eyes of several of the dozen or so of Coleman’s supporters on hand at the hearing, which also was attended by a smaller contingent of Bridgeman’s relatives.

Coleman and Fulton had no previous criminal record when they reported finding Bridgeman’s body in the basement of an apartment building where they lived.

Coleman, described by family and friends during his trial as a devoutly religious man who worked on the grounds crew at Comiskey Park, confessed to the killing after spending hours being interrogated by detectives whose names have surfaced in other wrongful conviction cases, Ainsworth said.

Coleman has always maintained his confession was coerced, and with DNA evidence ruling him out as the rapist, Ainsworth said there is no evidence linking Coleman to the crime.

Ainsworth said he would move to have Coleman’s conviction overturned once additional testing is complete, but that Coleman shouldn’t have to wait in prison in the meantime.

Coleman’s daughter, 25-year-old Chanequa Allen, was two when her father was arrested.

“This process is long, and it’s like I say every time, my daddy innocent,” she told reporters. “I know he didn’t do it. I want my daddy home.”