 Charles Coleman (center) with his attorneys, Evan Parzych (left) and Bob Meredith (right) (Photo: Connecticut Innocence Project)
Police said they had lifted a fingerprint on a window of the home – although it was not the window that the attacker used to gain entry – and that upon comparing it to fingerprints in the department’s fingerprint files, they had made a “positive identification” to Coleman.
The victim, identified as D.L., told police that she was awakened when a man put his hand over her mouth. She said that he threatened to hurt her mother, who was sleeping in a separate bedroom of the home in New Haven. He then raped her and took $180 in cash from a drawer of her bureau, before he left through a bedroom window.
Coleman was charged with burglary, sexual assault, unlawful restraint, and robbery. Not long after, he also was charged with a similar burglary and sexual assault in New Haven that occurred on March 4, 1986. Police said they had recovered a partial palm print in that case, and the comparison resulted in another “positive identification” to Coleman.
Ultimately, Coleman was charged with seven more similar incidents over a several year period. In all, he was charged with 26 counts that included sexual assault, burglary, robbery, and unlawful restraint.
On May 27, 1987, Coleman entered an Alford plea to 20 of the charges in New Haven County Superior Court to resolve all nine cases. Under the plea, he maintained his innocence, but acknowledged that the prosecution had evidence sufficient to prove his guilt. On July 17, 1987, when Coleman appeared for sentencing, he filed a motion to withdraw his pleas. That motion was denied, and Coleman was sentenced to 35 years in prison.
Coleman appealed the denial of his motion, but the Connecticut Appellate Court rejected his appeal in 1989. Coleman then filed a federal petition for a writ of habeas corpus. In December 1991, U.S. District Judge Peter Dorsey granted the writ and ruled that Coleman could withdraw his guilty pleas. The judge ruled that Coleman had been incorrectly advised at the time of his Alford plea that he faced a mandatory minimum of 30 years in prison. Since the prosecution had offered to agree to a 35-year sentence and the potential maximum was exponentially higher, Coleman likely believed he had little to gain by going to trial, Judge Dorsey ruled. Since the mandatory minimum could have been as low as five years, Coleman had not made an informed decision. While Coleman was not entitled to an “absolutely error free proceeding in state court,” he was entitled to “one of fundamental fairness,” Judge Dorsey ruled.
Back in state court, Coleman withdrew his guilty pleas in all nine cases. Ultimately, he went to trial on three of them.
In 1993, Coleman went to trial for a burglary and attack that occurred on June 23, 1986. In that case, the victim fought back, when she was awakened by a man holding a knife to her throat and a hand over her mouth. She suffered several lacerations and was punched repeatedly in the head. But she managed to escape. Her attacker fled. Police testified that Coleman was the source of a partial palm print from the bathtub, which was directly below the window through which the attacker gained entry. On February 7, 1993, the jury convicted him of burglary, attempted assault, and robbery. He was sentenced to 20 years in prison.
In June 1993, Coleman went to trial for the March 4 attack. He chose to have the case decided by Judge Ronald Fracasse without a jury.
The victim, R.N., who was 32 years old at the time, lived in a fourth floor apartment. She testified that she was awakened by a man who forced her to perform oral sex on him twice and raped her vaginally and anally. She said that he demanded money, so she took out several envelopes of cash from her purse – the money was to pay bills and had been apportioned so she could buy money orders – and handed over the money. She said the attacker rifled through the envelopes, which were left scattered on the bed. She said he asked if she had a car. When she said she had a Datsun, he said he didn’t want it.
She said that the attacker forced her to lie face down on the bed, then tied her hands and feet with shoelaces that he had brought with him. She said he told her it would give him time to get to the train to Bridgeport. She said her attacker was 5 feet 10 inches to 5 feet 11 inches tall, did not have facial hair, and was a Black man. She said it was too dark to make an identification.
The prosecution said that the rape kit that had been taken had been destroyed in 1992, five years after Coleman had pled guilty. At the time the evidence was sent for analysis, it was only analyzed to show the presence of spermatozoa.
New Haven police Detective James Stephenson testified that he had compared Coleman’s fingerprints to a partial palm print on one of the envelopes found on the bed. He said that based on 19 points of similarity, he concluded that the partial palmprint had been left by Coleman.
At the last minute, Coleman’s attorney attempted to present a witness to testify that Coleman had been with her at her home at the time of the crime. The attorney said he had been informed by Coleman during the trial. The witness was not allowed to testify because the defense had not filed a notice of alibi prior to the trial.
The defense argued that the fingerprint testimony was wrong. The defense noted that Coleman was only 5 feet 6 inches tall and had facial hair at the time of the crime. He lived in New Haven, so would have no need to take a train to Bridgeport, and he owned a Chevrolet Camaro, so would have no need to ask a victim about a car, the defense contended.
On June 15, 1993, Judge Fracasse convicted Coleman of burglary, unlawful restraint, sexual assault, and robbery. At his sentencing hearing, Coleman asserted he was innocent, saying, “I’m sorry what happened to [R.N.]…they have the wrong person.”
Judge Fracasse sentenced Coleman to 110 years in prison to be served consecutive to the 20-year sentence imposed in February.
In October 1993, Coleman went to trial for the July 7 attack on D.L. She testified that she was awakened by a Black man who put his hand over her mouth and told her to do what he said or her mother would be hurt. She said he raped her and then took $180 from a drawer before he fled. She was unable to identify her attacker.
Detective Stephenson testified that he had compared a fingerprint found on a window frame of the home to fingerprints on file in the department. He said he made a “positive identification” of that fingerprint to Coleman. Stephenson said he found 14 points of similarity to Coleman’s middle finger and nine points of similarity on an adjacent print to Coleman’s ring finger.
The prosecutor asked, “Is there any doubt in your mind, sir, that the latent print…is, in fact, the same fingerprint as the known inked fingerprint taken by you of the defendant Charles Coleman?”
“None whatsoever,” Stephenson replied.
Dr. Carll Ladd, a DNA analyst in the Connecticut Forensic Laboratory, testified that he had performed HLA DQ-Alpha DNA testing on the swabs from the rape kit that had been taken from the victim. “Based on the test, the defendant cannot be excluded as a potential donor” of the spermatozoa, Dr. Ladd testified. He further said that Coleman was included as a potential source.
Dr. Ladd said that Coleman was among the 15 percent of the Black population that would be consistent with the profile obtained during the testing. He said that 10 percent of the Caucasian population and one-half of one percent of the Hispanic population would be included as possible contributors of the profile obtained from the evidence.
The defense contended that Coleman was at home with his mother, Kay, and brother, Warren, at the time of the crime. Both testified that he was asleep on a couch in the living room of Kay Coleman’s home. D.L. had testified that her attacker was clean-shaven. Kay and Warren testified that Coleman had a mustache and goatee at the time. The defense presented a photograph of Coleman taken the day of his arrest on July 8, 1986, which showed him with a goatee and mustache.
On October 18, the jury convicted Coleman of burglary, sexual assault, and unlawful restraint. He was acquitted of robbery. Subsequently, he was sentenced to 40 years in prison, to be served consecutive to his 110-year sentence and his 20-year sentence. Instead of the 35-year sentence imposed after his Alford plea, Coleman had wound up with a sentence of 170 years.
His appeals were unsuccessful. The state dismissed the charges in the other six cases.
In October 2021, Coleman sent a 75-page letter to the Connecticut Innocence Project which began re-investigating the case. Coleman also sent the letter to Connecticut Chief State’s Attorney Richard Colangelo Jr. requesting his cases be reviewed by the Connecticut Division of Justice Conviction Integrity Unit (CIU). During an interview with the CIU, Coleman asserted that the fingerprint evidence had been planted by the police.
Ultimately, assistant Connecticut public defender Evan Parzych and Robert Meredith of the Connecticut Innocence Project sought DNA testing of the evidence through the current DNA methods which were far more discriminating than the HLA DQ-Alpha testing performed in 1993.
DNA tests were performed on the evidence from the July 7, 1986 attack. Coleman was excluded as the source of male DNA found in the evidence. In May 2024, the sexual assault kit from the March 4, 1986 attack, which had been thought to have been destroyed in 1992, was found. The CIU had asked the New Haven police department to make another search, and the evidence was found. It was sent for DNA testing, which also excluded Coleman as the source of the male DNA.
The fingerprint evidence in the two cases was located and sent off for re-examination. In June 2024, the Connecticut State Forensic Laboratory confirmed that the fingerprint evidence in the three cases “matched” Coleman’s fingerprints.
The CIU prepared a report dated July 8, 2024, saying that the DNA test results were “clearly exculpatory” in the March 4 and July 7 cases, and referred the matter to New Haven State’s Attorney, John P. Doyle Jr.
On July 18, 2024, Doyle asked that the convictions be vacated. Meredith and Pazych asked that the charges be dismissed. Judge Gerald Harmon dismissed the charges, saying he agreed with Doyle that it would be “almost impossible” to obtain a conviction in the face of the DNA test results.
Even so, Doyle said he did not agree that Coleman was factually innocent.
"The state's decision to move to vacate Mr. Coleman's convictions comes after careful review of the CIU report and the newly discovered DNA evidence, which has led me to no longer have confidence in two of Mr. Coleman's convictions." Doyle said. "The state is not in a position to retry the cases based on its evaluation of the totality of the available evidence."
“Your Honor, this has been a long journey for Mr. Coleman,” Meredith said. “He has always maintained his innocence from his initial arrest in 1986 through his state court proceedings, through his federal habeas court proceedings, through his state habeas court proceedings to this day.”
Meredith declared, “[W]e believe this new DNA evidence is consistent with innocence and is substantial evidence of innocence. We believe Mr. Coleman to be innocent based on this new DNA evidence.”
Coleman’s conviction in the June 23, 1986 case was not disturbed. However, he had already completed his 20-year sentence in that case. As a result, he was released immediately.
– Maurice Possley
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