DINWIDDIE COUNTY, Va. -- The man charged with abducting a 17-year-old cheerleader who was later found dead in the woods behind her home appeared in court Friday morning.
A judge read 21-year-old Anton Deonte Coleman his abduction charge and then he was escorted out of the courtroom after he was given a new court date.
Some of Coleman’s family members appeared in court as sign of support for their loved one.
Ke'Asia Adkins' body was found in the woods near her home on Sentry Hill Court on Thursday, June 28.
The Dinwiddie High School student's cause of death was asphyxia and the manner was homicide, according to the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner.
Ke’Aisa Adkins
Adkins, a dancer, singer and cheerleader, was reported missing by her family when she didn't show up for cheer practice earlier that week.
"We were hoping for the best. We were hoping she would come home, but we also knew in the back of our minds it was unlikely," Adkins' sister Kendra Green, told reporter Brendan King last week. "We knew something bad had to happen in order for her not to come home or not to call."
Green said the suspect and Adkins were cousins.
Coleman had recently been away in Georgia playing college football on scholarship, according to his family.
Green stated she didn't know why Coleman may want to harm her sister.
"That’s not the person we grew up with -- last year he was not like that," Green stated. "The videos are hard to watch because that’s not the person we grew up with. That’s not the person we know."
Adkins was excited to join the varsity cheer team and get her driver's license. Those who knew her best described her as someone who loved life.
"She was fun loving, always smiling," Green described. "She was a cheer leader, a dancer, soccer player, and ballet dancer."
The teenager worked for Burger King on Boydton Plank Road for about a year, according to general manager Amanda Berry.
“She was very willing to work whenever you needed her,” Berry said. “She was very sweet and always willing to help.”
Coleman has not been charged in her murder.
Crime Insider sources confirmed that Coleman is accused of assaulting his stepfather and mother a little more than two weeks before Adkins disappeared.
Coleman, who is being held without bond at Meherrin River Regional Jail, Coleman is scheduled to appear in court on Aug. 21 at 10 a.m.
This is a developing story, so anyone with more information can submit a news tip here.
