DINWIDDIE COUNTY, Va. -- With a first-degree murder indictment announced Tuesday, Crime Insider sources told Jon Burkett that investigators had plenty of evidence against Anton Coleman, the Dinwiddie man charged with killing his 17-year-old cousin.
Ke'Asia Adkins was found choked to death in late June in the woods behind her Dinwiddie home, four days after she was last seen leaving her home for cheerleading practice.
Investigators quickly homed in on Coleman, her 21-year-old cousin, charging him with abduction with the intent to defile.
“To establish the first-degree murder charge, we’re relying on two possible theories,” said Dinwiddie Commonwealth’s Attorney Ann Baskervill. “One is that the killing took place willfully, deliberately and with premeditation. The other, which is also first-degree murder, is that the killing took place in the commission of a serious violent felony crime, such as rape, sodomy, or abduction."
Anton Deonte Coleman and Ke'Asia Adkins
Crime Insider sources say Coleman was already on their radar; he was fresh off a domestic-related court appearance in Chesterfield County where a judge court ordered him to wear an ankle monitor.
Experts tell CBS 6 while wearing such a monitor, you can be tracked within a few feet and pretty much pinpointed to an exact location. Crime insider sources say Coleman's monitor is playing a big role in the murder investigation.
"The ankle bracelets can be really very specific, they can coordinate with several different GPS satellites and they can really pinpoint where someone is,” said CBS 6 legal expert Todd Stone. “ If he was wearing one, it will help prosecutors track his location and potentially help them prove he committed homicide.”
Dinwiddie Commonwealth’s Attorney Ann Baskervill
Prosecutor Baskervill says first-degree murder charges will take Coleman's case directly to the circuit court, inevitably speeding things up.
"It'll be a circumstantial case, but the GPS data is huge when it comes to proving a case like this, especially when it is in a remote area where people don’t travel often," said Stone.
If convicted, Coleman faces 20 years to life on both the abduction and first-degree murder charges.
Coleman, who is being held without bond at Meherrin River Regional Jail, is scheduled to appear in court at 10 a.m. on Aug. 21.
