BANGOR
A Garland man who has pleaded not guilty to strangling his girlfriend and slaying her two children the weekend before Christmas was indicted Wednesday by the Penobscot County grand jury on one count of gross sexual assault.
Keith Coleman, 28, also was reindicted Wednesday on three counts of intentional or knowing murder.
Information about the alleged rape and the identity of the victim was not available late Wednesday but because the charges are included in the same indictment, one of the homicide victims most likely is the victim of the sexual assault.
Coleman confessed to police that he killed his girlfriend in front of the children and then killed them because they witnessed the crime, according to the probable cause affidavit filed at the Penobscot Judicial Center in Bangor by Detective Greg Mitchell of the Maine State Police’s northern major crimes unit.
Coleman was arrested Dec. 21 in Bucksport and charged in connection with the deaths of Christina Sargent, 36, her son, Duwayne Coke, 10, and her daughter, Destiny Sargent, 8.
The victims’ bodies were found about 9 p.m. Dec. 20 by concerned family members in the trailer at 12 Paul Road in Garland where Coleman lived with Sargent and her children. All three victims were strangled, according to a previously published report.
Coleman is being held without bail at the Penobscot County Jail in Bangor.
If convicted, Coleman faces between 25 years and life in prison and a fine of up to $50,000. The Maine Supreme Judicial Court has ruled that a defendant convicted on multiple counts of murder may be sentenced to life in prison.
FOR MORE, see the Bangor Daily News at www.bangordailynews.com
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