Attorney: Virus stalls progress in case of alleged killer
The coronavirus pandemic has halted progress in the case against the man accused of kidnapping and killing young Dorchester mother Jassy Correia, his public defenders told a federal judge Tuesday in a brief hearing.
The death penalty option prosecutors previously weighed against defendant Louis D. Coleman was not mentioned in the brief teleconference. Coleman was not in attendance, as attorney Jane Peachy requested the sides return in 45 days as they continue to review voluminous discovery.
“With the hope that things will start opening up again. We’ll get back to the work we were doing with our client, visiting him, doing other mitigation work that will help us,” Peachy said.
Coleman is charged with kidnapping resulting in death for allegedly abducting Correia, 23, outside of a Boston bar in February of 2019. Delaware state troopers pulled over Correia four days later with the woman’s body in the trunk of his car, prosecutors say. Correia allegedly told troopers, “She’s in the trunk.”
Feds also allege Coleman was captured on surveillance video dragging Correia’s body into an elevator at his Rhode Island apartment early the morning after the alleged abduction.
Prosecutors said at a January status conference they would decide within three months whether to seek the death penalty for Coleman, but a spokeswoman for U.S. Attorney Andrew Lelling’s office said Tuesday a firm date for a decision was not set.
A discussion regarding any plea of insanity or plea deals was not mentioned in Tuesday’s status conference.
Coleman’s counsel in December sent a four-page letter to feds requesting numerous additional discovery, including Correia’s criminal history and phone logs allegedly showing outgoing calls from her phone days after her disappearance.
“We believe such evidence is relevant to explain and corroborate Ms. Correia’s behavior on the night of her disappearance,” Coleman’s lawyers wrote in the letter.
The sides are expected to return to federal court in July.