Lawyers take a stab at the case of a man accused of killing his pregnant girlfriend in a case of ‘domestic violence’ – The Mercury News

REDWOOD City – Lawyers came out on Monday on the edge of a dispute over whether a man accused of killing his pregnant girlfriend should be sentenced for murder or manslaughter. The prosecutor testified that it took more than 60 seconds for him to be strangled to death, while the defense attorney says his state of mind and his excitement about becoming a father were not clear.

Andrew Coleman, 34, has been charged with two counts of aggravated murder after he allegedly strangled Kirsten Castle, 37, and her unborn child to death in 2024 in the victim’s San Mateo bedroom before fleeing to Southern California with the victim’s $37,000 safe in his trunk. Castle’s 10-year-old daughter from a previous marriage found her mother naked and dead on the floor of their home.

Ryan McLaughlin, a San Mateo County deputy district attorney, urged jurors to find Coleman guilty of murder in both cases on the basis that Coleman showed intent, premeditation and premeditation. In his interviews, he revealed the growing rift between the couple in the days leading up to Castle’s death and the “thousands, if not tens of thousands, of decisions that Mr. Coleman made” before strangling her to death.

McLaughlin argued that Castle, who was 5’4″ and eight months pregnant, was no match for Coleman, who at the time was 5’9″, 230 pounds and a professional boxer. He insisted that Castle’s death by asphyxiation, which takes about a minute for brain death, would have required Coleman to “come back down” after losing consciousness and that his physical injuries showed that Coleman’s wrongdoing was “obvious.”

“This can only be classified as a domestic violence homicide,” McLaughlin said. “It’s not just the intent to kill, but it’s deliberate.”

Jonathan McDougall, Coleman’s lawyer, said the case should be reduced to murder because Coleman was responding to Castle chasing him. He also said jurors should consider Coleman’s intoxication as a factor in his state of mind because of his “extensive and consistent use of alcohol.” He also accused McLaughlin of making assumptions in his interpretation of the evidence.

“Prosecutors don’t know what happened,” McDougall said. “This whole case is based on intent.”

McDougall argued that Coleman was happy to be a father, pointing to his evidence of that fact on the stand and the thought that went into choosing the baby’s name, Indigo. He said that shows that Coleman “had no intention of killing the mother while she was pregnant.”

Presided over by San Mateo County Superior Court Judge Leland Davis III, the case will now go to the jury for deliberation. They will be tasked with deciding whether to convict Coleman of murder, manslaughter or first-degree murder.

The conflict between Coleman and Castle began on August 2, 2024, McLaughlin argued, after Castle’s baby shower when “things turned sour.” Days before Castle’s death, she sent texts to Coleman where she accused him of physical abuse. In multiple texts, Castle told Coleman she didn’t want to “get involved with him” while repeatedly asking for his space, she added.

“It becomes a tightly bound spring,” McLaughlin said. “What hasn’t changed in this conversation is that she doesn’t want anything to do with him.”

McDougall aimed to turn the scene back to the couple’s previous conflicts in the text, saying they had a “dysfunctional relationship” with a pattern that alternated between aspects of “love” and hostility. He said those previous conflicts did not end in violence. He revealed transcripts that were changed on a date in April 2024 in which Castle told Coleman that he “wasn’t abusive.”

“He was going to play this card to make himself feel guilty,” McDougall said. “It’s a pattern.”

McLaughlin also released surveillance video from outside Avenue Liquors in San Mateo around 7 a.m. Aug. 4 with enhanced audio, where he insists that Coleman talked about strangulation and a “call-and-answer” monologue where he says, “Why are you going to strangle me? [expletive].”

But McDougall disputed McLaughlin’s nomination in the video, concluding that “that’s not what’s being said.”

Castle returned to his residence around 12:37 p.m., McLaughlin said. He lived at least 45 minutes after that, when his last text was sent. The coordinates of Coleman’s car placed him at his residence from 12:28 p.m. until 3:27 p.m., McLaughlin said, when he made a call to Southern California.