A 28-year-old mother has been released on bond two weeks after she was jailed on murder charges for the deaths of three of her five young sons who were home alone when their house caught on fire.
Rockell Coleman was freed from the DeKalb County Jail, after posting a $30,000 bond, on Tuesday, four days before a funeral for her sons scheduled for Saturday at 11 a.m. at Divine Faith Ministries on Tara Boulevard in Jonesboro.
University of Georgia law professor Ron Carlson said most likely the Superior Court judge agreed to the bond on the basis that Coleman was a safe risk.
“One of the measures the judge will use in deciding whether to allow a person to bail is the likelihood of flight,” Carlson said. “That’s a very key determinate. If the judge looks at that and also decides that the defendant is not a danger to herself and others, (the judge) is at liberty to set a bail… In this case, it may be that this woman has … local roots — family, a job.”
The judge also considers the circumstances of the crime, he said.
Coleman told police she was at her job handing out fliers for a tax-preparation service on Dec. 12 when the fire started around 11 p.m. at the house on Misty Valley Road near Decatur. She said her roommate was supposed to be with the five brothers while she worked.
Jabari, 3, and Preston, 4, were dead by the time they reached the hospital and 10-year-old Javis died three days later. A.J., 9, and Shamari, 4, survived the fire.
Several hours after the fire, their 28-year-old mother was jailed on five counts of felony child cruelty and three counts of felony murder.
Earlier this year a DeKalb County mother was sentenced to prison after she was convicted of involuntary manslaughter in connection with the death of two of her children in 2010.
Angel Johnson was also convicted of cruelty to children and making false statements because she lied about leaving three of her four children alone in a Stone Mountain apartment. She was sentenced to 35 years, 20 of which she must serve.
On the night the children died, Johnson and her boyfriend, Keith Pinkney, locked the three children in a bedroom and went to a fast-food restaurant, according to the district attorney’s office. While they were gone, something in the bedroom got too close to a space heater, and caught fire. Aliyah Quarles, 4, and Devyn Quarles, 3, died from asphyxiation and injuries caused by the fire, according to the release. A 2-year-old in the room survived but was hospitalized with burns.
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