The mother charged with murder after three of her sons died in a house fire earlier this month had prevous contacts with the state Division of Family and Children Services. In June, workers closed the case against Rockell Coleman after deeming that the risk for the children was very low, according to a review of documents by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution and Channel 2 Action News.
Coleman, 28, was jailed on murder charges for the deaths of her young sons who police say were home alone when their house caught on fire Dec. 12. She was released on bond earlier this month.
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.
The documents show that in June 2013, more than a year before the fire, DFCS got a complaint that the children were repeatedly left home alone with inadequate food.
Case workers initially found the complaint unsubstantiated but required Coleman to undergo a plan that included parenting classes.
In April, case workers discovered she was not complying, Channel 2 reports, and asked a judge to take the children away. According to the documents, a judge denied the request saying she did not see the harm to the children.
Coleman’s children 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, Coleman was jailed on five counts of felony child cruelty and three counts of felony murder.
Coleman told Channel 2 she was granted bond after phone records showed that an adult was with the children that evening.
“I think that was the changing point in that,” Coleman’s mother told Channel 2.
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