Judge Moves Forward with Mental Institution Escapee’s New Cases

By D.C. Witness Staff - October 28, 2020
Court | Daily Stories | Homicides | Shooting | Suspects | Victims |

A DC Superior Court judge scheduled hearings for a defendant who was recently arrested for armed kidnapping after allegedly escaping St. Elizabeth’s Hospital, where he was awaiting sentencing for manslaughter. 

In 2017, Bernard Coleman III pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter while armed for shooting his father, Bernard Coleman Jr., in the back of the head while he was sleeping in March 2017. 

The 27 year-old was being held at St. Elizabeth’s Hospital awaiting sentencing when, on Oct. 3,  he allegedly escaped from the facility. According to court documents, hospital staff noticed that he was missing the next morning after they pulled back the bed sheets and realized Coleman had created a dummy as a decoy. 

On Oct. 7, Coleman and another suspect allegedly robbed a man, tasered him, stabbed his hands and left him handcuffed in a basement for three hours on the 400 block of Chaplin St, SE. 

Coleman is now charged with armed kidnapping and prison breach in connection with these incidents.

During the Oct. 28 hearing, defense attorney Janai Reed requested that her client receive a forensic psych evaluation and get scheduled for a mental observation hearing in his new cases to determine his competency. 

Judge Julie Becker granted the request. 

The prosecution said that if Coleman is declared incompetent to stand trial, the sentencing for his 2017 cases will need to be delayed further.

Coleman will have a mental observation hearing for his new cases and a felony status conference for his murder case on Dec. 10. 

Sierra Robbins wrote this article.