After a fight over her seeing other men in their open marriage, a 55-year-old Georgia woman shot her husband to death, and she will be imprisoned for the rest of her life.
Luther “Luke” Coe III, 48, died in Coweta County, and Cheryl Coe was found guilty on Monday of murder and aggravated assault. The Newnan Times-Herald reported from the courtroom that she was given a life sentence without the possibility of parole.
The defendant called 911 to report that she had shot her husband because she thought he was an intruder, and the Coweta County Sheriff’s Office arrived at the Coe residence on Tommy Lee Cook Road in Newnan at approximately 7:30 p.m. on June 23, 2021.
Coe reportedly admitted to police that she had had four or five Angry Orchard Hard Cider drinks on the porch while her husband worked in his detached garage before the shooting.
According to reports, she went to bed at approximately 7:15 p.m. but was awakened by the sound of the bedroom door opening about ten minutes later.
She fired, assuming it was an intruder.
At the time, she allegedly told investigators, “I was just trying to protect myself,”
She stated that she was unaware that she had shot her husband until he exclaimed, “Cheryl, you shot me.”
Investigators found that her husband had been shot in the contact zone, which means that the gun was fired as it was being held to the victim’s body rather than from a distance as Coe initially claimed. This caused her story to fall apart almost instantly.
Coe went on to say that she defended herself by shooting her husband. According to her, he stormed into the room and attempted to pull her from her bed. She claimed that after he left the room, she seized the chance to take a gun off the bedside table.
Before firing a second shot, the now-convicted murderer fired one warning shot, which she claimed infuriated the victim.
“I was just trying to hit the wall behind the TV so it would scare him off or make him leave,” she allegedly stated. “I wasn’t trying to hit him.”
However, she did. Coe’s husband passed away in a hospital after she assisted paramedics in providing him with aid.
Subsequently, investigators identified underlying problems in the marriage. The couple allegedly quarreled over their open marriage in a string of texts sent in the days before the shooting.
Later that week, Cheryl Coe requested permission from her husband to see another man. He then allegedly inquired as to whether she also intended to see another man that day, to which she replied, “lol.” According to the victim, her response “turned his stomach.”
He apparently wanted to maintain their open marriage with additional ground rules, but she suggested ending it because it was creating problems. When Luther Coe found out that his wife was discussing their problems with a friend, he apparently became even more irate.
When the defendant testified at her trial, she restated her claim of self-defense. Apparently, she informed jurors that he was “more enraged that he’s ever been at me.”
She allegedly told police that she didn’t want to damage her husband’s reputation when they asked why she initially told them the shooting was an accident.
During closing arguments, prosecutors brought up her contradictory statements.
“She brought a gun to a verbal spat,” according to reports from prosecutor Laura Lukert.
Luther Coe owned a road grading and demolition business and was a member of the U.S. Army, according to his obituary.
