REDWOOD CITY — A San Mateo man accused of strangling his pregnant girlfriend was convicted Wednesday of two counts of second-degree murder after the jury determined that his actions were not premeditated, as prosecutors had argued during the trial.
Andrew Coleman, 34, strangled his 37-year-old girlfriend Kirsten Castle in 2024, killing her and their unborn daughter. He then fled to Southern California with a safe containing $37,000 that he stole from Castle in his trunk, prosecutors said.
He was arrested in West Covina late the same day and was charged with two counts of murder with several enhancements.
The trial, overseen by San Mateo County Superior Court Judge Leland Davis III, went to the jury on March 2. Jurors were asked to decide whether to acquit Coleman, or find him guilty of first-degree murder, second-degree murder or manslaughter. The panel came to its decision after three days of deliberation.
The jury also found true allegations of infliction of death or great bodily injury on each count, making Coleman ineligible for probation, according to the San Mateo County District Attorney’s Office.
“We are very happy with the verdicts,” said Shin-Mee Chang, chief deputy district attorney for the San Mateo County District Attorney’s Office. “We have to hold offenders accountable, and in this case, we got justice for two specific victims, but I’m hoping with this jury verdict people will see that these kinds of crimes are not going to be tolerated. We’re going to hold these people to account.”
Chang added that, at his sentencing, Coleman will face 30 years to life for the charges and will be ineligible for probation. He would have faced a longer sentence if he had been convicted of first-degree murder.
Jonathan McDougall, Coleman’s defense attorney, did not respond to a request for comment.
At the closing arguments, Ryan McLaughlin, a deputy district attorney for San Mateo County, told jurors that Coleman should be convicted of first-degree murder on both counts, arguing that the act was premeditated, intentional and deliberate. Tensions built between the couple in the days leading up to the killing,McLaughlin said, as shown by text messages in which Castle accused Coleman of being abusive and stating that she wanted nothing to do with him. Coleman made “thousands, if not tens of thousands, of decisions” that led to him ultimately strangling her, he added.
The act of strangling Castle, McLaughlin argued, required Coleman to “double down” after watching her go unconcious.
McDougall argued that Coleman was using heavy amounts of alcohol at the time of the killing and could not have been in a mental state to be a “cold blooded killer,” pointing to his erratic behavior during the arrest in West Covina the night of the killing. A blood draw taken around 1 a.m. that night showed a BAC three times the legal limit.
Coleman had been excited to be a father — and had put thought into the baby girl’s name, McDougall added — and so had “no intent” to kill Castle while she was pregnant.
Tensions began building between Coleman and Castle on Aug. 2, when they began to argue over text, McLaughlin said. On the early morning of Aug. 4, Coleman drove to Hillsborough, where Castle’s mother lived, and texted Castle multiple times asking for her location. At the time, Castle was driving around aimlessly, McLaughlin said, before going to her mother’s house in the morning.
Castle returned to her San Mateo duplex around noon on Aug. 4. The coordinates of Coleman’s vehicle placed him at the duplex between 12:28 p.m. and 3:27 p.m., when he left and made a beeline for Southern California, stopping only in Gilroy to purchase more beer. Castle was found deceased that evening.
Coleman will next appear in court March 27 for his sentencing. He remains in custody with no bail.
Leave a Reply