Victim calls Coleman’s claim he was attacked ‘bold-faced lie’ as he gets 22 years in prison for December stabbing

QUINCY — Before Jeremy Coleman left Adams County to begin his sentence in the Illinois Department of Corrections, Sajuada Bonner wanted to make sure he heard her version of their story.

Coleman pled guilty to two counts of armed violence, a Class X felony, and was sentenced by Circuit Judge Tad Brenner Monday morning in Adams County Circuit Court to 22 years in prison on each count. Each count would be served concurrently, and he must serve 50 percent of his sentence.

Two counts of attempted murder, one count of aggravated domestic battery and one count of aggravated battery were all dismissed as part of a plea agreement.

Officers responded just before 11 a.m. on Dec. 7, 2023, to the 600 block of Van Buren for a disturbance. When officers arrived, they found Bonner and her brother, Julian Harper, on the roof of a building, both suffering from stab wounds.

Coleman filed a pro se motion with the Adams County Circuit Clerk’s office on March 1, claiming he was protecting himself from an attack. He said he talked with Bonner and an argument ensued, and he claimed Harper charged in an “aggressive manner” and tried to stab Coleman.

Colemen then claimed he felt Bonner grabbing him from behind, startling him. He said he accidentally swung the knife backward and accidentally punctured (Bonner’s) skin.”

Before Brenner said he agreed with Coleman’s sentence in the plea agreement, Bonner read a victim impact statement.

“I would like to use this opportunity to speak my truth,” she said.

Bonner, who said she had known Coleman for eight years, said she went to her home to take a short nap on the morning of Dec. 7 before preparing her children, ages 3 and 5, for school. (Coleman is the father of those children.) She received a call from a QUANADA advocate that morning about trying to have a restraining order placed on Coleman, who she claimed abused her.

“I had no knowledge that the defendant was hiding in my home … listening to me (on the phone),” Bonner said. “I got out of bed to get dressed, and I was ambushed from the attic space in my closet by the defendant as I bent down to put my pants on. The defendant stabbed me at least six times while my children stood there watching.

“My brother heard my screams from downstairs, where he was with his girlfriend. He came to see what was going on. He too didn’t know the defendant was in my house. We both attempted to disarm Jeremy, but he had the handle of the knife, leaving only the blade for us to grab, so we were unsuccessful. He eventually stabbed my brother in the stomach during the tussle.”

Bonner, who was pregnant with another child from Coleman during the attack, said she and her brother since have struggled with post-traumatic stress disorder and nightmares, saying she no longer feels safe in her home. She’s also been diagnosed with depression because her children have moved from “foster home to foster home.”

“Not having my children broke me in the worst way,” she said. “There were days I went to bed wishing that I didn’t wake up. I had to hear my son ask me why I abandoned him. As an abandoned child, that was something I never wanted my children to feel or experience, which is why I worked so hard to give them a better life. Losing them made me feel like a failure.”

Bonner also said she and her brother have faced backlash after Coleman’s story about the attack — which she called “bold-faced lies” — was made public.

“Unfortunately for us, the truth will never get out, because the defendant has chosen to take the easy way out,” she said. “These horrific events are a result of a lie he created in his head and ran with, just like the lie he created surrounding the crime. If he has no problem knocking out the tooth of his own child and stabbing the woman pregnant with his child in front of his children, imagine what he can do to anybody else. He is dangerous and unpredictable.”

When Brenner asked Assistant State’s Attorney Laura Keck for a factual basis, she essentially repeated Bonner’s version of what happened. She said Bonner and Harper had to be taken to Blessing Hospital. She said the knife used by Coleman was longer than three inches in length.

Coleman made no statements during the sentencing, other than answering Brenner’s questions with a “yes” or a “no.”

Had a jury found Coleman guilty of the armed violence charges, he could have been sentenced to between 10 and 30 years in the Illinois Department of Corrections. 

Coleman was credited with serving 326 days in the Adams County Jail.