Andrew Coleman, who was found guilty on two counts of second-degree murder for the death of his pregnant girlfriend 37-year-old Kirsten Castle, was sentenced to 30 years to life in prison, San Mateo County Assistant District Attorney Rebecca Baum said.
After three days of deliberations, a jury found Coleman, 34, guilty on two counts of second-degree murder for the death of Castle, who was nine months pregnant with their child. Castle’s cause of death was consistent with strangulation or asphyxiation.
Castle’s death Aug. 4, 2024, was “a brutal domestic violence murder,” San Mateo County Deputy District Attorney Ryan McLaughlin said during the trial’s closing statements March 2.
Coleman’s defense attorney, Jonathan McDougall, argued during trial that Castle’s death lacked the premeditation and deliberation required of a murder charge and that Coleman should be charged with manslaughter.
Strangulation is one of the “highest red flags of lethality” and a major warning sign of escalating aggression in a domestic violence situation, Karen Ferguson, CEO of local advocacy group Community Overcoming Relationship Abuse, said previously.
“Anytime we hear that somebody reports that they were being choked, the abuser put their hands on the victim’s neck … that is one of the highest signifiers of not only domestic violence, but the escalation of domestic violence that leads to lethality,” she said.
CORA has partnered with her family to create the Kirsten Castle Emergency Fund, offering financial support to those experiencing intimate partner violence, Ferguson said previously.
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