Opinion ID: 2822804
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Mr. Cole’s Crimes 3

Text: Mr. Cole and his wife, Terri, divorced in 1995 after eleven years of marriage. Mr. Cole was ordered to pay child support for the care of the couple’s two children, but his periodic failure to make payments resulted in an arrearage of nearly $3,000. The record indicates that Mr. Cole and Terri also had disputes involving visitation with the children, 2 He was also sentenced to three terms of life imprisonment for assault and two counts of armed criminal action and a thirty-year term of imprisonment for burglary. 3 The recital of Mr. Cole’s crimes is taken from the opinion of the Eighth Circuit in Cole IV without further attribution. 623 F.3d at 1186. and in August 1998, Mr. Cole was upset about his alleged lack of visitation with his two sons. There is also evidence he was upset about his wages being garnished to cover the child support arrearage. On the evening of August 21, 1998, Mr. Cole forced his way into Terri’s house by throwing a tire iron through a glass door leading to the dining room from the patio. Anthony Curtis, who was visiting Terri, confronted Mr. Cole and asked him to leave. Mr. Cole stabbed and slashed Mr. Curtis more than twenty times, the fatal blow being an eight-inch deep knife wound to Mr. Curtis’s back. Mr. Cole then assaulted Terri, stabbing her repeatedly in the stomach, breasts, back, arms, and her hands when she attempted to defend herself. Terri survived and testified at trial. After the attack, Mr. Cole fled the state, but after a little over a month, returned to St. Louis and surrendered to the police. DNA analysis confirmed the presence of both victims’ blood on the knife and the presence of Mr. Cole’s blood on the deck of Terri’s home, the backyard fence, and in the street where Mr. Cole’s car had been parked.