East St. Louis man found guilty of molesting three girls

It took just 39 minutes for a St. Clair County jury to find Marlon Coleman guilty of raping three juvenile emale relatives.

Coleman, 40, of East St. Louis, was convicted of 10 counts of predatory criminal sexual assault.

At the time Coleman was charged, the girls were 11, 13, and 14 years old.

In February, Coleman was found guilty of molesting a 14-year-old relative of the girls. The girl told her mother, who alerted Coleman’s wife. She called police on Oct. 14, 2013, to report that Coleman was molesting her children, police said.

During the trial in February, the jury could not reach a verdict on the counts related to the three other girls. The trial ended in a mistrial with regard to those charges. St. Clair County State’s Attorney Brendan Kelly opted to retry the case. This time, the jury took less than an hour to find Coleman guilty.

The East St. Louis and Cahokia police departments investigated the case. The sexual assaults began in 2012 when the family lived in Cahokia, police said.

Coleman has been held in the St. Clair County Jail in lieu of $2 million bail since Oct. 22.

Assistant State’s Attorneys Bernadette Schrempp and Amanda Fischer prosecuted the case.

“The kids courageously took the stand not once but twice, and Ms. Fischer and Ms. Schrempp put their hearts into convincing the jury of this predator’s guilt,” Kelly said. “They got it right.”

The case is set for sentencing on Sept. 23. The range of sentencing on one count of predatory criminal sexual assault is between 6 and 60 years.

This story was originally published August 13, 2015 at 1:29 PM with the headline "East St. Louis man found guilty of molesting three girls."