Hearing reset in murder case

SANDPOINT — A preliminary hearing in a Kootenai murder case was postponed Wednesday due to a scheduling conflict and other factors, court records show.

Jacob Corban Coleman’s hearing was reset for Oct. 25. He remains held at the Bonner County Jail without bail.

The hearing to determine if there’s enough evidence against Coleman to try him on a charge of first-degree murder was put off because Bonner County Prosecutor Louis Marshall was prosecuting another case in 1st District Court last week. Plea negotiations are also ongoing and Coleman’s defense counsels only recently received discovery materials in the case, according to a stipulated motion to continue the preliminary hearing.

Coleman, 20, is accused of stabbing Gagandeep Singh to death inside Singh’s minivan taxicab on Aug. 28. Singh had earlier picked Coleman up at Spokane International Airport and Coleman directed the 22-year-old Spokane Valley man to drive to Bonner County so he could see a friend, but later admitted to sheriff’s investigators that the trip was a ruse to lure Singh to a sparsely populated area, according to court documents.

Coleman, Puyallup, Wash., resident, is accused of having Singh stop at the Walmart store in Ponderay, where he purchased the knife that was used to kill Singh.

Coleman, who was 19 at the time of the crime, was allegedly toggling between suicidal and homicidal impulses after arriving in Spokane and learning he would not be enrolled in a university there, probable cause hearing testimony indicates. Coleman allegedly told investigators that he resolved to kill Singh and acted on that impulse when Singh tried to obtain a family member’s phone number because Coleman was making suicidal remarks.

Coleman was found inside the parked cab with Singh’s lifeless body, court records indicate. Coleman neither rendered aid nor called 911 to summon help after the stabbing and Singh slowly bled to death, according to a detective’s testimony.

There is a substantial amount of discovery in the case, court records show. The documents, which are not part of the public court file, include a coroner’s report, Singh’s autopsy report, Coleman’s academic and disciplinary records from Puyallup High School, Coleman’s phone records, Singh’s text messages, statements from Walmart employees, video from the Payless Gas & Mini Mart in Kootenai and video footage from Singh’s cab.

Keith Kinnaird can be reached by email at kkinnaird@bonnercountydailybee.com and follow him on Twitter @KeithDailyBee.