Police Finally Arrest Suspect in Brutal PG Murder

Alberto Coleman

There finally is an arrest in the vicious murder of a labor officer that occurred months ago in Punta Gorda. Fifty-five-year-old Alberto Coleman, the ex-boyfriend of Juana Cowo, has been arraigned on a single charge of murder, following her stabbing death on July third.  The partly decomposed body of the twenty-nine-year-old woman was discovered inside the bedroom of her apartment located at the corners of King and Jose Maria Nunez Streets with what appeared to be trauma wounds to the head and neck.  The results of an autopsy would later reveal that Cowo died of hypovolemic shock as a result of a stab wound that severed her carotid artery.  Despite being detained on the day Cowo’s body was discovered, Coleman wasn’t brought before the court until Thursday when he appeared before Magistrate Emerson Banner.  According to Punta Gorda police, the indictment succeeds a criminal investigation into the circumstances surrounding Cowo’s demise.  Coleman, a bus driver by profession, was re-arrested at his home in Hopeville on Wednesday morning and escorted to the Punta Gorda Police Station where he was charged with the crime of murder.  In speaking with Cowo’s family on July third, News Five was made to understand that the couple had been having a tumultuous relationship prior to her disappearance several days before she was found dead inside her home. 

Isani Cayetano

“You mentioned that she was in an on again, off again relationship with someone.  At this point in time have you spoken to the police to find out whether this individual now becomes a suspect in what is believed to have been a murder?”

Hugh Linares

Hugh Linares

“I would guess he would.  He was the last person I believe saw her around six o’clock.  He is in her car.  She had her car and what we understand, all day Wednesday, you know.  Ih had another family who was with her up to five o’clock and she was in her car, so he would become a suspect, I believe. We started to make some calls to the gentleman she had a relationship with here.  She had a relationship, the relationship was off and on and that full detail I don’t know much about.  So the mother called him and asked him if he, when he last saw the young lady and he said around, well this is what the mother said, you know, around six o’clock in the evening.  That’s Wednesday evening.  The mother called around seven, couldn’t get to her since.  So he went and made the report to the police station that the young lady missing noh, we noh yer from ahn, di mother di try get to ahn.  Ah noh sure weh happen between da di room.”

Coleman has been remanded until October twenty-ninth when he is scheduled to reappear in court.