The Louisiana woman charged in the death of a 5-year-old boy found stuffed into a “Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas” suitcase in southern Indiana was sentenced Tuesday to 30 years in prison.
Dawn Coleman was given five years of the sentence suspended, WTHR reported.
Coleman pleaded guilty to aiding, inducing, or causing murder, neglect of a dependent resulting in death, and obstruction of justice, as CrimeOnline reported earlier this month. She will also be credited with time served since her October 2022 arrest in San Francisco.
The body of Cairo Jordan was found in the suitcase in rural Washington County on April 16, 2022, and remained unidentified for six months as law enforcement desperately sought information. Finally, he was identified and Indiana State Police announced they were looking for Coleman and the boy’s mother, DeJaune Ludie Anderson of Georgia.
Coleman was found soon afterward, but Anderson remains at large.
Court document say Coleman told investigators they were living in Louisville, Kentucky, when she walked into a bedroom and found Anderson on top of the boy, who was face down on the mattress. “It was already done,” she reportedly told the investigators.
Coleman said she helped Anderson put Cairo’s body in the suitcase, and then they drove across the Ohio River into Indiana, where Coleman left the suitcase in the woods.
The documents also said that Coleman and Anderson made several social media posts referring to Cairo as a “demon,” and Anderson reportedly said she had written a “book about living with a demonic child.”
Washington County Judge Larry Medlock handed down Coleman’s sentence, telling her, “You packaged Cairo like trash,” WTHR said.
“He was an innocent little boy who wanted to be loved,” the judge said.
A warrant was issued for Anderson’s arrest in November 2022, charging her with felony murder, but so far they’ve had no luck finding her. She is described as 5 feet 5 inches tall and 135 pounds and had short, dark brown hair in her last known photo. She is known to ear wigs or hair extensions, however.
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[Featured image: Indiana State Police and Facebook]
