Alleged Coweta County swinger convicted in husband's murder

Wife convicted of husband's murder in second trial

A Coweta County jury has convicted Cheryl Coe for the 2021 murder of her husband, Luke, in what was a second trial of the case. Coe was then sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole for felony murder, malice murder and aggravated assault. The lead prosecutor says the couple had been arguing about their open marriage leading up to the shooting in a disagreement about her plans to see multiple men that week.

COWETA COUNTY, Ga. - A Coweta County jury has convicted Cheryl Coe of murdering her husband, Luke Coe, in 2021 after a retrial of the case.

What we know:

She was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole on charges of malice murder, felony murder and aggravated assault.

Prosecutors said the couple had argued over their open marriage in the days leading up to the shooting. During trial, they highlighted Coe’s shifting accounts of what happened that night, along with testimony from the medical examiner that the fatal shot was fired at close range.

Senior Assistant District Attorney Laura Lukert said Coe showed "a total lack of remorse" and changed her story multiple times.

The backstory:

FOX 5 has obtained never-before-seen police video of that night when investigators questioned Coe about firing the shot that killed her husband.

When investigators first arrived at the home, Coe was seen on the ground in the front yard in a fetal position. A man who identified himself as being with the coroner’s office then helped her to her feet and guided her to a chair on the front porch. 

He then began to ask her a series of questions. Coe tells the authorities she had gone to bed early and her husband had been working in his shop. She had drunk several cans of hard cider and taken prescription medication. She said she was awakened by someone bursting into her bedroom, so she grabbed a gun and fired twice. She claimed that she did not know it was her husband until he called out to her.

Prosecutors say that was the second version of her story. The first version told to a 911 operator on June 23, 2021, was that the firearm had discharged accidentally. But they said during the trial, she changed the story again, claiming that she knew it was Luke, and he was angry with her and tried to pull her from the bed, so she fired a warning shot which caused him to leave the room. She claimed he returned and she fired again, striking him.

Coe's first trial ended in a deadlocked jury in March.