Matthew Taylor Coleman, the California QAnon follower accused of killing his two small children with a speargun, has repeatedly tried to mutilate himself in federal lockup — cutting himself with a razor, diving headfirst into a toilet, punching himself in the face and repeatedly slamming his head against the floor, according to court records.
Coleman, who allegedly slaughtered Kaleo, 2, and Roxy, 10 months, in 2021 because he believed they had serpent DNA, is now under constant observation — and have started medicating him against his will, according to court records.
A prison physician has determined that the 40-year-old meets the criteria for unspecified schizophrenia spectrum and other psychiatric disorders, according to a court filing by the US Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of California.
Prosecutors say that he is unable to understand the charges against him or participate in his own defense.
He has been medicated since last May.
On Aug. 7, 2021, Coleman was packing for a family trip with his wife, Abby. Authorities say he then abruptly and wordlessly put the two kids into his van and drove away from their Santa Barbara home.
Coleman took his kids over the border into Mexico and stayed at a resort hotel for two days. Then investigators say he drove his kids to a farm where he stabbed them both with a spearfishing gun and left them to die.
He was arrested as he attempted to re-enter the US.
Coleman has been charged with two counts of murdering US nationals on foreign soil. He is being held in an undisclosed federal medical facility in Southern California and has pleaded not guilty.
He is being represented by a court-appointed attorney, who did not respond to a request for comment.
When Coleman was arrested in 2021, he allegedly told the feds he killed his kids because he had been convinced by the QAnon conspiracy theory that they possessed serpent DNA and needed to be killed to protect the human race, according to a 30-page search warrant application released at the time.
Sometimes rambling incoherently, Coleman allegedly told FBI agents that he was “seeing all the pieces being decoded like ‘The Matrix,’ and that he was Neo,” the movie’s main character.
“He said visions and signs revealed his wife, A.C. [Abby Coleman], possessed serpent DNA ([He] mentioned that he was not sure if his wife was a shapeshifter) and had passed it onto his children and that all things were pointing to the idea that his children have corrupted DNA that will spread if something is not done about it,” reads the affidavit.
After Coleman’s arrest, his wife, Abby, left California and returned to her home state of Texas, where she currently lives, surrounded by her family.
But those who knew Coleman are stunned by the stunning allegations against him.
“I really had no idea,” said Deb Fletcher, whose son took surf lessons from Coleman before the murders. “He could be intense, but nothing that would indicate that he was so mentally off. I wonder if he just snapped.”
“This came out of nowhere,” adds a family friend who grew up with Coleman: “He always seemed normal, I wish we had known that this was coming. It’s really sad.”