Just a little before Jacob Coleman was condemned to 40 years to life for the killing of a Spokane taxi driver, he tried to run out of the courtroom while yelling, “40 years, how about we do this.”
Coleman, 21, of Puyallup, Washington, confessed in November to murdering 22-year-old Gagandeep Singh by stabbing him as the two sat in Singh’s taxi in Kootenai, Idaho.
On Thursday, Barbara Buchanan, Bonner County District Court Judge, sentenced Coleman to 40 years to life in prison. Prosecutors took the death penalty off the table because Coleman pleaded guilty.
Several of Singh’s family members, including his mother and brother, Baljit Singh, testified during the long hearing, before Coleman stood and addressed the court. The defendant apologized to the family, then asked “what do you guys want from me?” to which the family replied “life in prison”.
In response, he yelled for the judge to give him the 40 years as he smacked the microphone down and walked toward the door. A bailiff then stopped Coleman and put him into handcuffs before he could leave.
Coleman was 19 at the time of the murder. He flew from Seattle to Spokane in August of 2017, to start a new semester at Gonzaga University. However, after visiting the school where he was neither enrolled as a student nor assigned campus housing, he told law enforcement that he felt homicidal.
He then hailed a taxi at the Spokane International Airport, and told the driver, Singh, to drive him to a made-up friend’s house in eastern Bonner County. When it became clear to Singh that Coleman didn’t have a destination, Coleman stabbed Singh as they parked at Spokane St and East Railroad Ave in Kootenai, said Bonner County Sheriff’s deputies.
When deputies arrived to the location, they found Coleman was still sitting in the cab. He was arrested without incident. Singh was pronounced dead at the scene.
