Trial ordered in cab driver killing

SANDPOINT — A Washington state man was ordered Wednesday to stand trial for stabbing a cab driver to death in Kootenai last summer.

Jacob Corban Coleman invoked his right to remain silent during a preliminary hearing in Bonner County Magistrate Court and did not testify. He is charged with first-degree murder for killing Gagandeep Singh inside his minivan taxicab on August 28.

Coleman, a 20-year-old from Puyallup, told sheriff’s investigators that he boarded a plane in Seattle and landed in Spokane intending to attend classes Gonzaga University, but school officials said he could not be enrolled. Coleman said he took a bus back to the airport and hailed Singh for a ride to Hope, where he said he had a friend but was unable to provide an address for their destination.

Coleman later admitted to investigators that he didn’t know anyone in Hope and selected the location due to its sparse population, according to court documents. He allegedly told investigators that he was upset by the setback in his academic plans and began feeling alternating suicidal and homicidal urges.

Detective Phil Stella testified that Coleman’s remarks during an interview led him to believe he formulated a plan to commit murder before leaving Spokane.

Singh, a 22-year-old Spokane Valley resident, drove to Bonner County and Coleman had him stop at the Walmart store in Ponderay, where Coleman purchased a hunting knife.

Walmart sales associate Marcia Alexander testified that she encountered Coleman in the sporting goods section and he inquired about a hunting knife and mentioned something about bears. She directed him to a titanium model.

“He asked if the knife would break,” Alexander recalled. She replied that it would not due to the material the blade was constructed from.

Singh’s brother, Baljit Singh, told the court that his brother had installed a forward- and aft-looking surveillance camera in some of the company’s vehicles, including the Toyota Sienna his brother was using the day he was killed and fastidiously made sure they were operational when he was on duty.

“He always made sure before he left that the camera was running,” Baljit Singh testified.

Stella testified that investigators recovered video showing the cab on Highway 200 heading eastbound. The vehicle passed through Hope and on to Clark Fork, where Singh stopped at a watercraft inspection station and spoke with a deputy in a fruitless attempt to get Coleman to the address he was seeking. The cab doubled back and stopped briefly in Hope, although neither Coleman nor Singh exited the vehicle and they resumed driving west down the highway.

Coleman told investigators that he confessed to his suicidal impulses during the ride, which prompted Singh to see if Coleman’s family could be reached so they could be alerted.

Stella testified that Coleman handed Singh a phone moments before Coleman attacked him with the blade, a Camillus Cutlery game knife.

Bonner County Prosecutor Louis Marshall asked Stella to describe the attack. Stella said Coleman himself provided the most apt description.

“I attacked him like a feral animal,” Stella recalled Coleman saying during the interview.

Stella said the attack lasted approximately 50 seconds and an autopsy revealed Singh had been stabbed as many as 27 times during the onslaught.

The video included audio, although it was too faint to make out the conversations between Coleman and Singh. The recording was sent to federal officials for enhancement, but Stella testified that it was still too faint to be of use.

Singh was reported as an overdue motorist, a call that was assigned to Deputy Aaron Flynn. Flynn located the idled cab parked beside Arnie’s Conoco and approached the vehicle. Upon doing so, the driver’s side sliding door opened and he saw Singh motionless on the floorboard and Coleman in a middle bench seat holding a knife.

“The deceased was laying at his feet,” testified Flynn, who ordered Coleman to drop the knife and exit the vehicle.

Marshall argued Coleman’s remarks to investigators coupled with the purchase of the game knife underscored the premeditated nature of the killing, but Chief Public Defender Janet Whitney countered that the Coleman purchased the knife in order to take his own life. Coleman was also adamant that Singh not contact his family members.

“It seems the premeditation is not there,” she said.

Judge Justin Julian concluded, however, that it was more likely than not that Coleman set upon Singh with malice aforethought and bound Coleman over to stand trial in 1st District Court.

Coleman remains held without bail and is scheduled to be arraigned on Nov. 13.

Keith Kinnaird can be reached by email at kkinnaird@bonnercountydailybee.com and follow him on Twitter @KeithDailyBee.