Conspiracy theorist charged with killing his children in Rosarito not competent to stand trial, judge finds

A federal judge in San Diego ruled Thursday that Matthew Taylor Coleman, a Santa Barbara surf school owner and conspiracy theorist charged with killing his two young children with a spearfishing gun in Mexico, is not competent to stand trial.

The order from U.S. District Judge Cathy Ann Bencivengo is sealed, but a docket entry in the case indicated the judge ordered Coleman to be committed for treatment and set his next competency hearing for March.

An attorney for Coleman from the Federal Public Defender’s office in Los Angeles declined to comment on Thursday’s finding, as did prosecutors from the U.S. Attorney’s Offices in San Diego and Los Angeles.

Incompetency findings are rare in San Diego federal court, especially in serious criminal matters such as Coleman’s, according to experienced San Diego defense attorney Jeremy Warren, who is not affiliated with the case.

“These findings are very unusual,” Warren said. “The standard is very hard to meet.”

Coleman, 42, has pleaded not guilty to federal charges of murdering U.S. nationals on foreign soil for the August 2021 slayings of his 2-year-old son, Kaleo, and 10-month-old daughter, Roxy. But according to statements outlined in court records, he has admitted to the killings in detailed confessions during several interviews with law enforcement.

In February, prosecutors filed a notice with the judge that they would not be seeking the death penalty against Coleman.

Though several documents and motions in the case remain sealed, the docket indicates that Coleman was ordered to undergo a mental competency examination. The judge received that report last month and held a hearing to discuss it Tuesday.

According to the federal statute outlining competency determinations, the judge had to find “by a preponderance of the evidence that the defendant is presently suffering from a mental disease or defect rendering him mentally incompetent to the extent that he is unable to understand the nature and consequences of the proceedings against him or to assist properly in his defense.”

Now Coleman will be sent to a secure federal medical facility, where doctors will work to try to restore his competency, according to the statute. The initial commitment is supposed to last no longer than four months, though that can be extended. If doctors decide his competency has been restored, the prosecution against him will move forward.

According to search warrant affidavits and other court records, Coleman’s wife told investigators that the couple had delved into the sprawling QAnon conspiracy together, coming to believe in the existence of a secret society of elites bent on evil. Coleman eventually became paranoid by a mix of conspiracy theories, even believing that his wife was compromised and had passed serpent blood from “lizard people” onto their children.

Coleman said he believed he was the only one who could stop them from eventually spreading an alien species that would release carnage over the Earth.

Authorities said Coleman disappeared with the children in the family’s Mercedes Sprinter van on Aug. 7, 2021. His wife called police and was able to track his iPhone, which put him in Mexico.

Matthew Taylor Coleman is seen in a surveillance video checking into a City Express hotel in Rosarito with one of his children, according to Baja prosecutors.

(Baja California Attorney General’s Office)

The couple exchanged text messages early in the morning on Aug. 9. She told him to take care of their children. But by then, the children were already dead — farm workers had discovered their bodies that morning in a ditch off a Rosarito highway.

Coleman, who attended Point Loma Nazarene University as an undergrad, was arrested as he tried to drive back into the U.S. through the San Ysidro Port of Entry.