Charles Troy Coleman (March 15, 1947 – September 10, 1990) was an American convicted murderer and suspected serial killer who was executed in 1990 by the state of Oklahoma. He was convicted in 1979 of the murder of John Seward, who, along with his wife, was killed by a shotgun blast in rural Muskogee County, when they interrupted a robbery at a relative's house. He also murdered Russell E. Lewis in a fatal carjacking in 1979 and is suspected of murdering the father of his former girlfriend in 1975. Despite killing at least three people, he was never convicted of the murder of Seward's wife and his sentence for Lewis's murder was overturned. Coleman was sentenced to death for the murder of John Seward and was executed after almost twelve years on death row at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary. He was executed via lethal injection at the age of 43 after exhausting all appeals. He became the first person to be executed in Oklahoma since the 1966 electrocution of James Donald French after the United States Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1976, and the first person in Oklahoma to be executed by lethal injection. Early life Coleman was born on March 15, 1947, in Muskogee, Oklahoma. He was one of eight siblings born into a low-income family that moved states frequently. His parents spent most of their money on alcohol. Coleman was described as a career criminal who had a lengthy criminal history on record. His criminal career began as early as age 11 when he stabbed a mule while gigging frogs with his brother. He then escaped from jail by slipping through the bars of his cell. His father later punished him for the offense by whipping him. At age 13, Coleman ran away from home. At age 15, he committed a burglary, and one month later, he escaped from a juvenile court after pulling a gun on an officer. At age 16, he got married, and the couple moved around all over the country, estimating to live in at least twenty states. Coleman continued to commit crimes and built up a lengthy rap sheet of offenses in multiple states. His offenses included: burglary, grand theft, auto larceny, carrying a concealed weapon, assault with a deadly weapon, and receiving stolen property. Murders On August 24, 1975, 44-year-old Will Stidham was found dead inside his pickup truck in