WATERLOO • The prosecution laid out most of its case in court last week in the first-degree murder trial of Christopher Coleman, accused of strangling his wife and two sons in their home in Columbia, Ill. The bodies were found May 5, 2009.

Here is a synopsis:

MONDAY

Monroe County State's Attorney Kris Reitz laid out allegations that Coleman, now 34, planned for months to kill his wife Sheri, 31, and sons Garett, 11, and Gavin 9, to start a new life with a girlfriend in Florida. He said Coleman, a bodyguard for televangelist Joyce Meyer, feared he would lose his job if he got divorced.

Reitz said Coleman left for a workout at a gym in St. Louis County about 5:43 a.m. the day the bodies were found. Coleman called a police officer who lived across the street, Justin Barlow, to check his home when nobody there answered the phone. Barlow and another officer, Jason Donjon, entered through an open basement window, saw menacing messages written in red spray paint on the walls and discovered the bodies in their beds.

Also Monday, defense attorney William Margulis told jurors there was no conclusive proof the victims were dead before Christopher Coleman left home.

Presentation of evidence began with graphic photos of the victims, strangled with a ligature.

Dr. Raj Nanduri, the forensic pathologist who performed the autopsies, testified that she could not pinpoint a time of death. But under questioning from Reitz, she said she could only speculate from liver temperatures that it was between 3 and 5 a.m.

TUESDAY

Dr. Michael Baden, a nationally noted forensic pathologist, said his examination of autopsy photos and reports led him to conclude that the murders occurred about 3 a.m. That's almost three hours before Coleman left for the workout. The defense tried to shake Baden's testimony, pointing out that he never saw the bodies in person, but he was resolute.

Also Tuesday, prosecutors played part of the police interrogation recording of Christopher Coleman, made the day the bodies were found, in which he described buying snow cones for the boys the night before, playing catch with them and watching a movie with his wife.

WEDNESDAY

Prosecutors played the rest of the interrogation recording, in which Coleman dismissed Tara Lintz as just a friend but admitted later in the tape that they "got together a couple of times, but I wouldn't call it an affair."

On tape, Illinois State Police Detective David Bivens bores in hard on Coleman, telling him detectives knew he killed his family. But Coleman steadfastly denies it.

Barlow testified about finding the bodies and said that upon arriving at the scene, Coleman never asked police how his family was killed.

THURSDAY

Tara Lintz, 33, of Largo, Fla., once Sheri Coleman's best friend, testified that she and Christopher Coleman struck up a sexual relationship in late 2009. She was not questioned on whether she had any knowledge of his alleged plans for murder or the status of their relationship now. She did acknowledge that during the affair they had exchanged "promise rings," and she wore hers to court.

Also Thursday, prosecutors introduced evidence of sexually charged photos and videos made by Lintz and Christopher Coleman.

FRIDAY

Televangelist Joyce Meyer testified on a recording, made earlier for her convenience, that an affair could have cost Christopher Coleman his job but she did not know he had a mistress. Meyer's son, Dan, a ministry executive, told the court he called a Florida number that showed up repeatedly on Coleman's cellphone and hung up when a woman answered.

Also Friday, several friends of Sheri Coleman testified that she was trying to save her marriage but thought that she and her sons "are in the way" of his plans. When one witness said Christopher Coleman had beaten his wife, the defense objected, and Judge Milton Wharton told jurors to ignore it.