WATERLOO — Sheri Coleman and her two sons had no drugs in their bodies the day they were strangled, a coroner's jury was told on Friday.

The six-member jury, as expected, classified the deaths as homicides by ligature strangulation at an inquest on Friday. Toxicology tests on the victims were negative, meaning drugs played no role in the May 5 murders.

Columbia, Ill., Police Chief Joe Edwards testified before the jury, and reiterated statements he made last month at a preliminary hearing.

The inquest, held in the Monroe County courthouse, has no bearing on the criminal case against Christopher Coleman, who was Sheri Coleman's husband and the father of the boys. It's a common but not mandatory hearing in which a jury classifies the manner of death as natural, accident, homicide, suicide or undetermined.

Edwards said police arrived at the Coleman home in Columbia to check on the family's welfare after Christopher Coleman had called police from a gym. He had said he was alarmed that he couldn't reach his family.

Police arrived shortly before 7 a.m. and entered the home through an open basement window. Inside, Edwards testified, police saw obscene messages spray painted in red on the home's walls. In the upstairs bedrooms, Sheri, 31, and sons Garett, 11, and Gavin, 9, were found strangled.

Edwards said an obscene message was spray painted on the sheet covering Gavin.

Christopher Coleman, 32, has been charged with three counts of first-degree murder. Authorities allege he staged the deaths after sending anonymous threats to his family shortly after he began a sexual relationship with a friend of Sheri Coleman's in Florida. The two planned to marry next year, according to search warrants.

Coleman, who is the former security chief for televangelist Joyce Meyer, said he was getting threats related to his work for the ministry, police said.

Police say a forensic pathologist consulted on the case said the victims were killed between 11 p.m. and 3 a.m., but not later than 5 a.m. Coleman told police his wife was alive when he left their home about 5:45 a.m. for the gym in south St. Louis County.

The trial is expected to be held sometime next year. Kris Reitz, the Monroe County state's attorney, has yet to say whether he will seek the death penalty.

Art Margulis, a Clayton attorney representing Christopher Coleman, attended the inquest on Friday.

Margulis said he is considering a motion to move the trial from Monroe County. But, he said, the case has attracted national attention, and that people all over Illinois have heard about it.

"I'm not sure where we can go," Margulis said.