A Long Island divorcé who allegedly executed his ex-wife and her boyfriend in their million-dollar home kept bullets for other people he intended to kill, prosecutors revealed Friday during a dramatic court hearing interrupted by angry wails from grieving family members.
“F—ing murderer,” shouted one man as a handcuffed Daniel Coppola, 50, shuffled into a Suffolk County courtroom for his arraignment on second-degree murder charges.
Coppola coldly “ambushed and executed” his ex, Kelly Coppola, 50, and her boyfriend Kenneth Pohlman, 53, with a semi-automatic gun Wednesday night as they slept in the $1.1 million St. James home they shared, said Assistant District Attorney Eric Aboulafia.
“The man responsible for savagely taking their lives stands before you,” Aboulafia said.
The jealous ex-husband had typed out letters detailing his sick reasons for the murders, including blaming Kelly for financial woes, the prosecutor said, describing the findings of a warrant search at Coppola’s home.
The letters also said he had a bullet with the names of the lawyers involved in the divorce proceedings — “including his own attorney,” Aboulafia told the court.
Coppola’s rage was “crystal clear” in the pages of the letters, Aboulafia.
“The defendant stated in his letters that, ‘I am of sound mind, I know exactly what I am doing,’” he said.
Coppola carried out his “premeditated plan of murder” by texting someone in the house — his teen daughter, according to family members — and drawing them outside, Aboulafia said.
He told the teen to wait in the car, then shot open the house’s front door, authorities said.
Once Coppola forced his way inside, he confronted the couple in a hallway “and while they were in a state of undress, he fired on them with a semi-automatic handgun, taking their lives,” Aboulafia said.
Coppola told his terrified daughter, who had heard the gunshots, about the dastardly deed, according to the ADA and family members.
After cops arrested Coppola at his own St. James home, he was placed under a mental health evaluation for making suicidal threats.
He admitted to killing the couple, Aboulafia said.
Judge Jonathan Bloom ordered Coppola held without bail, and also placed him under suicide watch at the request of his defense attorney Joseph Cohen.
The shocking arraignment drew spectators, largely from Pohlman’s grieving family.
Their anguished sighs filled the courtroom, along with their shouts of “That jackass,” “I don’t want to see him” and “The murderer” as they waited for the hearing to begin.
The man who angrily shouted “F—ing murderer” was ordered out.
Pohlman’s father, Kenneth Pohlman Sr., told reporters outside the courtroom that the heinous killings deprived the couple of a “second chance” at life.
He noted his grandchildren had lost their mother 17 years ago — and now their father is gone after finding his “soulmate” in Kelly Coppola.
“They have been together for over a year and a half, and they are more a boyfriend and a girlfriend,” Pohlman Sr. said. “They were in love. They were soulmates, in their word.”
Family members said Daniel Coppola had been abusive and a “maniac” toward his ex-wife, from whom he had a bitter divorce.
Kelly finally found happiness like never before once she met Kenneth Pohlman, said her father, John Patton.
“The joy radiated around her, she was smiling all the time and to have this happen is such a tragedy,” he said. “I cannot even speak — my whole family, his family, the sorrow we are feeling is overwhelming. I just can’t get over this.”
