Daniel Coppola, of St. James, charged with gunning down ex-wife and her boyfriend, plotted midnight attack in 'excruciating detail,' ADA says

The St. James man charged with gunning down his ex-wife and her boyfriend in their home while police said his 15-year-old daughter waited in his car outside plotted his attack "in excruciating detail" in a typewritten planning note, Suffolk County prosecutors said Friday.

Daniel Coppola, 50, who pleaded not guilty to two counts of murder at his Friday arraignment, even plotted to kill the lawyers involved in his contentious divorce, including his own, Suffolk Assistant District Attorney Eric Aboulafia said at the hearing.

Suffolk police said Thursday that Coppola texted the daughter who was staying with his ex-wife, Kelly Coppola, 50, and her boyfriend, Kenneth Pohlman Jr., 53, in their home on Brasswood Road in St. James and beckoned her to come out of the house shortly before midnight Wednesday.

Coppola then shot his way through the lock on the front door and went upstairs, where he "ambushed and executed" them in the hallway, Aboulafia said.

"He put a premeditated plan into action" while the daughter waited in the car, the prosecutor said. Aboulafia did not identify the teen, but referred to her as an uninvolved witness.

"The uninvolved witness not only placed the suspect at the scene, but she heard the gunshots that took their lives," he said.

The teen placed a 911 call saying she was being taken from her mother’s home, officials said.

Coppola then drove the teen back to his Harbor Road address where he threatened to take his own life with the gun.

The girl again called 911 for help over her father’s suicidal threats, prompting police to respond to Harbor Road where, according to Aboulafia, he was recorded on a police officer’s body camera admitting to the killings.

Police arrived at the Brasswood Road address where they found the door forced open and the couple dead of gunshot wounds.

An investigation of Coppola’s home found a semiautomatic pistol, prosecutors said. They also found a planning document — "a typewritten letter describing in excruciating detail" what he planned to do and justifying his action, "blaming his financial woes on his ex-wife in an attempt to legitimize his actions," prosecutors said.

"The letter states that he had a bullet with the names of each of the attorneys involved in the case," Aboulafia said. "He even had a bullet for his own attorney."

Coppola wrote in the letter: "I am of sound mind and I know exactly what I am going to do."

Pohlman’s family filled up several rows of the Suffolk County courtroom. When Coppola appeared, wearing aqua-colored jail scrubs and handcuffs and manacles on his ankles, Tom Pohlman, the victim’s brother, loudly cursed at him.

The sobs of other family members filled the courtroom.

The prosecutor asked that Coppola be held without bail.

Defense lawyer David Jason Cohen entered the not guilty pleas and asked that his client be placed on suicide watch.

Coppola faces 50 years to life behind bars if convicted, the prosecutor said.

The district attorney’s office will present the case to a grand jury.

Coppola’s next court date is Sept. 3.

A criminal complaint states Coppola verbally admitted the killings. "I shot your mother and her boyfriend, I just killed two people," the court papers quote Coppola as saying.

The families of both victims spoke after the hearing about the love they said couple had for each other.

"They’ve been together for over a year and a half," the victim’s father Kenneth Pohlman Sr. said. "They were more than boyfriend and girlfriend. They were soul mates. He brought out the best of her and she brought the best out of him."

Kelly Coppola’s father, John Patton, also spoke of his daughter’s love of Kenneth.

"My daughter has never been so happy in her life, since she met his son, Kenny Pohlman. The joy radiated around her. She was smiling all the time," Patton said. "And to have this happen is such a tragedy. I can’t even speak. My whole family, his family, the sorrow we’re feeling is overwhelming. I just can’t get over it."

The families asked the public for their prayers and support as they make funeral plans.

"After we do lay him to rest, this nightmare will not be over, because we have to continue to go through the legal system and continue to see a sadistic animal every time we walk into this courtroom," brother Tom Pohlman said. "There is no amount of time [in prison] that will serve justice."