HAMPTON, Va. - Margaret Eaddy knows the unbearable pain of losing her son, Johnathan Bradley Coles. Coles was murdered in 2014 by Kwaume Edwards.
Edwards is currently serving his prison sentence.
“It hurts every single second of the day,” said Eaddy. “Every day is a trying day for me - whether I still want to live.”
She turned to art in 2019 as a way to cope and now has her artwork hung at the Art Central Gallery on E. Mellen Street in Hampton.
Eaddy started an online support group for other mothers who have lost children to violence.
She encourages other people who are suffering to reach out as soon as possible.
“It will put you in a place that is so dark that you don’t know if you can make it or not,” said Eaddy.
Eaddy has an art show coming up November 18-19 from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. at the Art Central Gallery. The show is called, “A Black Light Affair: A mother’s way out of the darkness of gun violence homicide.”
News 3 covered the case when Edwards was arrested after a standoff with police. He was then found guilty of killing Coles.
But it wasn’t the first time this man has been arrested for murder.
News 3 investigates uncovered Edwards' long criminal history. He’s been arrested for murder four separate times.
Back in 2006, he was arrested in York County for murder, according to records.
The victim was 29-year-old Michael Tyler. Edwards and his cousin were both convicted of the murder in 2007.
They were both sentenced to decades in prison, but months into his sentence, a judge overturned the conviction, and Edwards was free.
Four years later in July 2011, Edwards was arrested for murder again. The victim was 21-year-old Ricky Calloway, who was murdered in Hampton.
However, prosecutors moved to have the charges against him dropped.
While locked up for Coles' murder, there were arrests announced for a Norfolk cold case. Edwards was one of four men accused of killing Christopher Cummings, the nephew of late Baltimore Congressman Elijah Cummings, in 2011.
Eaddy said she was not shocked by the latest arrest but alarmed.
Prison records state that Edwards is eligible to get out in 2029.
He has a court hearing scheduled for December 1 in Norfolk for the Cummings case.
