It's hard for Stanisha Hester to believe accusations that 31-year-old Raynard Deshawn Coleman may be the serial rapist on Detroit's northeast side. Coleman was her childhood friend.
"When I heard of that on Facebook it was like a shock because he was one of the sweetest guys," she said. "He was very respectful. If he did do this maybe he started drugs or something that had his mind wrapped up but when he was around me he was always a gentleman."
Hester and Coleman grew up in the same east Detroit neighborhood and attended the same elementary school. They corresponded while he was incarcerated for 14 years. Even then, she didn't see him as the 14-year-old convicted felon on assault and robbery charges.
"Back then, it probably was like peer pressure and him just hanging with the wrong crowd," she said. "He was hanging with older guys and maybe it was that. When he was in school he wasn't like the thug or hardcore guy."
After Coleman's 2009 release from prison, Hester spent time helping him look for jobs by driving him to interviews or giving him bus fare if she couldn't drive him. The two talked on the phone everyday.
"We talked about if we were going to be together. I told him at the time I didn't want that."
Hester says she was involved with someone else at the time and was not interested in a romantic relationship with Coleman but did remain friends with him. On occasion he visited her house.
"When he came over, he spent the night and never tried to force himself on me," she said. "I just know him as the gentleman he was with me."
Mother of Detroit Serial Rapist Suspect Talks to FOX 2: MyFoxDETROIT.com
As a friend, Hester said she wanted to help Coleman get back on his feet because he was really excited to start his life over.
"He was talking like he was glad he's out with his family and he's going to stay out; he's going to try to do right; he's not going to sell drugs," she said. "He never talked negative. He always stayed positive."
After a few months of getting reacquainted with Coleman, Hester moved out of the neighborhood and lost touch with him. She said she saw him a couple times in 2010; once at a Michigan Works employment office and a couple times at a nightclub they frequented. Each time they saw each other she said he appeared to be that same guy trying to better his life.
"He had a couple interviews but they always denied him because of his felony charges," she said. "He was saying 'I'm not used to depending on nobody'."
Coleman would also still try to pursue a serious relationship with Hester and although she never entertained his advances, she understood his desire to progress their friendship.
"I was one of his first girlfriends and I kept in touch while he was locked up," she said. "When I told him we couldn't be together he didn't get upset like most guys do. He was like can we try to work on a friendship and once I get myself together can we try then."
The last time Hester saw Coleman was August 2010 at the night club, Club Z. True to form he greeted her, asked for her new contact information and if they could go on a date.
"He was laid-back," she said. "He wasn't like the young guys rowdy in the club. He was just sitting in the corner with his drink."
The positive, respectful, consistent, hardworking man Hester thought she knew is back in jail, awaiting trial, facing multiple life sentences for sexual misconduct and kidnapping. She still can't believe it.
Jazmine Steele is a freelance journalist in the city of Detroit. She is the arts and culture reporter for The Michigan Citizen Newspaper and founder of www.NoBaddNews.com She can be reached on Twitter @jazzsteele