2 Parents Dead in 2 Years: The Collin Griffith Case

Hi, I'm Karen Slaughter. If you love untangling mysteries and uncovering the truth behind what really happened, I think you'll love "The Good Daughter." Charlie, go! Sam! Now my best-selling novel is finally coming to life, and I got to write every episode. You should have died in them woods. Your father should have been a better shot. Starring Rose Byrne, Megan Fahey, and Brendan Gleeson. From page to screen, don't miss "The Good Daughter," now streaming only on Peacock. I'm here, Charlie, and I'm not going away. On "Prime Crime". My mom's bleeding out. I just can't hit her up. I need you to get her to the hospital. We're gonna send an end on it. She doesn't have time. She needs to go now. a frantic call to 911 after an argument turns fatal. There is just incident after incident where anybody looking at this in hindsight is thinking to themselves, "Dear God, how is this allowed to continue?" As the story unfolds, the past begins to surface. She thinks that I'm, like, psychotic. Like, literally a psychopath, sociopath, something like that. She thinks I'm gonna kill her. What seems like a tragic accident soon raises serious questions. She said, "They blowin' my hair. You're hurting me." He opened the door and pulled her in. Ultimately, the truth, or something close to it, would be determined inside the courtroom. I'm not a psychopath. I'm not this murderer. I'm just trying to peacefully leave or peacefully coexist. There comes a certain point, ladies and gentlemen, where that last drop of blood came out of her, and she died and left this earth knowing that her son butchered her. ♪♪ Hi there, everybody, I'm Jesse Weber, and welcome to "Prime Crime," where we break down some of the most compelling and memorable true crime cases from across the country. A teenage son, a mother fatally stabbed, and a desperate call for help initiates a death investigation in southwest Florida that is anything but straightforward. And it leads detectives asking, was this simply a mistake, a deadly pattern, or something else entirely? 911, let's see if you can address the emergency. Uh, I don't know if this can be addressed. My mom is talking to EGMS now. She's bleeding now. Please help. September 8, 2024. 17-year-old Colin Griffith calls 911 to report that his mother, 39-year-old Katherine Griffith, is bleeding out on the floor of his grandmother's Polk County home. I can't hit her up. Okay. Okay, listen, you called 911, so we're going to send an ambulance. She's bleeding. She failed. She needs to go now. Where is she bleeding from, sir? She's bleeding from the neck, ma'am. Is the blood spurting or pouring out? No. Okay. She's terrible. What caused the bleeding? She got into a tight end. We won't get any of it now if you keep going on it. When Colin first calls 911, he, he says that he's essentially attacked by his mother, that she had a knife, that she fell onto it and stabbed herself. By all accounts, the 911 call does seem that Colin is in genuine emotional distress. Who is she getting a fight with? She just came out and made it out. We got to go find her. Is she awake? No, she's unconscious. She's not with us. Okay. Is she breathing? No, no, she's not. I told you, she's alive. There's no more blood coming out of the wound, being lost at all. I tried to save her. There will be some people who say he does not sound emotional enough. There will be some people who think that he sounds emotional enough. Usually, that's not something that carries the day in a criminal case because it's really difficult to play Monday morning quarterback on somebody else's emotions in an emergency. Law enforcement shows up. EMS shows up, and with every neck stab wound, there's a lot of blood. You have major blood passageways that go through the neck. The blood spatter is just horrific. They find Kathy in a large pool of blood. But it's too late. Katherine is declared dead at the scene. As the cops arrived, Colin takes the fifth. He says nothing. So it's statements on the 911 call. End of story. He invokes his rights. Colin says she fell on it, but we don't know what happened. They have to secure the scene. That's always important. Also, to look around, photograph the scene. Is there signs of struggle? What kinds of signs? You try and get devices, DNA analysis. They may do cell towers. There probably wasn't much of a dispute as to how the two individuals got to that. But the more methodical and the more careful that the investigative team for law enforcement is, the better the body of evidence that they're going to have. Right away, something about Colin's story isn't quite adding up. The autopsy is done, and the medical examiner evaluates the wound, and his conclusion is there is virtually no way that somebody could fall on a knife and have this type of deep, life-threatening injury. Sam! I wrote a little song to remind you, Choice Hotels gets you more of the experiences you value. The Cambria Hotel's got it all. A rooftop bar, have a ball. Bring a date, your squad, or even your mom. Book direct at choicehotels.com. Cut laceration. This is way, way, way more likely to be the result of an actual human being attempting to cut somebody's neck. This wound went through her trachea, her windpipe. It went through the food. It went through her food pipe. It went through her carotid artery. And you could see the floor through the wound. So this is not some mere glancing blow. This is a massive wound to the side of her neck. Katherine's death sparks a criminal investigation, setting off a flood of uncertainty. Detectives turn to those closest to Colin and Katherine. My parents were both military officers. My mom was horribly abusive. Kathy, she was about 13. And Chuck, her ex-husband, just latched onto her. Kathy started running away to be with Chuck. We found out that she was pregnant shortly after one of her many runaway incidences. So they end up getting married. And she's married at a really young age, 14. He's, what, now 17, 18 at that point? No. He was 19 when he got her pregnant at 13. I hope I'm painting a real good picture for you. Yeah, I'm good. Listen, there's no good guy in this story of Colin Griffith's life. This case has no shortage of strange kind of extraneous details that go along with it. Kathy Griffith had children very young. Colin was not her first child. She was 14 when she had her first kid. Growing up, it was a little difficult because, you know, you're being raised by teens. My mother and father were-- were both teachers. A little before Christmas, 2018, my mother and father decided to split. As far as I knew, my mother signed away her rights completely with my brother. My father took my brother. I decided to stay with my mom. She was split from her husband. You know, he was in Oklahoma. And she was down in Port Charlotte in Florida. Susan Dettman, his grandmother, lived in this place called the Hamptons, a 55-year and older place, where ultimately, you know, the incident occurred at Auburndale, about two hours away. She wasn't there at the time. She was down at another residence she had in the Florida Keys. We know from Kathy Griffith's social media page that she was not terribly out of the ordinary. There's a lot of pictures of her at the beach, at dinner. And there's nothing overt that shows she was excessively troubled or that-- she was really struggling with any big issues. We know that Colin spent about three years with his dad, living far away from Kathy. And by all accounts, that really troubled her. She wanted a relationship with him. And she seemed to be eager to get him back when he came back to live with her. The relationship between my mom and dad, chaotic, I would say. say. There was allegedly my dad having an affair. Police always showing up at our house. - Talk to me about your relationship with Colin as you guys started progressing in age. - His normal brother-on-brother stuff didn't really talk to him a whole lot. - So what was the catalyst of him wanting to move a dad? - He was just afraid of my mom. He saw how, I guess, toxic she could be. Plus, you know, he wanted to be near my dad's side of the family. - It really was a stormy relationship. Colin, he was already a troubled youth. - This child, I think, is clear, had real issues and problems, perhaps, of his own, but superimposed on the family relationship, which really can only be classified as toxic. That was really a formula for disaster here. - And as detectives dig into the family's past. - Is Colin your grandson? - Yes. - Where is his father at? - Dead. - The more concerning the details become. - What happened as far as the relationship between Katherine and Colin after his father passed? - So Kathy went to be with him in Oklahoma for 30 days. When he got here, in the beginning, it was fine. And then Kathy started harping on that he wasn't doing his chores, that he was being disobedient. He didn't want to do what Kathy told him to do. - So they start having problems, he comes here. - Yes. - At one point he said that he was just going berserk. - What happened to the point where mom had to get him institutionalized? What happened for him to be Baker Acted or go to these facilities? - I don't recall, I really don't. - The Baker Act is for mental illness, the involuntary placement of someone up to 72 hours in order to see if they could be involuntarily committed as a danger to themselves or others. - There's so much to unpack in this, and investigators are now looking at all of this, all of this information and trying to piece together, how could this have possibly happened? - The relationship seems as normal as can be expected. A mother and son navigating life amidst difficult adjustments. Until detectives begin to peel the layers and uncover an even more troubled past, revealing a series of other disturbing incidents with Colin at the center. - Do you think your anger's fine? - Yes, it's just that someone attacks me, that's all I have. - That didn't happen, though, I was there. He went after the phone, and the next thing I know, she's on the floor. - No, no, she's with me, she got on the phone. - I didn't see that, Colin, I really didn't. - This anger, just like, was unbelievable. I said, your mama's gonna lay down the law. I said, do you wanna be a Marine? You're gonna have to learn. People are gonna get in your face and make things, I said, you've got to learn to control yourself. - In the aftermath of Catherine Griffith's unexpected death, investigators are closely examining the dynamic between her and her son, Colin Griffith, who says she died after falling on a knife during an argument. But the curtain is pulled back, revealing far more complicated aspects of the relationship. - The summer. - The summer of? - 23. - 23. It's when they started not getting along. - When we say issues, is it mothers or son, like, mother-child issues? Like, what type of issues? - Not big issues. - Yeah, like typical everyday life that a mother and a kid would go through. - Yeah. - Don't do the dishes. - They weren't putting their hands on each other. - No, no. - That's when the issues started, when he either baker-outed himself or she hadn't baker-outed. - Right. Once Catherine Griffith took custody of her son, it would appear she made every attempt to make up for lost time for those years that he was with his father. And subsequently-- ♪ ♪ - Hi, I'm Karen Slaughter. If you love untangling mysteries and uncovering the truth behind what really happened, I think you'll love "The Good Daughter." - Charlie, go! - Sam! ♪ ♪ Now my best-selling novel is finally coming to life, and I got to write every episode. - You should've died in them woods. - Your father should've been a better shot. - Starring Rose Byrne, Megan Fahey, and Brendan Gleeson. - I'm here, Charlie, and I'm not going away. - "Choice Hotels" gets you more of what you value. Here's a little tune to help you remember. ♪ Same drive, different day ♪ ♪ Don't you wish you were getting away ♪ ♪ Pack your bags and come on through ♪ ♪ Texas, Ohio, Alaska, we're up there, too ♪ ♪ Comfort Inn ♪ ♪ It's calling your name ♪ ♪ Save on the stay ♪ ♪ Oh, and free waffles are yours to claim ♪ ♪ Well, I hope you like my little song ♪ ♪ Book direct at choicehotels.com ♪ - I went to her taking him in. There started to be quite a few disturbances at the house. - Depending on who you ask, Kathy Griffith was either an unstable, violent, abusive mother, or she was a mother who wasn't perfect, but was trying to do right by her son, and she was making steps to try and impose some kind of discipline. - Does he have an issue with authority? Not wanting to be told what to do and how to do it? Like, I know she has his issues, like he's not doing chores, he's not listening to her, you know, typical-- - So, yes, because he never had to do anything before. - Yeah. - For three years. - So he's struggling with, like, the disciplinary part of being structured. - Right, exactly. - And then when he gets aggravated or doesn't want to follow those rules, how does he react to that? - Usually Kathy, like, throws him out, or says, you know, you're grounded, I'm gonna take everything away from you. Usually he would, like, go to work or get in his car or close his door and play video games. - What is tragic here is that connection never happened. And I think what is clear in the exchanges is that, you know, while her responses and interactions with him perhaps became increasingly violent or antagonistic, it probably shows a level of frustration on both sides. - What about knives or anything like that? Did he ever have any issues with knives? - He took a knife from me one time and I told him, I said, "Why do you have this knife?" He said, "I have it just in case." - In case of what? - I don't know. - Kathy's complaints about some of Colin's behavior are captured on Ring doorbell audio recordings. - I don't think you know how to scalp a yard. I think you're, like, weed-whacking it instead of, like, mowing it. - Oh, and I love you, but in case you'd like to know, my ice cream, my ice maker is broken because of you. - I started going through his room. It was a complete and total mess. He had everywhere. He didn't even go to sleep last night because he wanted to pop the ring. I had dinner for him waiting that I had bought for him. - And I said, "Colin, you know what? "You have a great life. "The fact that you don't even do your own sheets, "you don't even clean your own bathroom, "all of the things that I've told him to do for a while, "he doesn't do, and he just looks at me?" - We know that there were periods of time where Colin and Kathy were getting along. We know that they went on cruises. We know that she tried to give him, you know, a quote-unquote "normal life." So it's really hard to know exactly what the day-to-day dynamic was. They clearly had blow-ups. - I love you, and I'm telling you right now, I already told Colin. He said, "You leave, you do this, "I'm hitting everybody off. "I'm cheating my phone number "because I'm sick and tired of this. "This is. "This is. "I tried a little. "I'm sleeping. "Tried to be the nice mom. "Tried to do everything, "and he can just himself "with his little ATT phone "and figure out what the to do with life. "He has a trust fund. "He has a lawyer. "He can figure that out. "What's he gonna do, call DCFS and say that "I kicked him out? "Okay, fine." - And some recordings come from the day Kathryn died. - He didn't show up to work yesterday, and I said, "You wanna know where he went? "The movies. "And do you know what he's been doing all day "while he's at your house? "He's playing video games to 20 people." - Hi, Colin. This is your mom. I am just calling you because I know you talked to Detective Lacey. You were explaining the situation, and that if you don't come home, you are going to be charged with violating your probation. So I'm just warning you, I am on my way to you to pick you up because you're not allowed to be a mom on top, and I have every right to come and pick you up. - Colin's move to his mother's home marks the beginning of multiple encounters between the Griffiths and law enforcement. One particular incident nearly a year before Catherine's death in November, 2023 provides a glimpse into their strained history. - Put your hands on top of your head. You're not in trouble. You just wanna make sure you don't have any weapons. - I know you called Rentis for help, so I respect you for that. - I'm just fine, ma'am. - There were periods of time where these two were at each other. Cathy was apparently attempting to institute a little bit of discipline. She was gonna take his Xbox and his cell phone away because he wasn't following her house rules. - So, did you put her in a headlock? - No, no, no, no, not a headlock. It's, so basically, it's like when someone grabs onto you, what you do to get them off of you is you go like this, and you just, and then you just dash away and get away. - But where did the knee come in and all that? - When she grabbed onto me and she started going at me, I just instinctively, like, my knee went up, and I guess I hit her in the stomach. - There was some sort of a attempt by Catherine to reprimand her son and, or, try and discipline her son. She said he reacted by throwing her her to the ground, stomping on her. The grandmother witnessed it. He tried to argue it was self-defense and she said, "No, it was not self-defense." You can see how swollen my knuckles are. He literally like stomped on my hand to get the phone out of my hand. Let me see the inside of your hand. When did that happen? When he attacked me, like in the past 20, 30 minutes. We're supposed to go on a Thanksgiving cruise next Wednesday. And she said, "You're not going on the cruise. I'm going to try to find someplace impatient for you." What set him off, mainly when she's like, "You're not going on the Thanksgiving cruise?" Oh, yes. And then he stood up and was like, "Let's do it." No, after the Thanksgiving cruise, she said, "And you being a Marine, that's not going to happen. You're going to end up in jail or you're going to be a drug addict like your dad unless you change. You have got to change. And that's what set him off." Police then get Colin's side of the story. Yeah. Yeah. I walked into the house with my grandma behind me. I bent under the phone, put on the kitchen table, and then we started eating. She got up and was looking at me. She was very upset that I referred to her as a psychopath and all that. And then she said that I have no idea what that really looks like and I'm about to learn. That's when we got in a bit of an argument. She told me to shut up. I didn't shut up. She hit me in the face. She grabbed onto me. I grabbed onto her. My knee went up, hit her. We were kind of tussling until I used a wrestling move that I know how to do. And that's when I got out of the house. And being arrested or detained? At this point, you're being placed under arrest for domestic battery. They gave me bracelets, but they said I couldn't keep them. Oh, that's too bad. After Colin is charged with domestic battery, he spends a night in jail. He's released the next day, but a second call comes just hours later. So I'm out at Colin Griffith's house. I know that you were called last night. I get a call from Joella this morning who gets a call from the jail that he was released. He said, if you put me in the car, this is what he tells the jail staff, he puts me in the car, I'm going to kill her. If you send me back to that house, I'll probably kill her. His statements to the police when he's basically being released from custody after he's arrested, he's afraid he's going to do something to her if nothing changes. That is a really telling piece of this. He says those disturbing things, what I would classify as cries for help. It raises, first of all, a question, did the system fail Colin and failed Katherine? The Cambria Hotel's got it all, a rooftop bar, have a ball. Date your squad or even your mom. We're all here, it's family. Presence for the ones you love and run. Also underscoring, what are the limits of what a system can do in our interactions with each other, even family members? How intrusive can this be? The system really be? She thinks that I'm like psychotic, like literally psychopath, sociopath, something like that. She thinks I'm going to kill her, that I want to kill her, that I want to be the **** out of her. Do you? No, sir. Okay. I don't want to hurt anyone, let alone my mom. When the jail was releasing you to your mom this morning, was there anything said then? Yeah, I said that I didn't really feel safe there with myself and with her. I didn't know what was going to happen. I still don't know what's going to happen. As far as what? Her attacking me or her doing something to herself or me. Okay. What about you doing something to her? I'm in a constant state of fight or flight and I don't know if I think she's going to do something. Even if she's not, I might act. He didn't want to be in that situation. He was asking for people to remove him. Now, he wasn't saying I'm a killer. And I'm going to go out there and kill. What he's saying is our relationship is so bad, we're going to get into some sort of an argument or a confrontation that's going to end badly. She thinks that I'm an emotionless, narcissistic, murderous. This is the second time today. Okay. Is this an arrest or a Baker Act? This is a Baker Act. The deputies decided to Baker Act him, to force an intervention because they determined he was a danger to his mother. He told the jail staff he wants to kill his mom. He's not staying here now. Because we want what's right for him. I understand. But we have an obligation to protect him. I understand. And protect him. We have to protect both. Because even though he didn't threaten to harm himself, he threatened to harm his mom. I know. He beat the on us. I know. And with all due respect, you can't have them here last night where you were fearful, and then four hours later, you're recording. Recording's not helping you when he chokes you out. And what's the recording going to do? What's the recording? It's not bringing you back. You'll still be dead. What we know about Kathy Griffith, for sure, is that she wanted Colin back with her, that they had a very fraught relationship. But she kept at it. She did not put him in foster care. She didn't try and give him up. There's a lot of discord. There is a lot of violence. And there is just incident after incident where anybody looking at this in hindsight is thinking to themselves, "Dear God, how is this allowed to continue?" If we don't do something, then-- Shame on us. Yeah, then we're not-- Shame on us. Then we fail. Then we do our job, and we failed you. And I'm not failing you, nor am I going to fail your son. The veil shrouding Colin's past begins to lift, and that's when we find out about what happened to Colin's father. How long ago was your dad passed? I'm sorry to hear that, by the way. Seven months. Seven months. He attacked me, my dad. And when he did, he tried to kill me with a knife. And then it was in Oklahoma, and he died. I shot him. You never had a conversation with him whatsoever about what took place? A part of you never wanted to know? Because I didn't know how I'd react. Because if he just flat out admitted it to me, right, like, "Oh, yeah, I did it intentionally," I would-- I don't know what I'd do. While detectives work to understand what led to the death of Katherine Griffith, they speak with Colin Griffith's brother, Christopher. While detectives work to understand what led to the death of Catherine Griffith, they speak with Colin Griffith's brother, Christopher. brother Christopher, Catherine's firstborn, and Susan Detman, Catherine's mother, in the hopes of getting a clearer picture. But what they have to say is even more shocking. Is Colin your grandson? Yes. Where is his father at? Dead. His father's deceased? Okay, what happened with his father? He killed him. Law enforcement finds out that he is living with Kathy because his father has passed away. And the reason that his father passed away is that Colin shot him two years or so before his mother dies. How did that happen? There were 23 guns in the house and Colin felt threatened because I guess the father had a knife in his hand. I mean, I wasn't there. This is how the story goes. He had a knife in his hand. He got back into like a wall or a corner and all those guns were loaded. So he picked it up and that was it. Colin was living with his dad in Oklahoma. This one appeared to go into a pretty volatile relationship. His father was controlling. His father may have been involved in keeping him from seeing his mother as often as she should have seen him, maybe interfering in their custody arrangements. My papa told me that something has happened with your dad. He's like, your brother shot him. I'm like, he shot him? Like, okay. I'm thinking, okay, like, were they hunting? Like, was this like an accident? He was 15 at the time. And the authorities there in Oklahoma thought that he had committed a murder. During Christmas, my dad had made the comment that my brother had came out as bisexual or gay. And Colin did make comments about, you know, like him being gay and everything and how my dad reacted. And I'm like, okay, is he hitting you? Is he like doing anything? He's like, no, just, he's not very accepting of it. But that was it. He was initially brought in on it, but ultimately the district attorney decided that they couldn't disprove his claim of self-defense and therefore cut him loose. He's not brought to trial on it. It is considered to be a legitimate self-defense kill. My mom told me that my dad had chased Colin with a knife. Right? And my brother shot him. And I'm like, that's right. Like, my dad would never try to kill Colin with a knife. Like, it just doesn't make sense. Does she communicate with you about anything Colin may have told her or confided in her? That he was supposedly being abused and my dad flipped a gasket, chased Colin with a knife. The question then becomes, does that set of factors come in to the second case that he had killed someone at age 15 and the circumstances of that? Law enforcement is now looking at the situation and seeing we have a now 17-year-old boy who a couple years prior had killed his father in self-defense. He's gone back with his mother, has been arrested for a domestic incident with his mother, and then she ends up dead. Fast forward to the incident in September 2024. In talking with Catherine's mother, investigators gain insight about the day Catherine died. Have you ever seen mom put her hands on Colin? I have never been there, but Colin says that she has. She spanked him with a belt several times. Then she made him do push-ups and hold a bar, like a weight over his head. As a form of discipline? Yes. On Saturday, she called me at 11 and said, I threw him out. And I said, you can't. If you love untangling mysteries and uncovering the truth behind what really happened, I think you'll love The Good Daughter. Charlie, go! Sam! From page to screen, don't miss The Good Daughter, now streaming only on Peacock. Mmm. Cocktails up here feel just right. It's Cambria amazing, all right. Bring a date, your team, or even your mom. See you on the roof. You can't throw your kid out. Fluffy calls me and texts me all Saturday. Like yesterday? Yes. I'm selling his car to CarMax. I'm disenrolling him from school. I'm taking away his computer, and I'm cutting off his phone. There was a fight between Colin and his mother. Colin left the house, and he drove from their home to where his grandmother lived. And he was basically staying there to get away from his mother. And she texts threats, really. And she goes to Colin that she's going to tell about some conversations he had that were damning for him with regard to the death of his father. She was threatening to take certain privileges, take certain property, things like that, away from him. She gets in the car, and she goes to him. What time did she head up here today? I think she started out at 2, maybe 2.30. And that was because she was going to come pick him up? Yeah, she said, I'm going to come and get him. I told Colin, your mom's going to be there. I said, don't touch her. Be nice. Then they decided, OK. Colin even sent me a text and said, I'm going with mom. And then they never responded back to you? No. When she gets there, she slams the door. And she starts making enough of a ruckus that neighbors notice, at least one neighbor noticed. And as a result of that confrontation, they're having outside of the grandmother's residence, he grabs her. There's some confusion about whether by the hair, the shoulder, the neck, but pulls her in the house. Investigators are trying to build a case that Catherine's death may not have been accidental. But is Colin responsible, or simply caught in the chaos of a night that spiraled out of control? Colin made the statement that I don't want to go home. I'll use any force. necessary to avoid it, to include killing my mother. What kind of conversation were you guys having for him to bring up how he wanted to kill his mom? When she'd set down limits on behavior, he would not just rebel, he would become violent. The walls are closing in on Colin Griffith. Investigators say they have enough to move forward and charge him with the murder of his own mother. And they're taking the case to a grand jury, where an indictment could swiftly follow. This has got to go to a grand jury. Remember, grand jury, now it's a different standard, probable cause standard, lower standard, than beyond a reasonable doubt. You just need to have probable cause that a crime was committed, the defendant committed it. A lot of times minors don't get charged with the absolute hammer of murder in the first degree. It might be murder in the second degree, because there's a little bit of leeway given to people who, you know, are effectively children. I think there's a decent chance that the history, both the domestic history between Colin and Kathy, as well as the history of Colin killing his father, both weighed in. And I think the witness statements of his actions outside of his grandmother's house weighed in. And certainly just the scene in the kitchen. This is a kid who's 17 years old. It's very, very serious potential outcomes for a case like this. A grand jury is convinced. And just three days after Katherine's death, Sheriff Grady Judd steps in front of the cameras, making it official. Colin Griffith is in custody. It all started on September the 8th, which was this last Sunday, when we got a 911 call from Colin Griffith, who's 17 years of age. He said he and his mother had a very serious relationship. It was a very long fight, and she fell on a knife. When the deputies arrived, he was calm, cool, collected, not upset, and he had blood on him. The medical examiner said it is not reasonable or plausible that she died the way he said she did. Florida's kind of notorious for charging juveniles as adults. In adults. In adult court, part of that is that if someone is charged as a juvenile, the state of Florida only has jurisdiction over them until they're 21. The only difference between being charged as a juvenile with first-degree murder and an adult is that juveniles are no longer eligible for the death sentence. He's being charged with first-degree murder, obviously, and we're asking the state attorney's office, it's their decision, but our state attorney's office is the greatest to prosecute him. And so the next chapter begins, as the prosecution's case is put to the ultimate test in front of a jury. She gave everything that she had, including her life, to try to take care of the defendant. You heard him on the ring video and how he talked to his mom? Disrespectful. Absolutely. Charlie, go! Sam! Choice Hotels gets you more of what you value. Comfort Inn. It's calling your name. Save on the stay. Oh, and free waffles are yours to claim. But that doesn't make him a murderer. He said, I am so tired of these two ****, I'm disgusted. He said, my mom, I keep thinking over and over, I want to slit her throat. In January 2025, Colin Griffith goes on trial. The legal battle between the state and the defense goes beyond guilt or innocence. It's a fight over the entire narrative of Catherine and Colin's relationship. It was a Sunday evening, September 8th of last year, in Auburndale, Florida. And it was at that time that the defendant viciously and savagely unleashed his full force. The trial itself has two very conflicting, very opposing narratives. You have the prosecution, whose theory of the case is that Kathy Griffith, not winning any Mother of the Year awards, but certainly trying to do right by her kid, who is in emotionally damaged, abusive terror. and eventually killed his mother in cold blood kathy was sick and tired of being disrespected sick and tired of doing everything for her son and basically told him get out until you can show me some respect he showed his intentions by his actions and by his words and what he said he was going to do he was going to kill that evil his own mom and so he did he's been violent in the past when you look at his own personal history i think the judge did a decent job of trying to permit the prosecutor to go into legally relevant evidence without going too far and making it unduly prejudicial the jury never heard who colin griffith killed in oklahoma but we all know sitting here today that it was his father i would imagine that the prosecutor fought hard to get in the fact that it was his father that was killed the judge ruled that no you cannot say it was his father you can only say that he killed somebody else in self-defense in oklahoma and then he moved to be with his mom the state calls a witness who knows colin better than most his grandfather although he's not there to defend him but rather to testify against him that there come a time when the defendant said something to you that was very disturbing to you yes my grandson was very aggravated at his grandmother and his mother he said i am so tired of these two i'm disgusted he said my mom i keep thinking over and over i want to slit her throat i want her to bleed out i want to smell the blood i want to feel the blood i want to feel the life and the blood leaving her body these are not normal statements that a child makes about their parents we can have arguments till the cows come home but i think most people would agree stating that he expressed a desire to see them bleed out that's not just being angry and saying you know i could kill her this is something more and the jury's got to determine whether or not that statement is even true i said colin i love everybody but you can't have those kinds of thoughts because you will cause them to become reality one by one state witnesses stepped forward painting a grim picture of the night catherine was stabbed what were they doing like in conjunction with each other well he was standing on the driver's side and then she was talking and her hands were going she says i heard her say let go of my hair you're hurting me and he reached up and opened the door and they went inside pulled her inside when you came into contact with a defendant how would you describe his demeanor he was emotionless is it a fair statement that he has no wounds on his hands at all right i did not see any wounds on his hands the problem in the state's case is she drives to him she was clearly angry with him she made threats at him but she wanted to fix it did that escalate in a way that in the past it's shown it escalated she was clearly angry with him she made threats at him but she wanted to fix it did that escalate in a way that in the past it's shown it escalated uh and got out of hand because all of a sudden the knife got between them when you look at the wound on the neck it would appear that it took quite some force jury instructions on intent in a murder case say that intent can be formed in an instant the premeditation in this case that they were really trying to show was the statements that he made about wanting to kill his mother splitting her throat saying to the grandmother oh i just want a peaceful life what was the manner of death in this case the manner of death is homicide this wound was inflicted by another person however the defense pushes back against the prosecution's case with intense cross-examination when was it that you say colin told you that he wanted to slit his mother's throat um i believe it was four months before she was murdered did you ever call the police about this statement that you claim colin made to you no colin told you multiple times that he didn't feel safe going home correct correct y'all kept saying you gotta go home you gotta go home because you didn't think he met the criteria to be re-baker acted right correct once he said i'm afraid i'll hurt or kill my mom or my grandma you guys immediately put him back in the facility right absolutely it's a homicidal statement right and that would that appeared to be his goal the whole time was to get put back in the facility rather than going home with mom i don't know what his intention was first thing from the defense side is you start with the easy one there's no kidnapping here he didn't grab his mother from her house throw her in the trunk of the car drive her to the house drag her up the steps and kill her well if you don't have kidnapping maybe you don't have murder every time that colin said either in your presence or on your behalf you're not a killer presence or on the camera footage that you've reviewed that he might hurt his mom or he was afraid he would hurt his mom he prefaced that statement by saying if she hits me or if she comes at me or if she attacks me i'm afraid i'll hurt her correct yes ma'am so he never said i just want to kill my mom for no reason whatsoever no ma'am the defense relies on one single witness of their own colin's grandmother susan detman do you remember there being a period in january of 2024 where colin was with you for several weeks and kathy didn't remember that he had gone with you yes do you know what was going on with kathy at that time she was taking pills she just didn't want to have her life she was really excessively she called me she said don't bring colin back i see you or colin again she admitted to even her own mother that she had pulled a gun on her son that in and of itself is an eyebrow razor that's something that i i think may have very much resonated with the population of this county a mother pulling a firearm on her son for whatever reason the fact that the mother had been suicidal i mean the defense had tons to work with in this case and i think it's important to remember that this is a case that has been going on for a long Have you ever witnessed Kathy not being able to control her temper? Yes. Have you ever personally witnessed Kathy engage in a physical act of violence towards Colin? I know that there was a fight at the house in Port Charlotte. And the fight started because she was beating him with a belt and making him do push-ups. When you say that she beat him with a belt, were you actually there for that? Yes, I was. Did Kathy have a reputation within your family as being violent? Yes. It was interesting to me that they used the victim's mother to almost give the jury permission to acquit him. Because basically, well, this is arguably the person affected most by her death. And she believes her grandson. So she's asking you not to convict her grandson, and she will be doubly victimized by this. The defense makes its final appeal, arguing that Colin Griffith acted not with malice, but arguably, in some sense, of self-defense. Kathy is not exactly reliable in what she says. She makes things up. She is unpredictable. She is erratic and goes into rages. The defense has to kind of thread the line. You have to conclude that Kathy Griffith is the bad actor here, that Colin Griffith is really the victim, and that he was in fear for his life, and that's why he had to kill her. You heard him on the body-worn camera footage. I don't want to kill her, but if she attacks me, I will defend myself. The state has proved nothing of significance beyond a reasonable doubt to you, except that Colin and his mom had a very disturbed relationship. And also perhaps that they never should have been living together. They did not want to say that this was definitely a self-defense scenario. They walked the line between accidental, suicide, and self-defense. And that's a lot of gray area to have reasonable doubts when there's only two people in the room. They have failed to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Colin did anything other than defend himself against his mother. The weight of Colin's fate now shifts to the jury. Following an 11-hour deliberation, jurors return to the courtroom, verdict in hand. - As to count one, the defendant is not guilty. As to count two, the defendant is not guilty. - My personal theory is that at in the deliberation room, the jurors all kind of looked at each other and said, I have no idea what the real dynamic here was. I've heard this testimony. I've heard that testimony. I have her dad testifying against Colin. I have her mom testifying against her. And in those types of circumstances, if the jurors don't know, then they cannot convict a defendant. You hear about parricide, which is killing both of your parents, but usually it's in the same incident, not separate parricides split apart by time. He's never been tried for his father's death. And most states have no statute of limitations on murder. I don't know if we're going to see him prosecuted in Oklahoma now that he's been acquitted of this one, but it will be very interesting to see if that actually ends up coming to fruition at all. A couple of words come to mind. First. It's a tragic case. It also underscores the limits of what our system can do to try and prevent that type of a tragedy, especially in a relationship in the home, even despite cries for help. And I think it underscores also the need to identify toxicity in relationships and find a way to deal with them effectively so that the results don't end violently. It's a conclusion many didn't see coming. Colin Griffith saying it was survival, not malice, that drove his actions here. And ultimately, it was up to 12 strangers to decide what they believed. And in the end, they decided he deserved to walk free. You may not agree with this decision, but we have to respect it. That's all we have for you here on this episode of Prime Crime. Everybody, thank you so much for joining us. I'm Jesse Weber. And as always, stay safe. We'll see you next time. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye.