Episode 346

Sort and scale contains adult themes and violence and is not intended for all audiences Listener discretion is advised I said you're not gonna be successful Take you out and then I'm gonna have to explain to people that I'd rather be tried by 12 and carried by six If you follow true crime and have for a while, then there's a place in Florida. You might be familiar with It's right in the heart of Florida, and it's far from the beaches and tourist traps It's a little place called Polk County It's mostly farmland chain restaurants and retirement communities like the rest of Florida But you may be familiar with the tough on crime press conferences that the sheriff loves to hold Many of which have gone viral over the last couple of years And Polk County is the small city of Auburndale Nestled between Lakeland and Winter Haven to shit holes by the way It takes pride in being quiet friendly and the kind of place where neighbors recognize each other Inside the gates of the Hamptons a 55 plus country club style retirement community are golf carts manicured lawns and rows of tiny pre-manufactured homes At sunset neighbors wave from their front porches as golf carts hum down the street It's quiet safe Or well, it should be But on September 8th 2024 just after six in the evening That calm was shattered Behind the white siding of 77 Hewlett Drive a Boy's frantic voice reached a 911 operator On the call was 17-year-old Colin Griffith He told the dispatcher that his mother needed EMS because She was now bleeding out The ambulance couldn't get there fast enough Colin's panic was obvious as he pleaded for them to help his mother. She didn't have a lot of time Colin's 39-year-old mother Cathy was bleeding from the neck and fading fast He said she was non-responsive and not breathing before he said I don't think she's alive Colin's voice trailed off as he realized his mother Might already be dead The dispatcher guided him through performing CPR Colin got his mother flat on her back position his hands over her heart and Started pumping the dispatcher counted him down As the dispatcher relayed information to first responders Colin continued to pump his mother's chest I know it's difficult to understand, but Colin said we got into a fight She lunged at me with a knife and she fell on it He explained it was a long and drawn-out argument that ended with his mother trying to attack him with a knife But instead she tripped and fell on it She now had a gaping wound that was spilling blood Until there wasn't any left The wound was so large that the only thing CPR had done was help pump the rest of her blood out onto the kitchen floor Only then did the dispatcher instruct him on how to stop the bleeding Get a clean dry towel and apply pressure to the wound The only thing was she had no blood left It was already too late Even though he himself thought it was already too late Colin followed the dispatcher's instructions until First responders arrived and flooded the quiet retirement community with flashing lights and sirens as I walked into the house I immediately began to clear the house as my partner walked up to Colin Griffith and then after clearing the house is when I walked back into the living room area Made it known that it was clear and that is when my partner advised me to take Colin Griffith outside and while walking to the kitchen I saw a knife a blood-covered knife over in front of the washer and dryer to my left. So the subject in the kitchen In the kitchen, I saw a large pool of blood around the subject head and neck area Was blood spatter going up the side of the cabinet Deputies cleared the house so fire and rescue could enter safely They made contact with Colin and immediately noticed something odd For doing normal CPR and everything Everybody assuming everybody's been taught and seeing videos on Doing CPR from beside the person never overtop their head walking at possibly rocking airways The home was narrow no larger than a single-wide trailer There wasn't enough room for Colin to kneel next to his mother so he knelt over her head But from the looks of her wound. It didn't matter if he was doing it the right way The stab wound itself did not seem to be very wide It was kind of narrow in size Upon program inspection after starting the CPR it was obvious that every time I did a compression There was air that's coming through the wound itself So it was obviously pretty deep Um, it looked like a lot of the vascular and the stuff inside of the wound itself was very obvious and could be seen Um, and they had cut major areas such as arteries EMTs rushed inside and surrounded her body, but there was nothing they could do Only 13 minutes after the 911 call started Kathy was pronounced deceased But her cause of death was questionable The EMTs didn't have all the information from the 911 call They didn't know about the long fight All they knew was what they saw and it seemed improbable that Kathy tripped and stabbed herself directly in the jugular The knife entered the front part of her neck and exited the back left The entire prospect was too cartoonish Stranger still was Colin's behavior in the moments after first responders arrived When I first walked him outside he was a little bit frantic Seemed like something was definitely going on and then as he began to explain what happened is when he became very calm His demeanor completely changed For my personal experience, it was a little odd in nature um, he didn't seem very distraught or upset Um, he seemed kind of calm upon my injury in residence And then upon exiting the residence he seemed to almost have a Not a full argument, but somewhat argumentative with the the deputies that we're trying to assist him out of that the residence He was calm Too calm He had just witnessed his mother die But he wasn't distraught He wasn't even panicked like in the 911 call Before deputies could ask him any questions he exclaimed I know my rights I want an attorney On the 911 call he claimed her death was accidental after he and his mom got into an argument that got out of hand Then he asked for a lawyer before any questions could be asked But later he would offer up another explanation He said he was on the floor and his mother was on top of him with a knife She was bearing down ready to stab him when At the last second he turned the blade towards her And she fell on it Just like in the movies, you know Colin was placed in the back of a patrol car As the nervous neighbors looked on Every law enforcement officer who witnessed the scene knew Kathy didn't fall on that knife But the only person who could tell them what happened That just loyered up Was Kathy a deranged mother in a homicidal rage was she mommy dearest Or was Colin a cold and calculated killer Only a thorough investigation Would provide that answer [Music] Inside the Hamptons, a quiet retirement community in Auburndale, Florida, 17-year-old Colin Griffith called 911. A teenager and panic, he begged the dispatcher to save his mother, as she bled from a wound to the neck. But when deputies arrived minutes later, they found a different Colin. His mother, Kathy, lay in the kitchen. It was too late to help her. And the boy who sounded so desperate on the phone was now, composed, cold even. What started as a call for help had become a homicide investigation. The scene inside the house was grim, but outside others had seen and heard things that would soon cast Colin's story in more doubt. This along Hewlett Drive told investigators what they witnessed that evening. "I got a phone call yesterday from the lady that owns the property because I do your address." "When you say the property, what property are you referring to?" "The White House." "Okay, the one that's directly across. Where's the deputies are at?" "Yeah." "What is the name of the lady you spoke with?" "Susan, Susan, Durcom. I don't know how she's got a weird last name." The owner of the home was Colin's grandmother. Susan Detman. She called her neighbor the day before to let her know Colin would be arriving, and not to worry. "My grandson is going to be coming to stay at my house. I just want to let you know if you see a black car in the driveway, it's my grandson. And I said, "Oh, okay, yeah, I know Colin. Yeah, no problem. That was the end of the conversation." Like any good neighbor, the residents of the Hamptons looked out for each other. I mean, they have a lot of free time on their hands. It is after all a retirement community. "Now that white car didn't show up till today." "Do you know who's white car that is?" "As a young lady with dark hair." "Have you ever seen her before?" "Yeah, I've seen her over there before." "And you don't know who she is?" "Susan said it's her daughter." Almost immediately after Colin's mother arrived, they started arguing. This car shows up today and she pulls in the driveway and the kid comes out and she backs out of the driveway and she pulls it right there and she gets out with her purse and walks up there and him and her started arguing and then start throwing stuff into black car. I don't know what it was, it looked like clothes and stuff. And next thing I know, he pulled her by the hair of the head and pulled her back into the house. This neighbor could hear the argument, but not what they were saying. Another neighbor heard a little more. "Then I heard her say, 'Let me go, let me go, you got my head, you're hurting me, you're hurting me.' And he drove her in his nose." Two neighbors witnessed the start of the argument. As soon as Kathy got out of her car, she started talking with Colin. The neighbors couldn't hear what they were saying, but their body language screamed "argument". When Colin grabbed a fistful of his mother's hair and pulled her inside as she yelled "Let me go, you're hurting me." She said that the mother and the grandson were at each other last winter and the grandson came and stayed here. I guess there were some problems here because the cops were out here two or three times last winter. Apparently, this wasn't the first time Colin had fought with his mother. The previous year Colin stayed with his grandmother to let things cool off between him and his mom, but the tension between them never left a simmering point. "I called Susan, Susan, all this happened. I called Susan and I said, Susan, something going on over to her house. I said, it's cops everywhere, I said, your grandson's outside, it looks like he's crying. She said, what was my daughter? I said, I don't know." That tension must have built and built as it erupted in a fight in the driveway, ending with Kathy being stabbed in the neck. "And then, while you guys are out there doing that, guess what phone call I get?" "What's that?" His probation officer calls. "Who's that?" "Collins." "Called you?" "Uh-huh." "What?" "What's that?" "I got a phone call over there. It's from a 946 number." And she says, "Is this K-dones?" I said, "Yes." She says, "Well, I am calling Susan's probation officer. I'm a juvenile detention officer. It's calling okay." And I said, "Yeah, there's cops sitting out there talking to him, but I don't know anything else." And she said, "Did you hear any gunshots or anything?" I said, "No." I said, "What's going on?" She said, "It's calling okay." And I said, "Yeah." And she hung up. The neighbors at the Hamptons didn't know Collins' background, but a call from his juvenile probation officer hinted at him being a troubled teen. When his grandmother finally arrived home, she found her normally quiet street in chaos immediately. She knew her daughter was dead, and she also knew who had done it. How was the relationship at the beginning? At the beginning it was fine, okay. And then there started to be problems. Okay. Can you describe the problems? He didn't want to do what Kathy told him to do. Kathy would basically, you know, harp on him. When Colin attacked his mother and stomped on her hand, she was only trying to discipline her 17-year-old son. He hadn't done the chores, she assigned him. She threatened to take away his Xbox and cell phone. Just when Colin flipped out. Colin stood up, looked at his mother in the eye and said, "Let's go." Before pushing her to the ground with a single move and stomping on her hand, needless to say, the police were called. "I'm in a constant state of butterfly, and I don't know if I think she's going to do something. She's not. I might act. I'm not going to like go crazy or anything, but I'm not sure how to stay." Yes. So then he was in the police squad, Kathy refused to go to the hospital for her hand. And he called me over to the police squad and said, "Mama, you know she pushed me first." And I said, "Colin, I was there. That's not what happened." I said, "I agree that she was very aggressive to you." I said, "But you pushed her and we talked about this, and then you stomped on her hand." Yeah. Colin tried to say she attacked him first, but his grandmother witnessed the whole thing. He was arrested and charged as a juvenile for domestic violence. So he was put on probation? Okay. For that incident? Yes. Was he charged with domestic violence? Yes. Okay. He was put on probation. He was supposed to be getting off probation this month. Colin was processed, charged, and sentenced to probation. The court recommended he remained separate from his mother for some time before going home. So, he lived with his grandmother for a couple of weeks as if that's a solution. Am I the only one noticing a lack of male paternal figures in Colin's life? When she came to pick him up, he ran away. So then he was gone for two days. We couldn't find him because she came and he said, "He looked at me and he said, 'You are fucking crazy. If you think that I'm getting in the car with my mom, you have gone completely nuts.'" And I'm like, "Hon, we talked about all this." He said, "I'm not going back." And he took off. It was pouring down the rain. And finally, he all picked him up and took him to DHS or whatever it's called in this state. You know that? DCF? Yes. So, he ran away from DSF. Dislexic much? He was out again. So finally, he was picked up and law enforcement brought him home. And that's when they said, "We're going to have these coming every so often, like every day, anywhere from, I think, seven in the morning to midnight to check and make sure you guys are okay." After a couple of weeks, at his grandmother's, Colin refused to return to his mother's house. He ran off into the rain and was gone for two days. When the police finally found him, they took him into the crisis stabilization unit. CSU is a short term, specialized facility that provides immediate round-the-clock psychiatric care and support for individuals experiencing a severe mental health crisis, such as suicidal thoughts, severe agitation, or psychosis. There, Colin was evaluated, deemed not a threat to himself or others, and released. They love their catch-and-release at these places because they just don't have the money, the funding, the beds, to keep people. Why is that when we spend so much money in this country? How much more than we even make, really, in taxes every year, we can't even provide basic services. I wonder who's sneaking into the cookie jar when we're not looking. Anyway, the front door's opened wide for Colin and he walked straight out of that facility. Cured, supposedly. I'm on the door of Elton. young man came straight up to me and approached me and said, "I need it to be Baker acting." Were you surprised to hear that? Oh, yeah. Goes bad news. Usually people want to lead. Did you ask him why he said that? Yes, I did. It was unusual. He said, "I need to be Baker acting because I'm either going to go kill myself or," and he said, "his mother." Colin didn't want to go back home with his mom. He went further saying he would throw them out of the car, shoot them, or stab them. He also mentioned that his grandmother wasn't safe if he went home with her, either. Maybe sometimes we should listen to these people when they're telling us exactly what they're going to do. No? Okay. So you yourself. Colin was placed on a psychiatric hold for three more days. Eventually, he had to go back home with his mom, though. Anyway, for a while, everything was okay. He would check in at random times every day to ensure he and his mom were okay. He even started to go to church with one of the officers. He graduated from high school a year early, got a job, and enrolled in college. Then the tension between him and his mom arose again. By September 7, 2024, the day before Kathy's death, they were doing nothing but arguing. So Colin called me at one and said, "My mom kicked me out. What am I supposed to do?" I said, "You need to go back home." He said, "No, no. I don't feel comfortable." Kathy had kicked him out of the house, so Colin loaded up his car and went to grandma Susan's. Susan was once again inserted into the middle of the argument. She spoke with Kathy, and even though she kicked him out, she now demanded that he come home the next morning. She wanted Colin to be at home at 10 o'clock in the morning? Yes. She said, "If not, she was calling the police. She was turning him in as a runaway. I said, "He can't be turned in and a runaway. He's at my house." And Detective Lacey even said, "That's fine." She said, "Well, he didn't tell his probation officer." I said, "Yes, he did. He left a message that he was going to his grandmother's house." Yes, she said, "I'm going to come and get him. He's going to follow me with his car. He didn't have gas. She had blocked his checking account, his check card, so he didn't have access to that. I told Colin, I said, "Your mom's going to be there. I said, "Don't touch her. Be nice." Sadly, Colin didn't take that advice. Matthew lay lifeless on her mother's kitchen floor in a pool of blood. Colin sat in the back of a patrol car waiting to be taken to the station and charged with murder. In the days that followed, Detective spoke with the rest of Colin's family trying to understand exactly what had happened between him and his mother. His grandfather wasn't surprised at all. He and his mom were having difficulties and when she'd set down limits on behavior, he would not just rebel, he would become violent. They had asked me because Susan said, "Hey, I can't deal with this. He can't be with Kathy because he's threatening to kill her." I said, "He's starting to kill you, too, right, Susan?" She said, "Well, yes, of course he is." I said, "Okay." I told her multiple times, "I don't care what you've got to do. Get rid of the boy." If you take him, I said, "Hell no, I just know but I don't know." A boy is thrashed in the head, he is weaponized, he is going to kill you, your mother, me. Colin's grandfather painted a frightening picture of Colin and Kathy's relationship. He was a violent teenager who didn't like authority or responsibility. I mean, who does, really? Both Grandma Susan and Kathy were afraid of him. But what do you do, where the 17-year-old you can't control? Ladies, any ideas? Man, the society is cooked, isn't it? He also had told me in detail four months ago how he wanted murder and his mother. And he really wanted to literally see the blood stored out of her neck. That's what he wanted. He told you this four months ago? Oh, yeah, weren't anything else he wanted that. I mean, he talked about strangling her and he said, "But I could do that, but really what I want to do is I want to watch the blood stored out of her and watch the life stored out of her." That's not really good, he goes, "Yeah, but it's what I want to do." And so I just let the kid go and be like, "Well, tell me more, tell me more, this sounds interesting." Yeah. "Oh, I want to see the gore. I want to watch it pop out of her." Wow. "If you were the puppy, he goes, "Yeah, it'd be a lot of power, he goes, yeah." Detectives were building a case. The story of the fight and falling on a knife was way too far-fetched. Colin seemed to be troubled and there were records of this with every interaction he had with law enforcement and the Department of Children and Families. Even his own grandfather saw him as a danger to those around him. And there was a big reason for this. As if the murder of a woman by her teenage son wasn't horrific enough, the Polk County Sheriff held yet another press conference to inform the public of the rest of the story. "A cold-blooded murder of a 39-year-old mother by her 17-year-old son. It all started on September the 8th, which was this last Sunday when we got a 911 call from Colin Griffith, who 17 years of age. Here's what he said. He said he and his mother had a very long fight and she fell on a knife and killed herself. When the deputies arrived, he met the deputies outside and he was calm, cool, collected, not upset and he had blood on him. What we found inside was this knife. This knife is 12 inches long and of the 12 inches, 8 inches of that is the blade. So he said that his mother fell on this knife. The medical examiner said it is not reasonable or plausible that she died the way that he said she did, just didn't happen. There were witnesses outside the mobile home that actually saw Colin drag his mother into the house by the hair on her head. Colin is about six foot and 160 pounds. That wasn't even the most damning evidence that Colin had purposefully killed his mother. But let me go through some details because as we start to peel back the layer of this onion, we find out that this is not just a singular event with Colin stabbing his mother in the neck and ultimately killing her. Here's what we found and follow me as I read a timeline to you, February 14, 2023. On Valentine's Day, Lincoln County, Oklahoma, Colin said that his dad pulled a knife on him and he shot and killed his dad. That's right, his father was named Charles. He shot him once in the chest and once in the head and he claimed self-defense. That's right, Colin had killed his father just 19 months earlier in Oklahoma. But the pieces starting to fit together yet. This batch got a call of a shooting. We responded. I had a 15 year old male caller on the phone said that his dad had a knife and was had him cornered and he had to shoot him. Dad has a girlfriend at the onset that was at the grocery store and so she's returned since the end and we've talked to her so she's been notified as well. There are several firearms in there so I don't know we haven't done any kind of trace or anything on that yet but there is lots of guns in the house. The Lincoln County Sheriff's Office and the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigations charged Colin with murder in the first degree. They dropped the charges less than a month later. They said they could not disprove Colin's assertion of self-defense. So he was released. He claimed self-defense and a month later all charges were dropped. He just spent a couple of weeks in jail and that was it. Shortly after Oklahoma sent him to his mother in Florida. There, he was arrested for beating up his mom, ran away and was put on psychiatric hold twice. If only humans were good at seeing patterns, you know? So now we're to the fateful day on September 8th. Our investigation clearly and unequivocally shows that that circumstance did not occur like that. In fact, he used similar language to when he made the 911 call what 18 or 20 months earlier when he shot and killed his father. The authorities did notice a pattern. While it was possible that Colin acted in self-defense against one parent, it's highly improbable that he would have done so again with a different one. Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, and we won't be fooled again, or some shit. I don't remember. It's important to understand when you look at this, you see a kid. When I look at him, I see a psychopath. I see totally erratic behavior to the point that he's all ready at 17 years of age, shot and killed his father and got away with it and stabbed his mother in the neck so hard that the knife went all the way through and was to the back of her neck. And she died there. 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 as an adult. Now he's killed two people and killed his mother and father, and I can assure you, beyond into the exclusion of every reasonable doubt, based upon his conduct, had he gone to live with his grandmother at the end of this, and she crossed him, she would be next. He's violent, he's dangerous, he showed zero remorse, zero remorse, he is a dangerous human being. Nothing gives you the right to unilaterally stab your mother and kill her. And I'm not convinced, based upon what I know now, now Oklahoma didn't know this then. There were no witnesses to him shooting his dad. I'm not sure now that he didn't set his dad up to murder him. It turns out that Collins' story was much more complicated than anyone realized. It started long before he was even born. Collins' aunt Christine says it all started back when Kathy was only 13. Her ex-husband actually had a crush on me and was pursuing me, and when I was like, I am not interested. Aunt Christine is talking about Charles Griffith, Collins' father and Kathy's ex-husband, who everyone called Chuck. But when I finally like, was like, you've got to stop, he, well actually he didn't stop, he kept calling my house, and then he would start talking to my sister, he just laughed onto her. Chuck pursued Christine and called her house all the time. But when she told Chuck she wasn't interested, he went for the next best thing, her younger sister. They became inseparable in a bad way. We found out that Sue was pregnant shortly after one of her many runaway incidences and I begged her to give the baby up for adoption because I knew that if she hadn't, that her life with Chuck was never going to be good. So anyway, obviously she didn't, Christopher is here. Well, so they ended up getting married and she's married at a really young age, 14. He's what now 17, 18 at that point? No. No. No. Okay, how long? He was 19 when he got her pregnant at 13. When Kathy got pregnant at 13, her mother gave her a choice. Put up the baby for adoption or marry Chuck. She chose poorly. She chose to marry Chuck. So 14, she got her GED and she started taking college classes because Chuck never had a job, never had a job. And he always liked little girls. So he never was a teacher or anything like that? Oh no, no, he was a teacher, that's how I found the little girls. But Kathy got his degree for him online. Oh wow. Okay. Yeah. Of course he liked little girls. He impregnated a 13 year old after he was already a legal adult. Kathy and Chuck got married and moved into their own house to playhouse. Kathy gave birth to their first son, Christopher, and then attended school online. She got teaching degrees for herself and for Chuck. But Chuck used that degree not to teach, but to get close to underage girls. That is until he would get caught and he would get fired. Chuck was unemployed a lot. The family moved off and presumably for work and to escape whatever stigma Chuck stirred up, being the peddo that he was. Fast forward to 2019 and the family was in Florida. But I guess Kathy had a student that she has kind of kind of adopted for lack of better words. Her name was Gabby. Gabby like you and Jenna's them, I mean, Kathy, Kathy called Gabby her daughter and then it turns out that Chuck and her were in a relationship and Chuck left Kathy for Gabby. Gabby had taken a 16 year old student named Gabby under her wing and into her home. It was an act of compassion for a young girl with few options. Chuck on the other hand, suddenly had a young girl living in his house. Oh boy. When Kathy discovered the affair, it was the final straw. She had put up with his infidelity long enough. The divorce was nasty. Collins older brother Christopher was already out of high school, so Kathy and Charles fought over 12 year old Colin. Eventually, Charles, Colin and Gabby moved to Oklahoma. Colin became separated from his mother and the rest of the family. Why was dad so bad to Colin, what did he do? Well, he isolated him. He wouldn't allow him to leave the farm. He wouldn't let him go to school. He refused to have him in scouts and he kept saying, "I can't put him in school because I'm afraid Kathy will come to the school and bring DHS in and then they'll get involved." Which DHS in Oklahoma did get involved, but all they said was they need family counseling and they left it at that. Colin did have family counseling. It was court ordered and his father refused to take him. He took him once and then he said, "No, I'm not taking him back." So did they have any type of communication while he was in Oklahoma? No. He would not let Colin talk to Kathy. At all. They never spoke or did she ever once in a while like Christmas or birthdays, how did she talk to him? Well, usually Chuck wanted extra money and then he would let her talk to him, but only on speaker phone in front of him. There was one time where he got a phone and called Kathy and then when Chuck found out about it, he would really, really beat him. For three years Colin only had his father and the barely older Gabby to interact with. Things were bad and only got worse. "Go back three years, eleven to fourteen years old, like he's still wearing the same clothes as an eleven year old who's wearing as a fourteen year old was. It was to the point that one of my siblings and one of my mother said like, "Hey, the shoes that he had weren't fitting him," this was the point that his toes were like crunched up in front of the top and everything, like the shirts and pants and everything that he was wearing, like barely fit him or they were too tight, he was malnourished and just going to like a Walmart with my sister was causing them to have social anxiety and stuff like that, which he said his main food sauce a week was like a gallon of milk, steak and potatoes. "I had to teach him how to like use a towel after a shower because when he first originally got here, he would just come out of the shower and put his clothes on and drip dry. In my head, that's traitering, you know, some type of abuse because when you're that age, how do you not know how to use a shower?" He was on a futon mattress in the laundry room. As Colin got older and entered puberty, he discovered his sexuality. Another thing Chuck had a problem with. Colin said that his dad would have sex right in the next bedroom with him so that he could hear everything that was going on because Colin felt that he was gay and so the dad was trying to change him out of being gay. Colin felt that he was gay? Yes. Okay. And he realized how mentally perverted Farrell was, he'd beat Kathy, he'd beat the kids. I mean, this guy was, this guy was a major psychological manipulator and a fuser physically mentally, but this guy was complete psychopath. Finally on Valentine's Day 2023, while Gabby was out of the house, Colin shot and killed his father. The dad refused to let Colin have anything to do with his mom, but Colin wanted to leave. He wanted to live with his mom, but the dad cornered him or either cornered or the wall and had a knife and said, "You're going to stay into this tape recording that you want to live with me and that's all there is to it. I'm not gonna go. to court and being barriced by you saying you want to live with your mom. As I said, he had 23 guns loaded in the house and so when he went back, one of the pistols was right there and he pulled it and shot him. Was his dad like backing him into a corner? Yeah. Colin called 911 and explained that his father had attacked him with a knife and he shot him in self-defense. The police arrested him and pressed charges only to drop them a month later. They couldn't prove it was or wasn't, self-defense. His mother and his grandmother Susan knew that he had murdered his father because he admitted it to both of them. Did he admit to killing him in self-defense or did he admit just to killing him? He admitted to setting the whole thing up. To setting the whole thing up? Oh yeah. I told Colin, I said Colin, I don't agree with what you did, but you know what? I saw you appear and give you a fucking award. You took the crash out, thank you. Let's face it, Chuck was a real piece of shit. Perhaps the police in Oklahoma looked at this meek little kid and felt pity. Why charge Colin with murder if no one was going to miss Chuck after all? But now, with his mother's death, it changed the way everyone saw his self-defense claim. Little county deputies found Colin Griffith calm after the death of his mother. Her lifeless body just a few feet away. He claimed it was self-defense, she attacked him and stabbed herself in the neck somehow. But neighbors saw him drag her into the house by her hair. His grandmother described arguments, fights and threats of violence even murder. After his arrest, the sheriff revealed this wasn't his first murder. 18 months earlier, he shot and killed his father. One to the chest and one to the head. Family members described a life of isolation, neglect and abuse at the hands of a pedophile father. They thought he did it on purpose, but they couldn't blame him. After charges in Oklahoma were dropped, Colin moved back in with his mother Kathy. On the surface it looked like stability. She took him on trips, bottom clothes, got him back in school, and tried to give him the kind of normal teenage life he'd never had. She was trying to help Colin reorient to a life where he wasn't just stuck out of the middle of nowhere. So they did things like they went to Washington, DC, they went to White House. They went all over DC, saw everything they were supposed to see there. He took him on trips to Central America, to Caribbean. She was trying to get him back into as close as she could in normal life and create opportune basic. Two of them missed for so many years. But Colin was basically an only child for three years. He wasn't required to do much. I mean, he didn't even have to go to school. Besides, he had the barely older soon to be stepmom Gabby to pick up after him. So when Kathy started requiring chores, Colin would rebel, and Kathy would push even harder. "I feel like she wanted to get back and eat your old little boy, but that is not what she got back. I know she wanted the best for him, but she just pushed so much on him. He's got to take these college classes. He's got to do this for bright future scholarship. He's got to, you know, he's got to help with chores and just so much so fast." And I was like, Kathy, just let him take normal classes, don't make him take a college class. And I said that to my mom, and she was like, "But it was the same credit, and I was like, you're missing the point. I don't care if it's the same credit or not. If a kid who has not been in school in three years, but she just pushed him so hard." It didn't take long for Colin's teenage stubbornness to outlast Kathy's willpower. Pushing him harder didn't seem to work. "Because she said that he wasn't following the rules, he wasn't doing the chores, that she wouldn't help her put a bookshelf up on the wall, it was her last bookshelf to put on, and that she just was had it with him." She said, "You know, he has food all over his room, he's not supposed to, we have ants now." When all of her efforts to teach her son responsibility failed, she decided to teach him some accountability. She turned to punishment. "Here's something about Kathy that I think is really important to know. When Kathy gets hurt, she doesn't get sad. Like when her feelings are hurt, she doesn't get sad, she just gets mad. But like, rage mad." When Kathy punished Colin, she didn't just stop with taking away his phone. "I'm selling his car to CarMax, I'm just enrolling him from school, I'm taking away his computer, and I'm cutting off his phone." She wouldn't just take away one thing. She would take away everything in the world that he loved. She would even shut off his debit card. But when that didn't work. "You know, she made him bend over, she hit him with a belt, then after that she grabbed a big 10 pound or 20 pound weight." She would make Colin hold this 20 pound weight over his head for extended periods of time as punishment. And the belt, well, it didn't hurt as much as it humiliated. So life went on for 18 months. It was a cycle of failed responsibilities and humiliating punishments. Then Kathy started to crack. "So for a while, everything seemed to be fine." And then Kathy started having her problems with, "I want to kill myself, I hate life." She kept saying that her life just wasn't the way it was supposed to be, that Colin wasn't the way he was supposed to be, that he was too much like his dad. Kathy had battled with suicidal thoughts in the past, but now they were back and that was bad. She even made an attempt. She said I'm taking all the metapropryl all her heart medicine. And Colin took her, I told Colin, take her to the ER. But it got to the point where it was almost like psychologically abusive, you know? Just the constant, my office so terrible, nothing's supposed to be this way, I can't do this anymore. She was drinking, she was drugging, she was yelling at him, she was being mean to him, physically, mentally, all the things. I mean, it sounds like he's going, he went through the same thing on both sides, separate times. Colin's older brother Chris witnessed this behavior as well. She would take me out of the house, she would get drunk, she would abuse her pills, and she looked just toxic, I know the way to put it. Unsurprisingly, after his arrest, the state attorney made the announcement everyone was waiting for. I'm Brian Haas, state attorney for the 10th judicial circuit of Florida. The Polk County Grand Jury indicted Colin Griffith on the charge of first degree murder for the killing of his mother in Armourdale last week. I made the decision to charge this 17 year old as an adult based upon the egregious facts and circumstances of this case. Polk County law enforcement continues to work with the authorities in Oklahoma to be sure they are provided all relevant information and evidence that will allow them to continue to evaluate their case as they deem necessary. My prosecutors and the deputies from the Polk County Sheriff's Office will continue to work together to pursue justice in this case and hold Colin Griffith accountable for his murder. Colin pleaded not guilty to one count of kidnapping for dragging his mother inside by her hair and one count of premeditated murder. His eventual trial would last five days. The prosecution portrayed him as a cold and calculated killer, satiating his bloodlust. The defendant sits there, a guilty person, who stabbed his own mother in the neck and then watched her bleed out in front of him. The death was not instantaneous. She bled internally, she bled externally. She was fighting to get up. She's got a gaping, open wound in her neck compliments of her song. Thanks Colin Griffith, appreciate that. The lady that brought him into this world here on earth, he took out of this world and this earth. The reality of what that person did to his mom as a second-by-second nightmare for her, she left this world knowing that the person that took her out was the son that she gave everything to. But the reality of it, for what the defendant accomplished, which is exactly what he wanted to do for so long. The writing was on the wall, ladies and gentlemen, the writing was on the wall. The defendant knew what he wanted to do, and it was just a matter of time. If nothing else, he's a man of his word. He said he would kill his mom, and he took her out. But you know what? Now he's in a court of law. Now he has to suffer whatever comes his way in the form of a verdict, and that verdict is guilty. The defense portrayed him as a kid unable to escape a toxic mother. Think about this. All the times that you've heard about Colin saying, "I don't feel safe if my mom attacks me. I'll defend myself. If she comes at me, if she pulls a gun at me, if she punches me, I'll defend myself." Remember Colin told people that he would rather be in the big rack facility. He would rather be in jail. He would rather be in foster care than at home with his mother. And the state wants you to believe that Colin is just a brat who didn't like the discipline he got, so he murdered his mom. That's also absurd. Because as the state has pointed out many times, Colin had what they think is a great life with mom, right? So he gets to go on trips, absolutely got to go on trips. He lives in a clean, nice, organized home with plenty of food. Yes. He has a phone, he has an Xbox, he has a computer, he gets to go to college. Don't you think Colin as smart as he was to be able to graduate early would know that if he actually were to be placed in the big rack facility or remain in jail or went into foster care instead of going home with his mom with whom he didn't feel safe, he would get none of those wonderful things, none of them. He would not have a phone, he would not have an Xbox, he would not go on trips all over the country or the world. And yet he still said, "Please, rebate or act me. Please don't send me home from jail with my mom. Please, I'd rather go to foster care." They blame the, I mean, they brought up Kathy's mental health struggles is what I meant to say. As proof of her toxicity while also providing another "what if" scenario. Isn't it also reasonable that Kathy knew what the outcome was going to be and she picked up a knife and threatened Colin with it? You've heard of suicide by cop? Isn't it reasonable to think that Kathy committed suicide by son? She had never been able to successfully commit suicide before, despite her many attempts. They also tried to say that if Colin were a rage-filled monster, Wendy have killed her, I don't know, harder? They've tried to get you to believe that Colin was rage-filled and hate-filled and all of these malicious thoughts were geared towards his mom. If you believe that beyond a reasonable doubt, don't you think there'd be more than just one wound on Kathy? Don't you expect that there would be 5, 10, 20 stab wounds? That's something you can consider too. After the closing arguments, 12 of Colin's peers retired to the jury room. They would deliberate for 11 hours, pushing proceedings into the following day, before returning a verdict. When Colin entered the courtroom, he smiled at his grandma Susan in the gallery before sitting between his defense attorneys. Then the jury entered the room. State of Florida versus Colin Griffin. With the jury, find us follow as to the defendant in this case. The defendant, as to come one, the defendant is not guilty. As to come two, the defendant is not guilty. So say we owe this fifth day of February 2025. Not guilty on both counts. Can you believe that? It's important to note that the jury was made aware of Colin's previous claim of murder by self-defense. They just weren't told it was his other parent. I wonder if that would have made a difference. Also, I'm not meaning to sound sexist here, but I also very much wonder about the gender breakdown of that jury. I'll have to look into that, but I'm assuming it was made up of mostly women. I guess look it up yourself, if you want to play. Regardless, a jury of so-called peers acquitted him. Colin killed both of his parents and was deemed not responsible and not a threat. Nuts, right? His family, though, that I assume knows him best, has different opinions. Oh, no, I don't think this was a self-defense thing. Yeah. I think this was the he snapped and lost it. That's what I think. I think he clearly just didn't want to go home to mom. And this was the last straw. And you're right. I think he snapped. And, um, unfortunately, he's going to have to deal with the consequences. And unfortunately, you guys are going to have to deal with the consequences, too. Yeah. He needs to be assumed of a rope that we don't, we don't use the rope in Florida. Colin was released from jail later that evening. The sun had already set. Outside news cameras waited for him. Eventually, Colin strolled out of the front doors. He was wearing black rimed glasses in a stoic expression. He wore a white dress shirt with no tie and khaki pants without a belt. His boat shoes muffled his hurried steps as he stared straight ahead. He walked with a practiced gate like a soldier. He purposely ignored the cameras following his every move just a few feet away. He was free, but he left two dead parents behind. His family was convinced he was guilty, but the jury wasn't. As the 17-year-old walked into the dark parking lot outside the jail, onlookers couldn't help but wonder where he was going or if anyone was going to pick him up. I guess Colin finally got what he wanted. He was alone. Completely alone. I'm sure grandma Susan eventually picked them up, but she was probably just avoiding the media. But still, that final image of Colin walking through the darkness dotted with street lights against the backdrop of barbed wire fences is an image that stays with me. It's almost poetic. A boy without parents, acquitted of murder, stepping out of one cage into the shadows of everything he's done. The only question now is what he'll do next. Colin wanted to become a lawyer. Why? Because he wasn't going to just stop with two bodies. Is this who is next? At the time of this writing, it is unclear if the investigation in Oklahoma was reopened. It's also unclear where Colin Griffith is presently. Having turned 18 about a month after his acquittal, it could be anywhere. It could be in your town living next door, buying groceries at the same place you do. Hally might even be bringing you your groceries on DoorDash. Nuts, right? Did you order nuts? Digi? I don't even know what to say about this one. So, I'm just going to end it here. Good luck out there, Colin. Try not to kill. again. While we hope you've enjoyed that story, it's going to do it for today. I sure didn't. Anyway, if you do like stories like this, head on over to swordscale.com or check out our brand new YouTube channel, youtube.com/sordanscaletv. There you can check out our new television-based show, which is kind of like a podcast, but it's got moving pictures. I know it's a little complicated to understand. All this new fangled technology, but just head on over there and subscribe and watch a few videos and you'll get it. All right, until next time, yeah, I know they could be annoying, but please try to not kill your family. And we'll see you next week. Stay safe. [Music] [MUSIC]