Laura Collins New Orleans woman charged with choking drunk fiance to death as she awaits trial for fatal hit and run death of male cyclist.
A New Orleans woman has been charged with choking her ‘drunk fiancee’ to death after maintaining that he had tried to kill her- claims that investigators say was not backed up by any evidence.
Laura Collins, 33, admitted strangled her fiancé – whose name has not been released – in their home in the city’s St. Claude section early Tuesday, according to court records cited by NOLA.com.
Collins told police and neighbors she ‘choked … out’ her beloved when he became aggressive and attacked her as they drank, prompting her to ‘put him in a chokehold,’ court records show.
The woman’s neighbors, who called police, later told investigators Collins went back to the home to make sure she didn’t have to ‘choke’ him ‘out again,’ records show.
Collins’ fiancé, who had blood on his face and a bruise to the back of his head, was pronounced dead at the scene, police said.
Kills second man
Following her arrest, Collins was booked on second-degree murder charge after police determined the woman’s injuries weren’t ‘consistent with the possibility’ that she could have died during the alleged attack.
Of note, the murder comes as Collins awaits trial for allegedly killing a second man, a bicyclist she is accused of fatally striking in a hit-and-run crash in January 2020.
Collins previously pleaded not guilty in October to charges of manslaughter and obstruction of justice in a January 2020 hit-and-run crash that killed 58-year-old bicyclist Lloyd Smith.
Police said Collins fled the scene, but she was later arrested. She had been released on $45,000 bond when she was busted for murder Tuesday. Her next court date in the hit-and-run case had not been scheduled, NOLA.com reported.
But there’s more.
Collins also has a history of domestic violence incidents during which she was arrested as the ‘aggressor,’ police wrote in records without elaborating, NOLA.com reported.
Collins remained held without bond early Thursday at a jail in New Orleans. Her next appearance in court has not been set, records show.
If convicted, Collins faces a mandatory life sentence.
