Collin Griffith, Florida son stabs mom to death one year after escaping charges of having killed his own father, who authorities describe as a calculated psychopath.
A 17 year old Florida teen is alleged to have fatally stabbed his mother over the weekend, more than a year after he was indicted killing his father, Polk County deputies said.
Collin Griffith of Port Charlotte is accused of stabbing his mother, Catherine Griffith, 39, to death, Sunday evening, at their Auburndale home.
The teen called 911, telling responding officers that an argument led to the parent lunging at the 17 year old, only to fall on her own knife. Observed wounds included a deep stab wound to the neck, a seemingly implausible cause of ‘self-death’ according to investigators.
Detectives noted inconsistencies between his 911 call and the evidence at the scene.
When pressed further, the 17 year old became uncooperative, and requested a lawyer, FOX13 reported.
Witnesses said they saw the 17 year old arguing with his mother outside the home and dragging her inside by her hair, according to the Polk County Sheriff’s Office. Witnesses also reported hearing Catherine Griffith repeatedly plead with her son to ‘let me go.’
The sheriff’s office stated that Collin Griffith’s grandmother was not present during the stabbing, but told police about previous instances where her grandson had been physically and verbally confrontational with his mother.
During a Wednesday press conference, Sheriff Grady Judd with the Polk County Sheriff’s Office called the defendant a ‘psychopath.’
But there’s more.
A 2023 affidavit from by Lincoln County News in Lincoln County, Oklahoma, indicated that Collin Griffin, 15, at the time, shot and killed his father, Charles Robert Griffith, during an altercation on Valentine’s Day.
Collin at the time told cops that an argument broke out between him and Charles, during which the father allegedly pulled a knife and chased his son through the house. Collin claimed that the father trapped him in the bedroom, leading him to grab a gun and shoot his dad twice—once in the head and once in the chest.
The affidavit highlighted discrepancies between the scene’s evidence and Collin’s initial statement to dispatch. Although he was initially charged with murder, the charges in the 2023 case were dropped less than a month later, according to Judd after authorities couldn’t disprove ‘self-defense.’
Following his father’s death, the defendant moved in with his mother in Florida.
Within months, Griffin was involuntarily committed for mental health reasons according to lawandcrime. Around this time he reportedly made a threatening statement: ‘I’ll kill myself, or I’ll kill my mother by shooting or stabbing her.’
Two months later, in November 2023, Griffith was arrested for domestic violence against his mother: he allegedly “pushed her to the ground and he stomped on her” after she took away his video game privileges. Griffith as he had previously alleged in past ‘interactions’ with his parents, claimed self-defense, but that argument failed, and the then 16 year old went to jail.
At some point in March, 2024, Colin was re-united with his mother. The initial first few months were relatively calm said Sheriff Judd, with the teen’s mom buying Colin a new car after the teen excelling academically and at age 17 already having begun college.
That all took a turn for the worse last weekend, when a fight between mother and son erupted, with the teen observed dragging his mom by the hair. A few hours later police would arrive at the home where they found the mother dead and the son once again alleging no fault in yet another parent’s death. Except the evidence didn’t line up.
Colin Griffith remains held with no bond.
