A Florida teenager has been acquitted of stabbing his mother to death – just two years after he was also cleared of fatally shooting his father.
On Wednesday, 17-year-old Collin Griffith was acquitted of first-degree murder and kidnapping charges related to the death of his 39-year-old mother, Catherine Griffith.
Courtroom footage captured by Fox 13 showed the teen smirk and hug his defense attorneys while the verdict was read.
During the trial, Collin’s defense team argued that he had acted in self-defense when his mother was fatally stabbed in the neck at their home in Auburndale, Florida, on September 8.
Interestingly, just a year prior to Catherine’s death, she had posted bail for Collin in Oklahoma after he shot and killed his father, Charles Griffith, 43, on Valentine’s Day in 2023. Collin had also claimed self-defense in that incident.
When Polk County Sheriff’s Officers arrived at the scene of Catherine’s death, they said Collin claimed he and his mother were fighting, and when she lunged at him, she fell on the knife and stabbed herself in the neck.
However, prosecutors said witnesses reported seeing Collin drag his mom out of the house by her hair two hours earlier, and a medical examiner found she had been stabbed – twice – in the neck.
Prosecutor Mark Levine said in the days before his mother’s death, Collin and Catherine argued over chores, and then ran away from home and went to his grandmother’s house in Auburndale.
After he refused to go back home, Catherine went to the Auburndale home on September 8, 2024, and was stabbed.
Both the prosecution and defense described the problematic family dynamic that plagued the mother and son before her death.
Levine said that while Catherine tried to ‘make up for lost time’ with her son – who moved from Oklahoma to her home in Florida after she bailed him out – the pair started to clash.
Levine insisted that the mother and son’s relationship worsened leading up to her final day as Catherine gave her son several ‘ultimatums’ in exchange for him to complete household chores.
At one point, he read a text that Catherine sent to her son between 12 p.m. and 12:29 p.m. the day she died.
In the message, Catherine appeared to threaten her son with information she had about the death of his father, telling him that she would pass it along ‘all because you didn’t help me mount a bookshelf.’
‘Collin, the recordings of you admitting to killing [your father] and planning the murder, there are four different instances from my Ring camera, are all going to Bob, Susie, Amanda, and Chris at 3 p.m. today,’ Catherine wrote to Collin.
‘Plus the recovered audio from Chuck’s iCloud where you told your dad you hated me and I was an evil b**** are being sent too. My dad is sending me his recordings of you telling him how you planned my murder back in February. … All because you didn’t want to help me mount a bookshelf.’
When Collin’s attorney, Amy Thornhill, approached the stand, she told a very different story, alleging that Catherine caused a lot of the issues between her and her son.
She said: ‘Cathy has threatened or done harm to other people,’ including Collin.
His lawyer also noted that the late mother often instigated arguments, struggled with a drinking and pill problem and was estranged from her family.
She went on to reveal that both Collin and Catherine had been ‘Baker Acted’ – a state law that allows individuals to be involuntarily committed if they are a threat to the public or themselves.
Six months after his father’s death, Collin was back in custody under Florida’s Baker Act after threatening to kill himself and to stab or shoot his mother.
Collin claimed that his father had pulled a knife on him before chasing and cornering him at the remote farmstead in Lincoln County, Oklahoma, on Valentine’s Day 2023.
He was initially charged with murder, but prosecutors ‘could not disprove Colin’s assertion of self-defense’ and he was released after his mother posted bond.
‘I appreciate all of the attention the jurors paid to what was presented to them. It was a difficult decision and I thank them,’ Thornhill told the local news outlet after the verdict was read.
Despite Collin’s not guilty verdict, Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd issued a statement standing by his investigation.
‘Our detectives firmly believe that Collin Griffith murdered his mother. The jury determined that they could not convict him beyond and to the exclusion of all reasonable doubt,’ Judd said.
‘During our investigation, detectives found witnesses that believe he also murdered his father in Oklahoma. That investigation is ongoing.’
