Port Charlotte teen charged with murder has violent past

The Polk County Sheriff’s Office charged 17-year-old Collin Griffith with first-degree murder after he called 911, claiming his mom fell on a knife during a struggle.

Prior to this case, Griffith faced first-degree murder charges in Oklahoma after he allegedly shot his father twice, once in the head and once in the chest. The charges against him were dropped after he claimed he acted in self-defense.

Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd said he hopes the State of Oklahoma has enough information to reopen the father’s case.

“Nothing gives you the right to unilaterally stab your mother and kill her, and I’m not convinced, based upon what I know 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,” said Judd.

Polk County deputies identified a 12-inch knife with an 8-inch blade as the weapon Griffith is suspected to have used to kill his 39-year-old mother, Catherine Griffith. He told 911 dispatchers that his mother fell on the knife.

“‘I’ve had a very, very long fight with Mom, and she fell on a knife, and she’s bleeding from the neck.’ Our investigation clearly and unequivocally shows that that circumstance did not occur like that,” said Judd.

Lance Dunford, a criminal defense attorney at Scott T. Morey Law Firm, said that it could be possible for the Oklahoma case to reopen and that Griffith may be tried as an adult.

“We have something called a Williams rule; it comes from a case that allows the government, in this case, the attorney’s office, to actually reference prior bad acts that have a similar MO or modus operandi, things that show an absence of a mistake,” said Dunford. “It’s already being highlighted that there are some major consistencies between the 911 call, the circumstances involving his father and now his mother.”

In the one and half years between the deaths of Griffith’s parents, there were warning signs.

The 17-year-old was Baker Acted multiple times. There were also a number of domestic battery instances that took place in front of witnesses.