17-year-old accused of murdering his mother to be charged as an adult

Lina Portman2 weeks ago

2 1 minute read

17-year-old accused of murdering his mother to be charged as an adult

POLK COUNTY, Fla. (WWSB) – State Attorney Brian Haas has announced Collin Griffith has been indicted for First-Degree Murder and will be charged as an adult.

Haas says he made the decision based on the “egregious facts and circumstances of the case.”

Deputies say the teenager called 911 for help, stating that he and his mother had gotten into a fight. He claimed that during this argument, his mother lunged at him with a knife, and fell on it, resulting in a deep stab wound to her neck.

Polk County Fire Rescue responded to the Auburndale home with emergency medical services and Polk County Sheriff's Office deputies also responded. When they arrived on scene, she was pronounced dead.

Deputies asked the teenager what happened and he became immediately uncooperative, and asked to speak with a lawyer. As the investigation continued, detectives began to notice inconsistencies between what he had stated happened in his 911 call and what was discovered at the scene.

Detectives talked with witnesses who told them that they saw the teenager and his mother outside the residence earlier verbally arguing. They witnessed him grab his mother by the hair and drag her inside the home.

According to these witnesses, his mother repeatedly pled with him to “let me go.”

Although she was not present during the stabbing incident on Sunday, the teenager's grandmother told detectives about multiple instances in which he was physically or verbally confrontational with his mother in the past.

His grandmother also revealed that he had been arrested in the shooting death of his father in Oklahoma in February of 2023. The teenager was arrested and charged in this 2023 incident, but charges were later dropped on the grounds of self-defense.

He was also charged with domestic violence battery against his mother in November of 2023 by the Charlotte County Sheriff's Office.

The Medical Examiner's Office's autopsy revealed that the mother died of a deep penetrating knife wound to the neck. They determined the stab wound to be inconsistent with an accidental injury.