Tag: purse

Central Florida woman accused of drugging disabled great-granddaughter in attempted murder-suicide

A woman was arrested after deputies caught her in the process of an apparent murder-suicide with her great-granddaughter Monday, according to the Volusia County Sheriff’s Office. Deputies said the woman, Deborah Collier, 69, was charged with attempted first-degree murder. It all started when Collier’s family found a suicide note. Deputies began looking for her after she left her home in the Daytona Park Estates area of DeLand and left behind a suicide note.A VSO deputy spotted her vehicle and conducted a traffic stop for a well-being check. Collier was located behind the wheel, while her 13-year-old great-granddaughter was unconscious in the passenger seat, according to the VSO. Deputies said the child had white pill residue on her and found her totally unresponsive. Inside Collier’s purse, authorities found prescription pills and a typed note explaining she was ending her and her great-granddaughter’s lives to spare the family further stress.Detectives learned that the victim requires 24-hour care due to her disabilities. Collier and her husband were her sole guardians since birth. VSO said the demands of caretaking have contributed to significant stress in the family.Because Collier opposed placing the victim in an assisted living facility, she acted out of desperation and decided to end both her great-granddaughter’s life and her own, according to deputies. Collier believed that no one would care for her like family.Deputies said she was transported to the Volusia County Branch Jail and is currently being held without bond.If you or someone you know needs help, you can talk with the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline by calling or sending a text message to 988, or you can chat online here.

VOLUSIA COUNTY, Fla. —

A woman was arrested after deputies caught her in the process of an apparent murder-suicide with her great-granddaughter Monday, according to the Volusia County Sheriff’s Office.

Deputies said the woman, Deborah Collier, 69, was charged with attempted first-degree murder.

It all started when Collier’s family found a suicide note.

Deputies began looking for her after she left her home in the Daytona Park Estates area of DeLand and left behind a suicide note.

A VSO deputy spotted her vehicle and conducted a traffic stop for a well-being check.

Collier was located behind the wheel, while her 13-year-old great-granddaughter was unconscious in the passenger seat, according to the VSO.

Deputies said the child had white pill residue on her and found her totally unresponsive.

Inside Collier’s purse, authorities found prescription pills and a typed note explaining she was ending her and her great-granddaughter’s lives to spare the family further stress.

Detectives learned that the victim requires 24-hour care due to her disabilities. Collier and her husband were her sole guardians since birth.

VSO said the demands of caretaking have contributed to significant stress in the family.

Because Collier opposed placing the victim in an assisted living facility, she acted out of desperation and decided to end both her great-granddaughter’s life and her own, according to deputies.

Collier believed that no one would care for her like family.

Deputies said she was transported to the Volusia County Branch Jail and is currently being held without bond.

If you or someone you know needs help, you can talk with the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline by calling or sending a text message to 988, or you can chat online here.

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December 30, 2025
Habitual Felony Offender, Prison Releasee Reoffender Convicted Again in Central Florida

A habitual felony offender and prison releasee reoffender was convicted again in Central Florida.

After a two-day trial, a Volusia County jury found defendant Don Murphy III guilty as charged of Aggravated Battery and Robbery by Sudden Snatching.

On February 15, 2021, a woman was walking to her boyfriend’s house in Daytona Beach when she ran into Murphy and another woman on Dr Mary McLeod Bethune Boulevard.

The victim told detectives that Murphy asked her for a lighter, which she declined. The defendant then tried to take her purse. Video surveillance shows he pinned the victim to the ground and punched her multiple times before leaving the scene with her purse.

The victim received life-threatening injuries including several internal bleeds, a collapsed lung and fractured ribs, but recovered at the hospital. Murphy was identified by the victim and was arrested.

Immediately following the verdict, the defendant was sentenced to 30 years in prison as a habitual felony offender and a prison releasee reoffender.

The case was investigated by the Daytona Beach Police Department. Assistant State Attorney Helen Schwartz successfully tried the case for the state. The Honorable Elizabeth Blackburn presided over the case and pronounced sentence.

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September 23, 2024
Former Inglewood teacher linked by DNA to cold-case killing is convicted of murder, kidnapping

A former Inglewood teacher has been convicted of murdering one woman and kidnapping, then sexually assaulting, another nearly two decades ago, prosecutors said.

Charles Wright, 58, is expected to be sentenced to 50 years to life in state prison, according to the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office.

“I am pleased that this day has finally come for the victims of this horrendous crime,” Los Angeles County Dist. Atty. George Gascón said in a statement. “It is particularly egregious that these crimes were committed by someone who was in a position of trust and authority. This conviction sends a clear message that we will not tolerate violence in our community.”

Wright, then a middle school teacher in the Inglewood Unified School District, was arrested in early 2022 after DNA and fingerprint evidence linked him to the killing of Pertina Epps. The 21-year-old was found strangled in a carport in Gardena on the afternoon of April 26, 2005.

Her killing remained unsolved for years, until homicide investigators with the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department reviewed the case in 2021 and resubmitted some of the evidence for forensic testing.

When the newer technology came back with a match to Wright, the Sheriff’s Department got a warrant to arrest the Hawthorne man.

Afterward, Wright denied any involvement, telling The Times in 2022 that his fingerprints were only on the woman’s purse because he’d been selling purses and other clothes from the trunk of his car.

“I didn’t do this,” he said, without explaining the DNA allegations. He said he had resigned from his teaching job to fight the case.

By the time his case went to trial, Wright was also facing charges in the 2006 kidnapping and sexual assault of an 18-year-old woman whom the district attorney’s office did not identify in a statement Friday.

On Wednesday, he was convicted of first-degree murder, kidnapping for oral copulation and forced oral copulation, prosecutors said. His sentencing is scheduled for Sept. 10.

Keri Blakinger

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July 12, 2024
Unlike ‘all-star’ events in other sports, NASCAR’s matters. ‘We actually take it seriously’

NASCAR driver Kyle Larson glances up at the check he and his team received for winning the NASCAR All-Star race at North Wilkesboro Speedway on Sunday, May 21, 2023.

JEFF SINER

jsiner@charlotteobserver.com

All-Star events have long held significance to their sports, even as their popularity has declined in recent years.

The Major League Baseball season is usually broken up by the popular “midsummer classic” each second week of July with a real game of baseball. Stars on the NFL’s teams not heading to the Super Bowl used to go to Hawaii during the week following conference championship games. It’s now called the Pro Bowl Games and features a flag football game.

And now, with once-spectacles like the NBA All-Star Game shattering scoring records with a noticeable lack of defense, and the NHL seeing notable players opt out of its All-Star events, it’s clear that these annual events don’t live up to the hype they once did.

NASCAR’s annual All-Star Race, which will be run at 8 p.m. Sunday at North Wilkesboro, was established in 1985 to precede the Coca-Cola 600. The purse awarded to its winner ballooned to $1 million in 2003.

Is the All-Star Race still important?

“It’s just a little different,” Denny Hamlin said. “It used to be that in NASCAR, this was the one race that had a bunch of money — but that’s stayed stagnant, really for the past few decades.”

May 22, 2022; Fort Worth, Texas, USA; NASCAR Cup Series driver Ryan Blaney (12) celebrates in Victory lane after winning the All-Star Race at Texas Motor Speedway. John David Mercer USA TODAY Sports

$1 million for the last 21 years

Beginning in 1985, any driver who could win each of the sport’s three crown jewels at the time — the Daytona 500, Coca-Cola 600 and Southern 500 — was eligible for a $1 million prize from Winston. Bill Elliott (1985) and Jeff Gordon (1997) both pulled off the trifecta of elusive checkered flags and took home the “Winston Million.”

NASCAR and Winston went even further in 1998, giving $1 million to a driver who won a crown jewel race after a Top Five finish in the most recent crown jewel. Over the final five years of Winston’s run as the Cup Series’ title sponsor, the $1 million bonus was won 13 times.

The All-Star race winner’s prize — $1 million in 2003 is worth approximately $1.7 million in 2024 — still remains unchanged.

But that doesn’t necessarily impact the authenticity of the on-track product.

“I think our All-Star race is more important than other sports,” William Byron said. “We actually put the same effort into it. We race the same. It may be even more aggressive — other sports, you see them doing flag football, or they’re not really playing defense in the NBA.

“For us, we actually take it seriously. And there’s a lot on the line.”

May 21, 2023; North Wilkesboro, North Carolina, USA; NASCAR Cup Series driver Daniel Suarez (99) and driver Denny Hamlin (11) race early on during the All Star Race at North Wilkesboro Speedway. Jim Dedmon USA TODAY Sports

It’s part of the season

Byron, this year’s Daytona 500 champion who grew up in Charlotte, has fond memories attending All-Star Races at Charlotte Motor Speedway during the 2000s.

While that $1 million prize may not seem as enticing as it once did, it doesn’t necessarily diminish any pride in being that year’s All-Star Race winner. Even for someone like Byron, who is making $28 million from his recent Daytona triumph.

Drivers want to win races every Sunday, and whether this weekend’s race is considered the All-Star Race or not, it’s another race on the schedule.

It’s not some kind of “All-Star break,” like other sports’ midseason events provide. This weekend will be all about the lore of North Wilkesboro and significance of the All-Star Race — and then the following week, drivers will be using what they learned to apply it to their next race.

“It feels just like another race,” Chase Elliott said. “I think it’s a little different in team sports — like baseball, and the Pro Bowl in football — because their season is just a little different. That might not necessarily apply to their next competitive event.

“Whereas, for us, you could take something from Wilkesboro next week, and it could apply to your next points-paying event. Which I think is a really big deal.”

NASCAR Cup Series driver Ty Gibbs (54) leads the field at the start of the All-Star open at North Wilkesboro Speedway on May 21, 2023, in North Wilkesboro, N.C. Jim Dedmon USA TODAY Sports

What can NASCAR do to improve its All-Star Race?

All winners of Cup Series points-paying races since the start of the 2023 season, along with previous Cup champions who still race full-time, are eligible to run in the All-Star Race.

That list includes 17 drivers, with three more spots determined following the All-Star Open earlier Sunday evening.

“Our race is as good as anyone’s All-Star event,” Hamlin said. “You see the NBA, NFL are just not good for that, a lot of it’s injury reasons. But for us, it’s that we’re all trying to win it. Trust me, we’ve seen some really great finishes, and I think that certainly adds to our sport to have that weekend showcasing the best drivers.

“It should probably be a little more exclusive. I think they opened it up to too many drivers over the course of time, where, I mean, all you have to do is lead out of caution, and I think you get into the All-Star Race. It’s a little different, for sure. But they’re trying.”

Shane Connuck

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May 17, 2024