Teenager accused and acquitted of shooting his father in 2023 is now charged with stabbing his mother: police

Collin Griffith, 17, was charged – and acquitted – in connection with the murder of his father, more than a year before his mother was charged

A Florida teenager has been arrested in connection with the fatal stabbing attack of his mother – more than a year after he was charged in Oklahoma with murdering his father. (The previous charge has since been dropped.)

Catherine Griffith, 39, was allegedly killed in a stabbing at a home in Auburndale, Florida, on Sunday, Sept. 8, the Polk County Sheriff's Office said in a statement.

Officers from the Polk County Sheriff's Office and the Polk County Fire Department responded to the home after the victim's son, 17-year-old Collin Griffith, called 911, claiming his mother died when she fell on a knife during an argument between the two, the sheriff's office statement said.

“He said he and his mother had been arguing for a long time and she fell on the knife and … she was bleeding from her neck,” Sheriff Grady Judd claimed at a press conference.

Collin allegedly claimed his mother tried to attack him with the knife before falling on it, according to the sheriff's office. The two lived in Charlotte County, Judd said, but were at the home of Catherine's mother, who was not there at the time.

Collin was found by officers who responded to him to be “calm, composed and bandaged, not agitated.” Officers also noticed traces of blood on him, Judd said.

The medical examiner's office concluded that Collins' testimony was inconsistent with Catherine's cause of death, he said.

According to the sheriff, witnesses said they saw Collin grab his mother by the hair and drag her into the house before the incident while she yelled at him to stop.

“His mother repeatedly begged Collin to let him go,” the sheriff's office statement said, citing witness statements.

Judd claimed Collin was also a suspect in the fatal shooting of his father in February 2023 in Lincoln County, Oklahoma, and charges against him were dropped a month later because police “could not disprove Collin's claim of self-defense.” (It was not immediately clear what other charges Collin faced besides murder in connection with his father's killing.)

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The Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation, which investigated the murder of Collins' father, told PEOPLE on Thursday that they had not been asked again by Lincoln County authorities to reopen the case. It referred PEOPLE to the Lincoln County sheriff and district attorney's office, who did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Judd said they had contacted prosecutors in Oklahoma, who told them they did not have sufficient evidence in their case but might consider reopening the case if Florida authorities found enough information through their investigation.

Collins' plea and information about his attorney in connection with his mother's killing were not immediately available.

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