Lottery winner Abraham Shakespeare's alleged killer on trial in Fla.

By: Crimesider Staff
Topics: Daily Blotter

Dorice "DeeDee" Moore

/ AP Photo

(CBS/AP) TAMPA, Fla. - The trial of Dorice "Dee Dee" Moore, the 40-year-old woman charged with the first-degree murder of Florida lottery winner Abraham Shakespeare in 2009, began Wednesday. Prosecutors say Moore swindled the barely literate man out of nearly $1.5 million before shooting him and burying his body in her backyard.

Moore's lawyer, Byron Hileman, said most of the evidence against his client is circumstantial and that there is nothing tying Moore to the gun used to kill Shakespeare.

"There are no eyewitnesses who can testify that Ms. Moore shot and killed Mr. Shakespeare or was present when he was shot and killed or had any part carrying out his murder," Hileman said.

Shakespeare won $30 million in the Florida lottery in 2006. When Shakespeare and Moore met in 2008, the man had already spent or given away most of his lottery winnings. Friends and acquaintances owed him millions of dollars, the lawyers on the case said.

Assistant state attorney Jay Pruner said Moore befriended Shakespeare by claiming she was writing a book "about how people were taking advantage of him." Moore eventually became his financial advisor and had control over every asset he had left.

Pruner will attempt to prove that Moore transferred money from Shakespeare's account to her own, and that she formed a company in his name - yet didn't allow him to withdraw money from the bank account attached to that company. Pruner also alleges that Moore tried to cover up Shakespeare's disappearance.

Shakespeare disappeared in April 2009. His body was found under a concrete slab, buried in the back of Moore's home in east Hillsborough, Fla., in January 2010.

The trial is expected to last two weeks.

Complete coverage of the Abraham Shakespeare "lottery murder" on Crimesider

4 Comments +

Add a Comment


by curvatura99 November 30, 2012 5:44 PM EST: Anyone that buried a body in a state that is surrounded by oceans is dumb enough to go to jail.; Reply to this comment


by RhodesianRanger November 30, 2012 6:28 AM EST: Why do dumb stupid people win lotteries!
Well if the law is twisted for Trayvon, then the law will be twisted for this case too.
Till then she's innocent (and still gorgeous).; Reply to this comment


by BoomerangBeamers November 29, 2012 9:51 PM EST: This story makes me feel sick to the stomach. I am constantly amazed by the ability of one (or, in this case, several) human being/s to exploit the good naturedness and generosity of another. And this woman did it in the worst possible way - by pretending to be unlike the others. And as if taking his money wasn't enough; she took his life too (allegedly). She deserves to rot in solitary confinement for the abuse of his trust, regardless of whether or not she killed him (and although circumstantial, I think the evidence speaks for itself).

I really feel for Shakespeare's mother and kid. Just awful.; Reply to this comment


by caljack430 November 29, 2012 2:55 PM EST: I don't care what they say about 'circumstantial' evidence. When his body shows up in her backyard buried under a concrete slab and she has the means and motive to kill him... I am left with very little belief that someone else killed him.; Reply to this comment