Dorice "Dee Dee" Moore, Fla. woman, found guilty of murder in death of state lottery winner

By: Crimesider Staff
Topics: Daily Blotter

Defendant Dorice Moore has her handcuffs removed as she enters the courtroom during Moore's murder trial on Tuesday, Dec. 4, 2012 in Tampa, Fla.

/ Pool,AP Photo/The Lakeland Ledger, Ernst Peters

(CBS/AP) TAMPA, Fla. - Dorice "Dee Dee" Moore was convicted Monday of first-degree murder in the slaying of lottery winner Abraham Shakespeare in central Florida. She was sentenced to mandatory life without parole by a judge who called her "cold, calculating and cruel."

Moore was sentenced to an additional mandatory 25 years for using a gun in the commission of a felony. She has 30 days to appeal.

"I can sleep good at night because I know I had done the very best job," Moore's attorney Byron Hileman said. "I feel sad for the victim. I feel sad for their families. I feel sad for the defendant because these types of cases are no-win situations."

Prosecutors said Moore befriended Shakespeare in late 2008, claiming she was writing a book about how people were taking advantage of him. They claimed Moore later became his financial adviser. She eventually controlled every asset he had left, including an expensive home, the debt owed to him and a $1.5 million annuity. She ultimately swindled Shakespeare out of his dwindling fortune, then shot him and buried his body under a concrete slab in her backyard, Pruner said.

Jurors deliberated for more than three hours before finding Moore guilty of the first-degree murder charge prosecutors had lodged against her in the death of Shakespeare, who won millions in 2006.

"She got every bit of his money," said Assistant State Attorney Jay Pruner in closing arguments. "He found out about it and threatened to kill her. She killed him first."

Hileman argued that there were other potential suspects whom prosecutors refused to consider.

"There were a lot of people who owed Mr. Shakespeare a lot of money. One guy owed him a million dollars," he said during his closing arguments. "The police focused on Dee Dee Moore and they didn't even consider other people."

Judge Emmett Battles instructed the jury that it could convict the 40-year-old Moore of a lesser charge. Following the verdict, he called her "the most manipulative person" he had ever seen, describing her as "cold, calculating and cruel."

In opening statements, Moore's attorney told the jury that his client was trying to help protect Shakespeare's assets from a pending child-support case when he was killed by drug dealers who hadn't been caught.

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

3 Comments +

Add a Comment


by JudgeRutherford December 20, 2012 4:07 PM EST: I think she's hot!; Reply to this comment


by canpotex December 14, 2012 2:31 AM EST: She looks evil.; Reply to this comment


by caljack430 December 11, 2012 1:59 PM EST: Sure, there are plenty of other people who had motive to kill him... but pretty much no one else who would, and could have killed him then laid him in a concrete slab in THIS woman's backyard...; Reply to this comment