Woman who killed lottery winner Abraham Shakespeare tries to lift life prison sentence
By Kate Northrop
The woman who was convicted for killing Florida Lottery winner Abraham Shakespeare is looking to alter her prison sentence of life without parole and filed a motion to be given a new trial.
In 2012, Dee Dee Moore, now 50, was found guilty of first-degree murder and possessing and discharging a firearm on Dec. 10, 2012 after prosecutors accused her of swindling and then killing Shakespeare, who won $30 million in the lottery and took home about $12 million after taxes.
Moore is currently serving a life sentence without parole.
In 2017, Moore filed a motion for post-conviction relief but has submitted amended motions in an attempt to alter her sentence. Her supporting claim is that she received ineffective counsel during her trial.
However, Circuit Judge Michelle Sisco denied and dismissed her claims all the while allowing Moore to modify and resubmit them. They culminated last Wednesday in an evidentiary hearing in Tampa.
Moore befriended Shakespeare a couple years after he won the lottery in 2006, claiming she was writing a book about how people were taking advantage of him. Later, prosecutors claimed, she became his financial adviser, eventually controlling every asset he had left, including an expensive home, debt owed to him, and a $1.5 million annuity.
When Shakespeare understood what was going on, he threatened to kill her. Moore got to him first. His body was found with two gunshot wounds buried in her backyard underneath a concrete slab in 2010.
Circuit Judge Emmett Lamar Battles labeled her "the most manipulative person" he had ever seen during her trial.
Moore's first four claims in 2017 were all based on having received ineffective counsel. In 2019, she submitted an additional 48-page amended motion that listed 12 grounds for seeking a nullification of her sentence or a new trial.
The claims state that her lawyer, Byron Hileman, was ineffective as her defense. Hileman passed away in January.
Moore asserts that Shakespeare was alive for months after the date that prosecutors say she had killed him, and she wrote that Hileman also failed to investigate the notion, present evidence to back it, and call witnesses to the stand whose testimonies would refute prosecutors' claims.
Additionally, her attorney should have filed a motion to block "highly prejudicial" statements from a detective, who she says had alleged that Moore offered to get him a free room at the Hard Rock Casino in Tampa and perform sexual acts for him.
Finally, Moore accused the state of manipulating evidence during the trial and failed to share evidence that could have been presented in her favor.
Then-state attorney Andrew Warren rebutted Moore's claims in 2020 but conceded that an evidentiary hearing was needed to resolve parts of two claims involving blood and DNA evidence, The Ledger reported.
She appeared last week at an evidentiary hearing in Tampa, where she claimed Lakeland police officers were taking bribes from drug dealers. Robin Tillet, a spokesperson for the Lakeland Police Department, said that the LPD had no comment on the allegation, WTVT reported.
Christopher Bolt, Moore's former lawyer, testified for the prosecution and said that the defense team had done nothing wrong.
According to WTVT, Sisco is expected to issue a ruling next month.
She doesn't deserve to get out. She should have gotten the chair.
she should've been fed to the gators
Sorry Dee Dee.. You are a despicable, unethical human being with no integrity. You have zero morals and looked at Mr Shakespeare as a target of opportunity for your personal greed. You are exactly where you deserve to be in life. I truly hope your appeal is denied and any future attempt for parole is denied. Society has enough problems and we do not need to be concerned about adding you to that list.
Rot in prison.
Where's Dexter when you need him?
this lady got balls.
She has got to be one of the most despicable people on this planet.
It would be irrelevant if Shakespeare was allegedly alive months after his estimated time of death, the fact is that his body was buried in her yard. It was determined to be his body.
However, I am uncertain about the statements of the detective. If DeeDee tried the "hotel angle" to interfere with an official investigation and it was presented that way, then no new trial. If she tried the hotel angle prior to an official investigation, then it would be considered prejudicial and she would likely get a new trial.
Had his body been found when she tried the hotel angle and/or was an official investigation occurring vs the detective simply doing some informal fact finding when she suggested going to a hotel?
I am sure she will be convicted with a new trial anyway.
I watched her documentary on you tube she is a full blown narcissist!
She really cried, and pleaded as if she didn't plan his murder.
She is EXACTLY where she belongs.
* You don't get to walk free after killing an innocent person, having a friend dig a pit & burying that person under a slab of concrete.
Unless your fitst name is Hillary
Sorry. Your new permanent home should always be in prison. No chance she should get out. Also glad i play in a state with anonymity. 👍
The love of money....
If she gets new trial, maybe they can change the sentence to the death penalty instead!!! She deserves it!!!
nope hope you suffer
Such a cool name he had, unique 1
Continue #RIPAbrahamShakespeare
a kind man, who was a little bit too gentle, warm, kind, good guy, who as his beloved mother once said, as others.
how i was hoping she was not here anymore, since he had to be RIP too soon at peace, in heaven, far
before his time, thanks to this no good POS and her younger guy, just sick of hearing her name, but,
interesting to see her trying to get out earlier, through a new trial at early 60s now.
Shall follow it to see if she win, I hope not. She is where she belong. EVIL, she is/was still is to many.
Such greed. Praying she lose.
Tell you what Dee Dee...when Mr. Shakespeare walks out of his grave then you shall get your wish for a new trial is yours...and you get the bill beforehand.
Remember that due process and a nonprejudicial trial process applies to all. A judge or appellate court will apply an impartial standard of analysis. The statement of the detective will be analyzed by itself and in isolation from other facts.
Again, I would not worry about a new trial. She will be convicted again. Remember how the Tipton trial made mistakes (likely in the multistate penalty determination). So any second trial needs to get things right and lock her up forever.
Everyone is entitled to due process. I personally believe she is guilty based on what we already know.
She took advantage of a man who wanted to help others too much and his lack of education made it easy to do so. I think he figured it out and when he confronted her that was the end of his life.
Even if she does get a new trial, I agree her conviction will stand. The only downside to that is she'll just keep rotting in prison and not get sent to Death Row where she belongs.
Just like OJ's search for the real killers.
In her filing does she explain how somebody else managed to bury a body in her yard without her noticing?
It's the state's job to prove what happened, and she doesn't need to prove anything. Just to play devil's advocate, if nobody saw her burying the body, or signs of recent digging or disturbance it would also be possible for the real killer to have buried the body without anybody knowing, including her if she was elsewhere for a while. If somebody else did kill him burying the body on her property would even be a good idea, because it creates doubt about their guilt. Once the state argues that it's evidence of her guilt it's almost certainly the reasonable doubt that demands an acquittal.
Of course where he was buried, especially if they can prove that she was involved in the burial, has evidentiary value, but all they actually need to do is prove that he'd dead, that the death was murder, and that she did it. I haven't paid close attention to the case, but I'm guessing they won't have much difficulty.
give her another trial! So we can give her FIVE or TEN life sentences! The more the merrier :)
Some folks really do deserve a second serving of Common sense! Guilty as the day is long.
Lock her up and throw away the keys nobody will Miss her l don't
Almost reminds me of when Darrell Brooks (the jail house lawyer) defending himself trying to prove he didn't run over and kill six people with with his mom's SUV.