‘Psychopath’ teen arrested Sunday in Polk County, Florida, for stabbing his mother to death a year after she bailed him out after fatally shooting his dad

Polk County Sheriff’s Office is asking the State Attorney to charge Collin Griffith, 17, as an adult after he killed his mother Catherine Griffith, 39

Collin Griffith is accused of killing his mom a year after escaping a murder charge over the death of Charles Robert Griffith, 43, by claiming self-defense

School teacher Catherine Griffith paid  $50,000 bond to secure the release of her son, but he’d warned deputies he would kill her if forced to live with her

In November 2023, he was arrested on domestic violence charges after kicking his mother to the ground when she tried to restrict his use of video games.

On Sunday Sept. 14, Collin called police to say his mother had ‘fallen’ on his knife during an argument The ME said Catherine had been stabbed twice in the neck, ‘so hard that the knife went through’

Catherine Griffith[left], paid $50,000 bond a year ago, to secure the release of her son Collin, 17. However, the teen had warned deputies he would kill his mom if forced to live with her. On Sunday he called police to say his she had ‘fallen’ on his knife during an argument

The shocking crimes attributed to 17-year-old Collin Griffith, who has been described as a ‘psychopath,’ were revealed yesterday by Sheriffs in Florida’s Polk County. Over the weekend the teenager stabbed his mother to death, a year after she bailed him out for fatally shooting his father, Charles Robert Griffith. 
On the evening of Sunday September7, Collin Griffith called police to say his mother Catherine had ‘fallen’ on his knife during an argument. 
However, witnesses reported seeing him dragging his mom out of the house by her hair two hours earlier.
The medical examiner found that 39-year-old Catherine Griffith had been stabbed twice in the neck.
A year ago, Catherine paid $50,000 to bail her son out of jail after he shot his father dead. 
Charges against Colin were dropped after he argued that he killed his father in self-defense.  
Recounting the actions of the teen on Wednesday, county Sheriff, Grady Judd, said ‘When you look at this, you see a kid. When I look at him I see a psychopath’. 
‘Everybody that should be special to him in his life is dead when they cross him.’ 

Polk County Sheriff’s Office is asking the State Attorney to charge Collin Griffith, 17, as an adult after he killed his mother – a year after escaping a murder charge over his father’s death by claiming ‘self-defense’

Colin claimed that his 43-year-old dad Charles Robert Griffith, had pulled a knife on him before chasing and cornering him at the remote farmstead in Lincoln County, Oklahoma, on Valentine’s Day 2023.
Prosecutors ‘could not disprove Colin’s assertion of self-defense,’ and he was released after his mother posted bond of $50,000.
However, six months later the teenager was back in custody under Florida’s Baker Act after threatening to kill himself or his mother by shooting or stabbing her.
In November last year he was arrested on domestic violence charges after kicking his mother to the ground when she tried to restrict his use of video games.
Colin’s attempt to fight the domestic violence charge, by again claiming self-defense failed because his grandmother who witnessed the assault corroborated Catherine Griffith’s account.

Catherine Griffith [photo], a 39-year-old popular teacher with the Florida Virtual School died on Sunday after her son ‘stabbed his mother in the neck so hard that the knife went all the way through’, police said 

In February 2024, Colin ran away from his mother’s house in Charlotte County, to stay with his grandmother.
Despite telling deputies ‘I will kill my mother’ rather than be reunited with, they handed him to Florida’s Department for Children and Families who returned him to the home in Charlotte County, a year to the day after his father was killed.
Police on Wednesday released a series of chilling text messages Catherine sent in the hours before her death begging a neighbor for help.

‘Collin just hates me and I’m tired of this crap.’ Police released Catherine Griffith’s text exchange with a friend, in the hours before her death, clearly indicating that she feared for her life

‘Please do not let Collin or the police into my home. I’m not opening my door,’ she wrote in one.
‘Collin just hates me and I’m tired of this crap.’
‘Where are you and how am I going to stop him?’ the neighbor replied.
‘Don’t give them the keys,’ Catherine responded. ‘I’m home in my room.’
On the day of her death she told the neighbor: ‘I’m meeting with his probation officer Monday morning if he doesn’t come home today by ten. He knows the time and deadline.
‘He’s choosing to skip it and hide out at my mom’s house in Polk county which is also a violation.’
In her final text she wrote: ‘He won’t listen I am going to drive to get him and if he doesn’t get in the car then Polk county can deal with him.’

Leading to her murder, Catherine Griffith was leaving in fear of her son – ‘When you look at this, you see a kid. When I look at him I see a psychopath,’ Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd told a press conference on Wednesday. The Sheriff’s Office is asking the State Attorney to charge the teen as an adult

Griffith’s grandmother was not at home when his mother arrived at 4pm on Sunday and the pair began to argue.
By 6.30pm police were on the way after Griffith called to say his mother had injured herself, and showed ‘zero remorse’ when the officers arrived.
‘He looked the deputy in the eye and said: ‘I know my rights, I want an attorney’,’ Judd told reporters.
‘He claimed that during this argument, his mother lunged at him with a knife, and fell on it, resulting in a deep stab wound to her neck.
‘The medical examiner said it’s just not reasonable or plausible that she died the way that he said she did. ‘It just didn’t happen.’

A murder charge against Collin Griffith was dropped a month after he shot dad Charles Griffith in the head and chest, after the 17-year-old claimed to be acting in self-defense. A year later, he has again murdered his mom who stood by him in the earlier case

Colin Griffith was arrested for murder and the Polk County Sheriff’s Office is asking the State Attorney to charge him as an adult in Florida. In the aftermath, the Oklahoma District Attorney’s Office has also said it is now examining whether to charge him again over his father’s death.
‘If Oklahoma had been able to act, Catherine would be alive and well today,’ Judd said.
‘But because she took him in and tried to do like a mother should do and took care of him, she’s now dead.
‘He’s already, at 17 years of age, shot and killed his father and got away with it, and stabbed his mother in the neck so hard that the knife went all the way through.
‘Now he’s killed two people, and killed his mother and father, and I can assure you based upon his conduct, had he gone to live with his grandmother at the end of this, and she had crossed him, she would be next.’