Opinion ID: 2382857
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 18

Heading: Darrell Collins

Text: Collins plotted the murders of his wife and eighteen-month-old son to obtain insurance proceeds on their lives. This, too, was a brutal murder. Collins, a martial-arts enthusiast, slashed his wife in the throat, face, and breasts with a sharp weapon, and then beat and suffocated his eighteen-month-old son as he lay in his crib. Collins was twenty-six years of age and worked as a chef at the time of the murders. He had no prior criminal record and had completed one year of college. The Public Defender argues that although the case is not technically in the Master's universe, it should be considered because Collins murdered a defenseless family member for pecuniary gain. The jury found Collins guilty of the non-capital murder of his wife and of the capital murder of his son. The jury, however, did not find either the c(4)(d) aggravating factor of killing for pecuniary gain or the c(4)(f) factor of killing to escape detection. The trial court sentenced him to life with a thirty-year period of parole ineligibility for the murder of his wife, and to thirty years with a thirty-year period of parole ineligibility for the murder of his son, consecutive to the first term.