Abraham Lee Shakespeare (April 23, 1966 – 2009) was an American casual laborer who won a $30 million lottery jackpot, receiving $17 million in 2006. In 2009 his family declared him missing, and in January 2010 his body was found buried under a concrete slab in the backyard of an acquaintance. Shakespeare's troubles after winning the lottery were profiled in the American E! television program Curse of the Lottery.

Early life

Shakespeare dropped out of school after seventh grade, and as a result was illiterate. He was jailed after being convicted of a string of burglaries. Subsequently, he worked various labor pool jobs.

Lottery

The Florida Lotto winning ticket worth $30 million was sold at a Town Star convenience store in Frostproof, Florida, on November 15, 2006.

On that day Abraham Shakespeare and co-worker Michael Ford were headed toward Miami when they stopped briefly at the convenience store in Frostproof to buy drinks and cigarettes. Ford got out of the truck and asked Shakespeare if he wanted a soda. Shakespeare instead asked Ford to buy him two Lottery tickets. Shakespeare said that he paid Ford $2 for the tickets out of the $5 he had on him that day.

Michael Ford later approached Shakespeare demanding a share of the jackpot of no less than $1 million, which Shakespeare refused to pay, prompting Ford to sue Shakespeare accusing him of stealing the two tickets from his wallet.

Shakespeare chose a one-time, lump sum cash payment of $17 million, before taxes, instead of 30 annual payments totaling $30 million. He moved out of his working-class neighborhood in Lakeland, Florida and into a gated community.

Several months after his lottery win, apart from a $1 million home, his only other major purchases included a Nissan Altima and a Rolex watch from a pawnshop. By late January 2010 the sheriff involved in the investigation of Shakespeare's disappearance told AP that the lottery money "is gone now."

Friends stated Shakespeare had grown frustrated with the apparently constant appeals for money from both hangers-on and strangers. He told his brother, "I'd have been better off broke," and told a childhood friend, "I thought all these people were my friends, but then I realized all they want is just money."

One of these was Dorice Donegan "Dee-Dee" Moore, who launched a business with Shakespeare, Abraham Shakespeare LLC, giving herself control of the firm's funds. Moore subsequently withdrew $1 million and bought herself a Hummer, a Chevrolet Corvette and a truck before going on vacation. She later claimed that the money was a gift from Shakespeare.

Missing status and death

On November 9, 2009, Shakespeare's family reported him missing, stating that they had not seen him since April of that year. Family and friends had originally hoped that he had taken his money and was living on a beach in the Caribbean Sea. A tip-off led investigators to the backyard of Moore's boyfriend Shar Krasniqi, where Shakespeare's body was found buried in five feet of dirt under a newly constructed concrete slab. Shakespeare was 43.

Hillsborough County detectives say Shakespeare died April 6 or 7 in the single-story ranch home in Plant City. Police took Moore into custody on February 2, 2010, in connection with the murder of Shakespeare and a judge set a $1 million bond. She was charged with being an accessory after the fact in first-degree murder. Police state Moore tried to convince an acquaintance to unearth the body and move it a week after the death, and continued to try to convince others that Shakespeare was still alive. On February 19, 2010, Dorice Donegan Moore was arrested on a charge of first degree murder.

Investigation

Before police found Shakespeare's dead body, Moore claimed Shakespeare decided to leave town and went to Texas, Jamaica, Puerto Rico, Orlando, Florida or was sick in a hospital. Moore even claimed that Shakespeare was sick of people asking him for money, so she helped him leave town. Moore told police different versions of what happened to Shakespeare, after they found his body under a concrete slab, in the backyard of the home she put in her boyfriend's name. Moore claimed drug dealers killed him, a lawyer did him in and then blamed her 14-year-old son. She also claimed she killed Shakespeare in self-defense.

Soon after Shakespeare disappeared, Moore, who was living in Shakespeare's house, kept using his cell phone and sending text messages to his friends and relatives, as though she were Shakespeare. Moore would text messages, which people thought did not sound like him and were suspicious because Shakespeare was illiterate. When people texted Shakespeare's phone back with questions that could not be answered by Moore, no response was given.

During the same time that Moore was trying to make it appear that Shakespeare was alive, she tried to find a person who would take the blame for Shakespeare's death, for $50,000. She also offered to pay someone to dig up and move Shakespeare's body to another location.

Somehow, property records show that Moore's company, American Medical Professionals, bought Shakespeare's house. Moore told investigators she paid Shakespeare $655,000 for his home and bought $185,000 for loans which were actually worth much more, which people owed him; however, there is no evidence showing she paid Shakespeare anything.

Moore offered the mother of a son of Shakespeare's, a $200,000 home if she would lie to detectives and tell them she had seen him recently. She also paid a relative of Shakespeare's, $5,000, to give his mother a birthday card, implying it was from him.

Through the investigation of Moore, it was learned that she had once staged a scene to fraudulently keep a Lincoln Navigator, of which she was in jeopardy of having repossessed, after falling behind on the payments. She had someone store the car in a garage and then pretended she was kidnapped, sexually assaulted and carjacked. Investigators claimed she taped her wrists and threw herself from someone else's car to make a scene. She even took a rape exam. She later pleaded no contest for the charge and received probation.

Conviction and Sentencing of Dorice "Dee Dee" Moore

On December 10th 2012, Dee Dee Moore was convicted of first degree murder for the killing of Abraham Shakespeare and was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole with an addditional minimum sentence of 25 years for possessing a gun in the course of a violent felony.

In media

The difficulties Shakespeare experienced as a result of winning the lottery, including his murder, were the focus of the American E! television program Curse of the Lottery and part of an episode of Lottery Changed My Life.

Timeline

• November 15, 2006 - Shakespeare's co-worker Michael Ford buys two tickets (including the winning ticket) on the request of Shakespeare at Town Star convenience store in Frostproof where they stopped briefly so Ford could buy cigarettes.

• January, 2007 - Shakespeare buys a $1.1 million home in a gated community in North Lakeland.

• April, 2007 - Michael Ford sues Shakespeare for stealing the winning ticket from him.

• October 19, 2007 - Jury took only a little over an hour to rule that Shakespeare did not steal winning ticket from Michael Ford's wallet.

• October, 2008 - DeeDee Moore arranges to meet Shakespeare for the purported reason of writing a book about him.

• January 9, 2009 - The ownership of Shakespeare's home is transferred over to American Medical Professionals, DeeDee Moore's company.

• 2009 - Polk County records show Shakespeare's home and other properties were sold or assigned to American Medical Professionals. Of $570,000 debt owed to Shakespeare more than two-thirds were owed by American Medical Professionals.

• February 21, 2009 - Dee Dee Moore buys a 2008 Chevrolet Corvette at a Chevrolet dealer for her boyfriend in the amount of $70,390.86. She paid with a cashier's check from her American Medical Professionals LLC, business account.

• March 2, 2009 - Dee Dee Moore buys a 2009 Hummer for about $90,000.

• April, 2009 - Abaraham Shakespeare was last seen in Lakeland area, Florida.

• April 6, 2009 - According to detectives, this was the last day Shakespeare used his cell phone.

• August, 2009 - Cedric Edom, Shakespeare's cousin, delivered a card with $100 and a cross enclosed to Elizabeth Walker, Shakespeare's mother. Walker claimed the signature on the card looked like Shakespeare's, but that Edom did not say who gave him the card.

• November 9, 2009 - Cedric Edom filed a missing person's report on Shakespeare with the sheriff's office.

• November 12, 2009 - Possibly the first interview conducted by detectives with Dee Dee Moore. In this interview detectives tried to learn how Moore appropriated Shakespeare's assets. Moore told investigators she paid Shakespeare in cash in regard to why there was no proof in her bank accounts for payments of Shakespeare's assets.

• November 24, 2009 - Another early interview of Dee Dee Moore with detectives. Moore claimed the reason Shakespeare was taken off the Abraham Shakespeare LLC account was that he did not want to pay taxes. She also could not give a reason for why the account which had almost $1 million was soon withdrawn from the account days after Shakespeare's name was removed.

• November 24, 2009 - The Polk County sheriff's office declares Shakespeare missing.

• December 3, 2009 - In an interview with Dee Dee Moore and detectives, Moore claimed that the reason that some of Shakespeare's assets went into Moore's business account, American Medical Associates, was because Shakespeare did not want to pay child support.

• December, 2009 - DeeDee Moore, posing as Abraham Shakespeare, wrote to his mother saying he was fine, even though Shakespeare could not read or write.

• December 5, 2009 - Dee Dee Moore, who had bought a Hummer only 10 months before, sells it to a friend of an owner of a Chevrolet dealer for $49,000. She had told Chevrolet she needed quick cash.

• December 27, 2009 - Elizabeth Walker, Shakespeare's mother, receives a phone call from someone pretending to be Shakespeare, while she eats out with Dee Dee Moore.

• December 28, 2009 - Gregory Smith, one of Shakespeare's friends, had borrowed money from Shakespeare and was paid by Dee Dee Moore to make calls to Shakespeare's mother pretending to be her son. Smith is approached and interviewed by detectives and decides to start cooperating with law enforcement.

• January, 2010 - Dee Dee Moore contacts Gregory Smith and asked him if he knew anyone who would admit to law enforcement that they were responsible for the killing of Shakespeare.

• January 21, 2010 - Officer Mike Smith of the Lake Wales, Florida police department, working undercover is introduced to Dee Dee Moore by Gregory Smith. Moore agreed to pay Mike Smith $50,000 if he told law enforcement that he was responsible for Shakespeare's death. Mike Smith agreed to this but told Dee Dee Moore he needed to know where Shakespeare was buried.

• January 25, 2010 - Dee Dee Moore meets with Gregory Smith, who is cooperating with undercover officer Mike Smith, and shows him the concrete slab under which Shakespeare was buried. Moore also gives Gregory Smith a .38 Smith and Wesson revolver which was used to kill Shakespeare.

• January 25, 2010 - In an interview with Dee Dee Moore and detectives, Moore claimed the reason she did not pay Shakespeare for his house was because he had a drug problem and the money would be used to buy drugs.

• January 27, 2010 - Police searching for missing lottery winner find a body at Plant City house a day after digging at the site.

• January 28, 2010 - James Moore, Dee Dee Moore's ex-husband was interviewed by detectives. James Moore claimed that Dee Dee Moore had called him during the first 2 weeks of April, 2009, asking him to dig a hole in her yard. Dee Dee Moore claimed the hole was needed to bury concrete and trash in. James Moore claimed he dug a hole and after he left the yard, was called back 2 hours later by Dee Dee Moore, asking him to return to fill the hole. James Moore, who was being paid to do other yard work by Dee Dee, claimed he returned to fill the hole, but could not see what was in it, since it was dark.

• January 29, 2010 - A body found at backyard of a Plant City property was identified as that of missing Shakespeare.

• February 2, 2010 - Police take DeeDee Moore into custody. Moore is charged with accessory after the fact.

• February 3, 2010 - Judge sets bond at $1 million for Dorice "DeeDee" Moore.

• February 19, 2010 - Dee Dee Moore is charged with first degree murder.

• March 15, 2010 - DeeDee Moore pleaded not guilty to murder in a Hillsborough County, Florida court.

• December 10, 2012 - DeeDee Moore found guilty of murder.

Wikipedia.org
  

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

CBSNews.com

December 11, 2012

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.

Woman who struck up friendship with $30m lottery winner, swindled him out of his money and then KILLED him in cold blood is found guilty and sentenced to life

• Dorice 'Dee Dee' Moore sentenced to life in prison for murder of Abraham Shakespeare

• The lottery winner's body was found under a slab of concrete in 2009

• Detectives obtained CCTV of her buying plastic sheeting and duct tape

• Site of burial was owned by Moore's ex-boyfriend, detectives say

DailyMail.co.uk

December 11, 2012

The woman accused of befriending a $30million lottery winner, swindling him of his cash and then killing him was last night sentenced to life in prison.

Dorice 'Dee Dee' Moore, 40, was convicted of first-degree murder, after she killed Florida lottery winner Abraham Shakespeare. She became close to Abraham by claiming she was writing a book about him.

Shakespeare's body was found under a concrete slab behind a home detectives say was owned by Moore's ex-boyfriend in Hillsborough County. He had been shot twice.

At the hearing, Moore showed little emotion as the verdict was read, and Judge Emmett Battles said that she was 'the most manipulative person' he had ever seen and described her as 'cold, calculating and cruel.'

Moore was also briefly banned from the courtroom over concerns that she may have threatened jurors. She was back a short time later for closing arguments, but said she did not want to take the stand in order to protect her family.

Moore is accused of killing Shakespeare, of Polk County, in April 2009. He won a $30million lottery jackpot in 2006.

Prosecutors said the 40-year-old Moore befriended Shakespeare in late 2008, claiming she was writing a book about how people were taking advantage of him. They claim Moore later became his financial adviser, eventually controlling every asset he had left after his death, including an expensive home, the debt owed to him and a $1.5 million annuity.

'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.'

Hillsborough Sheriff David Gee alleged that she tried to dodge suspicion by using Shakespeare's phone to send family members text messages saying he was OK and also writing letters pretending to be him, according to 10 News.

Moore denied the murder and says she took over Shakespeare's assets, about $3.5million and a mansion, authorities say, so he could get away from people pestering him for money.

'The money was like a curse to him. And now it's become a curse to me,' Moore told reporters in 2010. 'God knows I would never take another human being's life.'

But investigators claim Moore turned to a man called Greg Smith to cover up the crime.

Smith was already signed up as a sheriff's informant and was working with detectives to get close to her and gather information.

Sheriff Gee alleged Moore trusted him so much that she asked him for help to find a prisoner willing to take the blame for killing Shakespeare in exchange for $50,000.

During jury selection, a pool of 100 prospective jurors was screened yesterday. 10 News reported that more than half raised their hand when asked if they were familiar with the case and will now each have to be quizzed on the extent of their knowledge of the case.

After his win Shakespeare, a 43-year-old truck driver, won a court challenge from a fellow trucker who accused him of snatching the winning ticket out of his wallet while the two were delivering meat to Miami restaurants.

Shakespeare's family reported him missing in November 2009, telling the Polk County sheriff's office they hadn't seen him since April.

Speaking at the time, Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd said when their investigation began they had hoped to find Shakespeare alive.

When the body was found, his brother Robert Brown was quoted by 10 News as saying: 'I'm missing my little brother, what ain't gonna be back no more.

'Dead and gone, and everything. He ain't coming back.'

Gun takes center stage in lottery murder trial on Wednesday

By Dalia Dangerfield - BayNews9.com

December 5, 2012

A gun that prosecutors say is the weapon Dee Dee Moore used to shoot lottery winner Abraham Shakespeare was at the center of court proceedings in Moore's murder trial on Wednesday.

One of the witnesses who took the stand was Shar Krasniqi, who dated Moore in early 2009. They lived together in a mansion that Moore said she had purchased from Shakespeare. At one point, Moore gave Krasniqi a $70,000 Corvette.

"We went into a garage and we got out and pointed a car and said, 'That's your gift,'" he said.

Krasniqi also said Moore kept weapons inside the home, including one prosecutors held up in court, saying she kept that one in a safe. Shakespeare was shot twice before he was buried. Prosecutors said the gun was the weapon used in his murder.

However, crime lab analyst Yolanda Soto wasn't so sure.

"Because the bullets lack the identifying characteristics that must be present when attempting to make an identification, I could not identify them as having been fired from the same firearm," she said.

A confidential informant said Moore told her that was the gun used to shoot Shakespeare, but she said a drug dealer killed him. One of Shakespeare's friends testified that Moore told her a similar story about a drug dealer who demanded money but Shakespeare wouldn't turn over the cash.

"She said, 'I really need to tell you, Abraham is dead,'" she said.

That conversation took place on Jan. 26, just one day before Shakespeare's body was found.

Defense attempts to cast doubt on star witness

Earlier in the day, Moore's attorney tried to cast doubt on the prosecution's star witness Wednesday morning.

Since Friday, Greg Smith has been on the stand for the prosecution. He testified Moore enlisted him to conceal Shakespeare's whereabouts. Smith eventually put on a wire and became an informant for the Polk County Sheriff's Office.

Moore's attorney suggested Smith may have been trying to frame Moore. That's because the longtime friend of Shakespeare had borrowed more than $60,000 from the lottery winner and appeared to have trouble paying the money back.

Smith said he became an informant to find his friend.

"I did it because when they [detectives] explained to me what was going on and they said they had their suspicions that something like I told them," Smith said. "He had money. He could have went anywhere. Anybody was saying anything. I didn't know where he was, really didn't go into where he was. But the deal is when they came to me and they explained to me that there was an investigation going on. And I wouldn't get in no trouble and I could walk out of there right now, but they needed some help to find Abraham. I said I'd see what I could do. "

During the defense's cross examination, defense lawyers also pointed out the informant Greg Smith had spent time in prison and had been convicted of five felonies.

Defense lawyers also noted that in the taped phone conversations, it was the informant who did most of the talking, giving quite a bit of direction to the defendant Dee Dee Moore.

After three days of testimony, Smith was finally allowed to leave the stand at 10:30 a.m.

Judge orders security guards for jurors at the Florida lottery killing trial after they are 'intimidated' by victim's family and friends

DailyMail.co.uk

December 4, 2012

Jurors in the trial of a woman accused of killing a lottery winner will get a security escort after claiming the victim's family and a witness were making them feel uncomfortable.

Dorice 'Dee Dee' Moore, 40, is charged with first-degree murder in the 2009 shooting death of Abraham Shakespeare, who won $30 million in the Florida lottery three years before he was killed.

Two jurors said witness Greg Smith, a friend of Mr Shakespeare and supposed friend of Ms Moore, had intimidated them in the parking lot after court on Friday. A third juror said other members of the gallery had made her concerned for her safety.

In court on Monday, Judge Emmett Battles asked a juror whether feeling threatened by the witness and Mr Shakespeare's friends and family would affect her ability to be fair and impartial in the case.

'No, I just want to feel safe,' the juror said, according to ABC News.

After a number of cautions, Mr Battles last week gave Ms Moore a final warning for making facial expressions at jurors.

'Miss Moore, I've cautioned you throughout these proceedings,' Mr Battles said in court on Thursday.

'I'm warning you. I think I'm going to make it clear for the last time.'

In the sixth day of the trial on Monday, jurors heard about a two-page letter prosecutors said Ms Moore wrote and signed off in Mr Shakespeare's name in an effort to convince his mother that he was still alive.

According to ABC News, Ms Moore tried to cover her tracks while it was written.

'She had a brand-new laptop, set up and a printer, (and) she had a rubber-type gloves on,' Mr Smith testified of the letter allegedly written at a Comfort Inn. 'And a scarf pullover-type thing over her head.'

Mr Smith, a police informant, testified that he pretended to help Ms Moore create the illusion that Mr Shakespeare was still alive. Shortly after the letter was written, the 47-year-old's body was found buried under a slab of concrete in Ms Moore's backyard.

In court, Mr Smith read the letter prosecutors say Ms Moore forged in full.

'Don't worry about Dee,' the letter read. 'There are too many people that know I left. I gave her enough money... she would not take anything from me unless I agreed.'

On Monday, jurors also listened to a recorded conversation in which Ms Moore admitted she was afraid of being arrested.

The woman was discussing the possible size of her bond with Mr Smith as she drove him to Mr Shakespeare's mother's house to drop off the letter, according to ABC News.

Mr Smith told the woman that he has an uncle and a cousin who are bail bondsmen and would be able to get her out of jail.

The evidence came after a detective testified on Friday that the woman propositioned him during questioning.

Polk County Sheriff's Office detective David Clark told the court that during one interview with Moore, she said she hoped they could eventually have sex once the investigation was over.

'She said she was very attracted to me,' Mr Clark said.

Friday morning before the jury walked in, Ms Moore told bailiffs and attorneys that she had a bad reaction to medicine while in jail overnight and a doctor had to be called.

After the doctor helped Ms Moore, jurors listened to a recording between detectives and Ms Moore. Prosecutors also played a recorded conversation between Ms Moore and Mr Shakespeare's cousin.

'I wish I never met Abraham Shakespeare. Trust me,' Ms Moore said in the recording. 'I wish I never got involved with him. This has ruined my entire life.'

Judge Battles had lost patience with Ms Moore in court on previous days. He scolded Moore several times, telling her she shouldn't gesture or nod during witness testimony and evidence.

Prosecutors and defense attorneys agree that Mr Shakespeare had already spent the majority of his $14 million, after-tax lottery winnings by the time he met Ms Moore in 2008. Detectives say Moore befriended Shakespeare, claiming that she was writing a book about him.

Documents show that she transferred hundreds of thousands of dollars from his bank accounts to hers and she took over his home mortgage.

Mr Shakespeare's decomposed body was found under a concrete slab and buried in the back of Moore's home in January of 2010. Medical examiners testified that the 43-year-old had been shot twice in the chest.

Ms Moore says she did not kill him and no one else has been charged in his death.

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

Woman accused of killing Florida lottery winner sued by victim's estate

LotteryPost.com

October 14, 2011

The estate of slain Lakeland, Florida, lottery winner Abraham Shakespeare has filed another lawsuit against the woman accused of killing him.

The latest lawsuit, filed last week in Tampa's courthouse, accuses Dorice "DeeDee" Moore of taking more than $1 million from Shakespeare.

The estate is seeking 121 items, including many pieces of jewelry, a Rolex watch, six computers and two cameras.

The valuables were seized by Hillsborough County deputies during the investigation into Shakespeare's death. Moore wants these items returned to her. She claims they are her personal property and were not part of any illegal activity.

Randall O. Reder, a Tampa lawyer, has been representing Moore in her civil lawsuits.

Reder said he hasn't been paid for his services and is helping Moore to reclaim her property so she can raise money to pay for her defense.

Moore has been declared indigent, and her criminal case is being handled by the Office of Criminal Conflict and Civil Regional Counsel.

A hearing has been set for Nov. 21 on Moore's request. Her murder trial is set to begin in March 2012.

Moore is charged with first-degree murder in the death of Shakespeare. If convicted as charged, she could receive life imprisonment.

Shakespeare won a $17 million lump-sum lottery payment in 2006.

Investigators say Moore befriended Shakespeare and took control of his remaining fortune, according to an affidavit.

The 43-year-old man's body was found Jan. 28, 2010, underneath a concrete slab behind a home off State Road 60 south of Plant City. He had been shot twice in the chest.

In addition to filing last week's lawsuit in Tampa, the lottery winner's estate also has several pending lawsuits against Moore in Polk County.

These lawsuits claim mortgages on properties were fraudulently transferred from Shakespeare to Moore's medical staffing company, American Medical Professionals.

One property is Shakespeare's Lakeland home on Red Hawk Bend Drive, which he purchased for about $1.07 million in 2007.

Photos, evidence released in case of murdered Florida lottery winner

LotteryPost.com

November 25, 2010

Gruesome photos of the mummified body of a slain Florida lottery winner are among mountains of evidence released this week by the Hillsborough County State Attorney's office.

More than 20 discs containing photos, videos and other documents were released in the case against Dorice "DeeDee" Moore, who is charged with first-degree murder in the death of Abraham Shakespeare of Lakeland.

Moore was indicted by a grand jury in March after Shakespeare's body was discovered last January. The remains were found buried under a five-foot deep concrete slab behind a home in Plant City, a rural town east of Tampa.

Detectives said the 43-year-old Shakespeare was killed in sometime April 6 or 7, 2009. Authorities said the man was buried on a property that had been bought by Moore and listed in the name of her boyfriend, according to county records.

Many of the records released by Hillsborough County prosecutors this week revolve around that home and the concrete grave. In one videotaped interview, Moore's ex-husband describes how she asked him to dig a hole on her property with a backhoe in April of 2009 so she could hide chunks of concrete from a building inspector.

"She called me one afternoon, wanted me to come dig that hole, she told me she was going to put the concrete and stuff in it," said James Moore. "I left, she called me back later asked me to come and fill it and that's what I did."

Moore said he knew nothing about Shakespeare's murder or details of his ex-wife's relationship with Shakespeare.

"I've never met the man," he said. "I've never seen the man I never put no body in a hole."

Crime scene photos show details of the properties — everything from close-ups of Shakespeare's desiccated body to seemingly insignificant shots of brown towels.

Moore had befriended Shakespeare after he claimed the $30 million winning ticket in 2006 and took a $17 million lump sum payment. Before winning the lottery, he was a truck driver's assistant who lived with his mother.

She said she wanted to write a book about Shakespeare, but officials said she actually scammed him out of money and homes. Property records show she bought a $1 million home from Shakespeare for $655,000 and she acknowledged moving $2 million of his money into her bank account.

Investigators said Moore wrote a letter to Shakespeare's mother, claiming to be him — even though the lottery winner was barely literate. Detectives also said Moore had an unnamed witness make a cell phone call to Shakespeare's mother, pretending to be him. They also said Moore told many lies about Shakespeare, including that he was ill and that he fled the country.

In an interview with The Tampa Tribune, Moore said she anticipated being arrested — but that she never hurt Shakespeare.

"I would never take another human's life. No amount of money in the world is worth that," she said.

Prosecutors have declined to seek the death penalty against Moore, who is being held at the Hillsborough County Jail.

Shakespeare had suspicions

In the weeks leading up to his death, Shakespeare knew something wasn't right with the way Moore was handling his money.

That's according to Judith "Judy" Haggins, a longtime friend of Shakespeare who had power of attorney over his affairs.  Taped conversations of Haggins are among the recordings released Tuesday.

Haggins was his assigned power of attorney at Shakespeare's request on April 3, 2009. The Polk County Sheriff's Office has a record of Shakespeare's signature in front of a notary public, according to audio recordings from the Hillsborough state attorney.

Through her lawyer, Larry Hardaway, Haggins has declined to comment.

In one of the recordings released by prosecutors, Moore told another inmate at the Orient Road Jail that she was upset that Shakespeare had given Haggins power of attorney.

Angelina Marshall, who shared a cell with Moore, took notes of her conversation with Moore and shared it with a Hillsborough sheriff's detective June 10.

Marshall said in the recording that Moore told her she had been given power of attorney for Shakespeare in January 2009 "when she obtained houses, car and money but she got a little upset when she found out that he gave a lady named Judy power of attorney of his money."

According to friends and reports released about the investigation, Haggins knew Shakespeare for 15 years and assisted him with collecting debts he was owed. After Shakespeare's disappearance in April 2009, Haggins began working for Moore, collecting on Shakespeare's debts and providing transportation for his mother, Elizabeth Walker.

Haggins can be seen in photos and heard in audios released by prosecutors. She told prosecutors what Moore had said about how Shakespeare died, and during a meeting with Gregory Todd Smith, who was an informant on the case, she talked about how Moore interfered with Shakespeare's finances.

"When Abraham got ready to go to the bank one day to see about his money, (Moore) immediately called me on the phone," Haggins said in the recording of her conversation with Smith. "You've got to stall him, Judy. He can't go to the bank."

Haggins had received money from Shakespeare's account to pay her for her services, she told Smith, according to the recording, "It was a little bit of money for me. (Moore) felt like Abraham should pay me to take his mama."

During the conversation with Smith, Haggins also said, "Abraham used to come to me and say, 'Now you know that white woman got my money, she can do anything to me.' I said, 'Abraham, you can go get your money.'?"

As the investigation heated up with Moore at the center, Haggins wanted to distance herself from Moore. "I'm trying to get me some money out of her now because the simple fact, they are coming to get Dee," Haggins said in the recording.

Haggins also told Smith that Moore tried to get her to lie to investigators.

Haggins talked to Smith about her doubts about what Moore was doing and said several times to Smith that Moore was "a liar."

"Dee forgot she need to be on my team. I'm ... the one she told all this ... too. Once these people start putting all this stuff together, they'll build a case against her. I said why ... does Abraham got me as power of attorney and he don't talk to me. That don't look right."

Friends and family of Shakespeare said they can't understand why Haggins didn't speak up sooner when she became suspicious of Moore.

Shakespeare's mother said she hasn't seen or heard from Haggins since she was told by Polk County sheriff's detectives to not communicate with her again. Even so, Walker said she is "very disappointed" with Haggins and has questions for her.

Shakespeare won a $17 million lump-sum payment from the Florida Lottery in 2006, and investigators have accused Moore of draining him of millions after they met in 2008.

An arrest affidavit says Moore arranged to meet Shakespeare in October 2008 "ostensibly to write a book about his life story" and soon became his primary financial adviser. She eventually took control of his assets including his $1 million home on Redhawk Bend Drive.

DeeDee Moore charged with first degree murder in lottery winner's homicide

By Colleen Jenkins and Robbyn Mitchell - TampaBay.com

February 20, 2010

Dorice Donegan "DeeDee" Moore said she offered to help Lotto winner Abraham Shakespeare with his finances out of "the goodness of her heart."

But the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office charged Moore with first-degree murder Friday night, outlining in her arrest report a trail of deceit and manipulation aimed at putting his winnings in her pocket.

The probable cause document used to support the murder charge said Moore has provided several accounts of how Shakespeare was killed in April. In every account, though, she admitted being present, the report said.

And she identified a .38-caliber Smith & Wesson revolver that belonged to her as the weapon used to kill Shakespeare with two gunshot wounds to the chest.

"There is no credible evidence linking anyone other than DeeDee Moore to the homicide of Abraham Shakespeare," it said.

Moore had previously been charged as an accessory after the fact to first-degree murder. Hillsborough Sheriff David Gee announced the additional charge Friday night and said the investigation was continuing.

The probable cause affidavit raises questions about the role of a Plant City lawyer who facilitated the transfer of properties from Shakespeare to Moore's medical staffing company last year.

D. Howard Stitzel III has not been charged in connection with the case. He told detectives that he spoke to Shakespeare, whom he also represented in a child support matter, on Moore's phone on Oct. 6.

But Moore told authorities that she and Stitzel never actually spoke to Shakespeare and that she asked Stitzel to say they had a conversation, and he agreed to lie to authorities to help her.

In a controlled phone call to the lawyer's cell phone, Moore told him she was worried that law enforcement would find out that she and Stitzel had not spoken to Shakespeare on that date and wanted to confirm what he had told them.

Stitzel told Moore she needed to stop talking to authorities, the report shows.

He made no admission that he had lied to detectives, but they said it was apparent he knew Moore had Shakespeare's cell phone in October, and he had not talked to the victim.

Shakespeare's body was found under a slab of concrete in Plant City last month. Stitzel ran his law office from a home on the same property, which is owned by Moore's boyfriend, Shar Krasniqi.

Relatives reported Shakespeare missing in November, but no one had seen him since April. Investigators say he was killed on April 6 or 7, and that by that month, Moore "was in virtually complete control'' of his money .

The 42-year-old Polk County man collected about $12.7 million after taxes when he won the Florida lottery in 2006.

By the time Moore appeared in his life in 2008 saying she wanted to write a book about him, he had given away or loaned the majority of his winnings. Shakespeare still had about $1.5 million in cash and assets of about $3 million.

According to the arrest affidavit, Moore went after the money.

In December 2008, Shakespeare liquidated an annuities account worth about $250,000. The following month, that money was transferred to Moore's medical staffing business, American Medical Professionals.

Detectives tracked the money to several recipients, including Moore's boyfriend, the report shows.

Money and assets continued to flow from Shakespeare to Moore. On Jan. 9, 2009, Shakespeare signed a quit claim deed transferring his nearly $1.1 million Polk County home to Moore's company.

Moore initially told detectives she paid Shakespeare $500,000 in cash for the home. But she changed her story twice last month, first saying she didn't pay him because she worried he would use the money to buy drugs. Four days later, she said she didn't pay him because he did not want to pay the gift tax owed, according to the report.

A $1 million annuities account in Shakespeare's name was cashed out in early February 2009 and deposited into a Bank of America account opened by Moore in the name of Abraham Shakespeare LLC. Moore maneuvered to get Shakespeare taken off the account, which meant he no longer had access to the $1 million.

By the end of that February, the account had a balance of about $44,000.

Authorities say $350,000 of Shakespeare's money was used to buy the property where his body eventually would be buried. Moore also bought multiple fancy cars, including a $70,000 Chevrolet Corvette for her boyfriend and a $90,000 Hummer.

During the month of February 2009, Stitzel and Judith Haggins, who acted as Shakespeare's driver and personal assistant, each received about $20,000 from the account of Abraham Shakespeare LLC.

In all, authorities say, Moore bought more than $3.5 million in assets from Shakespeare for less than 5 cents on the dollar.

By the beginning of 2010, Moore was busy telling detectives one version after another about what became of Shakespeare, the affidavit says.

In an interrogation on Jan. 25, Moore said drug dealers who came with him to her office killed him, grabbing her gun out of an open safe to use as a weapon.

When investigators caught her in a lie, she alluded to her son, 14 years old at the time, as the person who shot him.

Detectives said that near the end of that interview, she asked if she could "keep all of her things'' if she told the truth.

Five days later, in an interview with Hillsborough investigators, Moore said Stitzel came to her office with two "white drug dealers'' and an argument developed, and Shakespeare tried to shoot the lawyer but his gun jammed. Stitzel grabbed her gun from the safe and shot him in the chest, she said. The lawyer and one of the drug dealers left, and the second one told her to have a hole dug and he would take care of the body, detectives said Moore alleged.

Mike Smith, an undercover officer from the Lake Wales Police Department, helped break the case. Introduced to Moore as a criminal awaiting sentence, he agreed to take responsibility for the murder for $50,000. This led to the disclosure of where Shakespeare was buried.

Moore bought the backhoe used to bury Shakespeare on April 3, three days before investigators believe he was killed.

She asked her ex-husband to use it to dig a hole under the pretense that it was for trash and concrete, the affidavit said.

Dorice Donegan Moore Had Lottery Winner Abraham Shakespeare's Body in Backyard

By Neil Katz - CBSNews.com

February 3, 2010

Florida police feel they have solid evidence that Dorice Donegan Moore tampered with lottery winner Abraham Shakespeare's murdered body after he was dead, but they have yet to say if they will charge her with his killing.

"I won't say we have identified all of the players involved," said Hillsborough County Sheriff David Gee. "We're going to find out everyone that was involved. We're going to seek justice."

Dorice Donegan Moore was charged with accessory after the fact to first-degree murder on Wednesday. Shakespeare's body was found encased in five feet of cement in the backyard of a home she purchased in her boyfriend's name.

"I would never take another human's life. No amount of money in the world is worth that," she said shortly before her arrest. She claimed she poured the cement where his body was found to park a boat.

At this point, investigators have not pinned the killing on Dorice Donegan Moore, but they say she scammed Shakespeare out of his winnings, tried to convince his family that he was still alive after his murder, and tried to pay someone to move his body and take the rap for his slaying.

Property records show she bought a $1 million home from Shakespeare for $655,000 and she acknowledged moving $2 million of his money into her bank account.

Shakespeare was last seen in April - more than two years after he took a lump-sum payment of $17 million on a $30 million jackpot. Detectives said Shakespeare was killed on April 6 or 7, 2009, at a home in a rural town east of Tampa. He was buried, officials said, at a home next door, which according to property records, was purchased by Moore and listed in the name of her boyfriend.

Investigators claim Moore showed the person where the body was buried on Jan. 25 and provided a pickup truck to transport it, along with bleach and plastic sheeting. Police began digging up her backyard the next day.

Gruesome details released on Lakeland Lottery winner's murder

By Tammie Fields - Wtsp.com

February 3, 2010

Hillsborough County, Florida - On Tuesday, the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office arrested 37-year-old Dorice "Dee Dee" Donegan Moore. With her hands handcuffed behind her back, she seemed calm, dressed casually in blue jeans and flip flops, as she was booked into the Orient Road Jail.

She's facing a serious charge, though, of accessory after the fact/first degree murder in the death of a 43-year-old father and $30 million lottery winner, Abraham Shakespeare.

Moore has said from the very beginning she and Shakespeare were good friends but detectives say that friendship cost him $1.8 million and, ultimately, his life.

Hillsborough County Sheriff David Gee says Shakespeare was murdered at a single story ranch style house located at 5732 Highway 60 East in Plant City on April 6 or 7, 2009.

He says Moore arranged for someone to use a backhoe to dig a hole to bury construction debris behind the house, which is where Shakespeare's body was discovered just last week under a concrete slab.

Sheriff Gee says between December 28, 2009 and January 21, 2010, "Dorice Donegan Moore approached an undisclosed witness inquiring of whether he knew of anyone awaiting sentencing to prison who would be willing to admit to the killing of Abraham Shakespeare in exchange for 50,000 dollars in U.S. currency."

Gee says Moore told that person they'd have to do something else, though, in order to get the cash. "That he and the other person would have to dig up the body and move it to another location."

Four days later, detectives say Moore started to set her plan in motion. "She met with an undisclosed witness and provided a Smith and Wesson .38 caliber revolver and told them it was the weapon that had killed Abraham Shakespeare."

Later on that same day detectives say Moore took that person to the concrete slab and pointed out the location the body was buried. She put a piece of steel bar on the slab to mark the spot and it was agreed that the body would be removed from the grave that night at 8 p.m.

Moore said "she was leaving a white in color Ford F150 pick up truck with an enclosed trailer attached to transport the body." She gave that person the keys to the truck and "showed the contents of the trailer, which she had purchased, that consisted of a galvanized metal trough, bleach gloves and plastic sheeting."

Gee says Moore has admitted to detectives that she also bought lime to cover Shakespeare's body when it was buried.

But the plan wasn't carried out. Acting on a tip, crime scene detectives unearthed Shakespeare's remains last Thursday before they could be moved.

Family and friends were worried sick about Shakespeare, who was missing for nine months. His family filed a missing person's report.

Dee Dee Moore, according to detectives, came up with an elaborate plan to try to calm their fears. Sheriff Gee says Moore, "Wrote a letter to the victim's mother claiming to be the victim and claiming to be alright. Dorice Donegan Moore used the victim's cell phone and sent text messages to the victim's friends and family."

Sheriff Gee wouldn't say who else was involved in Shakespeare's murder but says they are still investigating and they will be making more arrests in this case.

Missing Central Florida lottery winner just fed up or was it foul play?

By Michael Kruse - TampaBay.com

December 13, 2009

Before Abraham Shakespeare became the most famous missing man in Central Florida, before he won the lottery, before he went on a spree of either stunning generosity or profligate stupidity, before a co-worker sued him saying he had stolen the ticket, before a woman showed up late last year and ended up living in his palatial home after he had disappeared — before any of that — the lanky black man with the dreadlocks was the broke son of a citrus picker.

On Nov. 15, 2006, Shakespeare was 41 years old, had $5 in his wallet and was making eight bucks an hour.

He had no car, no driver's license, no credit card. He had grown up in Lake Wales and spent time in homes for juvenile delinquents. He could read and write, but not much.

He had a long criminal record. Mostly he loitered, he drove when he wasn't allowed to drive, he stole, he hit people, and later he didn't pay for the children he fathered. He went to prison twice. After he got out in 1995 he lived with his mother.

He worked as a garbage man. He unloaded trucks. He washed dishes. He did day labor.

That's what he was doing that day in November 2006. He was assigned to ride shotgun for a truck driver named Michael Ford on an overnight food route to Miami. They made a delivery in Lakeland. They made a delivery in Winter Haven. Then they stopped at the Town Star mini-mart in Frostproof.

Ford asked Shakespeare if he wanted anything. Shakespeare asked for a pair of Quick Picks and gave Ford two of his $5 bills when he returned.

That's how he ended up with the ticket with the numbers 6, 12, 13, 34, 42 and 52. The jackpot was $31 million. He took it in a lump sum of $16.9 million. After taxes, he later said, he got $11 million and change.

Still, he thought, this was his dream. He was rich.

Within three years, most of his money would be gone — and Shakespeare, too.

• • •

The first thing that happened was the government took the child support he owed — almost $9,000. He later put $1 million in a trust fund for his son.

He gave his stepfather $1 million. He gave his three step- sisters $250,000 apiece. He paid off $185,000 of a mortgage for a friend, he paid off $60,000 of a mortgage for a man whose last name he didn't know and he paid off $53,000 of a mortgage for a man "out of the neighborhood" who he'd "been knowing for a few years."

He bought for $125,000 a house near Lake Wales that he had seen only once and rented it to some tenants he had met only once. He gave his brother's son's best friend $40,000. He gave his mother $12,000 and his sister $10,000. He wrote Wachovia cashier's checks to friends. He paid for funerals.

It was "common knowledge" around town, Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd said last week, that people were "tugging on him."

For himself, he bought a 2006 F-150 pickup, a 2007 BMW 750i, and a new home, too.

The elaborate brick and tan stucco house at 9340 Red Hawk Bend Drive is in the rural area north of town, past some orange trees and a horse farm called Heaven Sent Acres, a long 10 miles from his old neighborhood.

Its 6,519 square feet include an enclosed pool and two two-car garages and it sits behind a fence in a community behind a gate. Shakespeare bought it in January 2007 for not quite $1.1 million. It came with surveillance cameras.

• • •

Shakespeare was sued three months after he bought the house. The man who sued him was Michael Ford — the truck driver.

The winning ticket, claimed Ford, 34, was his, and the money, or at least what was left of the money, should be his, too.

"From my background investigation, he was always kind of a transient type," Ford's attorney, Michael Laurato, said last week. "If it wasn't for his criminal record, he kind of didn't exist."

Arnold Levine, another attorney who represented Ford in the suit, remembers Shakespeare as an "angry guy" whose post-Lotto loans and gifts came with "strings attached."

"My sense," Levine said last week, "was that some of his family members were unhappy with the amount of money he had parceled out to them.

"Were there people who were jealous? I would assume so."

Shakespeare said in his deposition before the trial that he never stole anything from Ford.

"He knows the truth," Shakespeare said. "I know the truth."

He detailed some of his gifts — "the Bible states it's better to give than to receive," he explained — and he told attorneys about some of the women who had been living with him in his new Red Hawk home. He mentioned three. He knew the last name of only one.

"I don't try to get to know nobody's last names," he said.

At the trial, according to Laurato, Shakespeare came to court hauling a garbage bag stuffed with thousands of lottery tickets he said he had purchased over the years.

The jury sided with Shakespeare. But the appeal process dragged on.

The first time Shakespeare met with Jim Valenti, his appellate attorney, Valenti said last week, there were 10 people in the room.

"Advisers? Friends?" he said. "I'm not sure who they all were."

Valenti wouldn't say how much of Shakespeare's lottery winnings were left by then, but he did say it was "really sad."

"I'm not sure by whom, but I think he'd been taken advantage of," the attorney said. "He was a man who was very weary by the time he got to me. I wonder if Abraham wouldn't say he would like to go back to the day before he won that money."

The last appeals hearing was May 27. Shakespeare didn't show.

• • •

Family and friends haven't seen him since April. They called the Polk Sheriff's Office last month to report him missing.

The other day at the Super Choice meat market here on W Memorial Boulevard, one of Shakespeare's old regular hangouts, two signs with his picture and information were taped to the windows.

He's 6 feet 5. He's 190 pounds. He has black hair and brown eyes.

CALL 1-800-226-TIPS.

Reward: $5,000.

Authorities won't say how many tips have come in. All they'll say is that none has led them to him. If he's hiding and wants to stay that way, they say, they'll let him be — as long as they can confirm that he's okay.

Until then, though, his disappearance is "suspicious" and homicide is a "possibility," Judd, the sheriff, said last week.

"We want information leading us to Abraham Shakespeare, dead or alive," Judd said. "Someone somewhere knows something."

In front of the Super Choice, Eddie Dixon, with a black cap on his head and gold teeth in his mouth, pointed at a sign.

"Only thing I know is that's my best friend," he said. "Y'all need to go ask that white woman where that man at."

• • •

The "white woman" is DeeDee Moore, who sometimes goes by Dorice Moore, or Dorice Donegan, which is her maiden name.

She's 37. She's living in Shakespeare's house behind the fence behind the gate because she owns it. Or at least her company does. It's a medical staffing outfit in Plant City called American Medical Professionals, which now owns all of Shakespeare's various real estate holdings and other assets, too.

She told the Ledger newspaper in Lakeland last week that she helped him disappear. That's what he wanted, she said, because he was falling behind on child support again — a second son born a little more than a year ago to a much younger woman — and because he was so tired of people continuing to bug him for money he no longer had.

"He intentionally did not want to be found," she told the paper. "He didn't care what it took."

Moore met Shakespeare barely more than a year ago.

It started at an annual small-business conference in November 2008 in Kissimmee. That's where Moore met Barbara Jackson. Jackson was the Realtor who had sold Shakespeare his house on Red Hawk Bend.

"When I met her, she was in a wheelchair," Jackson said last week. Moore said she had been in a car accident. "She wheeled up right beside me."

Moore was part of a group of people Jackson told about Shakespeare and how he had changed her views about money. "It's not about money at all," Jackson said. "It's about helping people."

Moore told Jackson she was a writer and that she wanted to do a story on her and Shakespeare. Maybe even a book. Jackson set up a meeting. The three of them got together in Lakeland.

"When she came to the house," Jackson said, "she jumped out of a Hummer, walking. And she was on heels. She said she healed herself through scuba therapy. It wasn't even two weeks."

Here are some of the things Moore has done since then:

On Jan. 9, she bought Shakespeare's house, the one he had bought for $1.1 million, for $655,000.

On Feb. 9, she became the primary manager of Abraham Shakespeare LLC, taking over his affairs and buying the debts people owed him, meaning the people who owed Shakespeare money — eight people, almost $600,000 — now owe that money to her.

On Feb. 13, she got divorced, ending a 17-year marriage to a man with a fill dirt company.

And here is something she did back in 2001:

She drove the new $36,000 Lincoln Navigator on which she owed $46,000 and parked it in a garage in Pasco County. She got an accomplice to tie her up, take her to Wimauma and throw her in a ditch. Then she told a passer-by who stopped to help that she had been raped at gunpoint by three Hispanic men who stole her Navigator.

She was convicted of insurance fraud and falsely reporting a crime. She got a year of probation.

Earlier this fall, as rumors about Shakespeare's disappearance began to circulate around Lakeland, she told three different Ledger reporters that she could set up an interview with him. It never happened. She told Shakespeare's mother she could set up a meeting with him. It never happened.

Sheriff's detectives, she tearfully told the paper, have questioned her and searched her home, her Hummer and her hard drive. They've given her a lie-detector test and checked for blood.

"I'm not going to be O.J. Simpson and run," she said.

Shakespeare's mother, Elizabeth Walker, who works in the cafeteria at Florida Southern College and didn't return phone messages left last week, told the Ledger last month that she didn't know what to think, about Moore, or about her son and where he might be.

Moore gave the paper a video she took of Shakespeare earlier this year.

As Shakespeare appears to scroll through images taken by the surveillance cameras in his house, Moore asks if he gets tired of people asking him for money.

"They don't take no for an answer," he says.

She asks him where he wants to go.

"It don't matter to me," he says. "I'm not a picky person."

California? Cozumel? A foreign country? She asks him if he's going to miss his home. He seems annoyed with her. He motions for her to turn off the camera.

"I might miss it," he says, finally, "but life goes on."

• • •

It doesn't make sense, say those who know Shakespeare. He showed up at Super Choice every day. He sometimes went on trips but always came back.

"It would be amazing to me if he just up and left," his friend George Massey said.

Shakespeare, he said, wasn't tired of people asking for money.

"Abraham thrived on that," he said. "He went from a nobody to somebody of importance — you know, in demand …"

Here's a demand: He has a child support court date on Jan. 10.

• • •

One recent evening no one answered the doorbell at 9340 Red Hawk Bend Drive. No one answered knocks. In the long driveway were a shiny silver Chevy pickup and a shiny black Corvette. On the front porch with the tall pillars and the ornamental lions were two mats at the base of the door.

One read BLESS THIS HOME. The other read GO AWAY.

Affidavit

The following information is directly from the Criminal Report Affidavit:

On February 2, 2010 at approximately 5:00 p.m., Hillsborough deputies arrested Dorice Moore in eastern Hillsborough County on State Road 39.

Between April 6, 2009 and April 7, 2009, at an unknown hour, Abraham Shakespeare was murdered within the residence located at 5732 Highway 60 East in Plant City.

Dorice Moore arranged for an undisclosed witness to use a backhoe and to dig a hole to bury construction debris behind the residence located at 5802 Highway 60 East in Plant City, and later had him come back to fill the hole in. The undisclosed witness later met with the Polk County Sheriff’s Detective Wallace and Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office Detective Thomas and identified the location where the body was recovered as the same location where he had been requested to dig the hole.

In December 2009, Dorice Moore wrote a letter to the victim’s mother claiming to be the victim and to be alright. Dorice Moore used the victim’s cell phone and sent text messages to the victim’s friends and family. On December 27, 2009, More had an undisclosed witness make a cell phone call to the victim’s mother pretending to be the victim and had him tell the victim’s mother that he was alright. Moore later admitted to Detective’s Wallace and Clark that she had taken the steps to make it appear that the victim was still alive.

Between December 28, 2009 and January 21, 2010, Moore approached an undisclosed witness inquiring if he knew of anyone that was awaiting sentencing in prison and would be willing to admit to killing Abraham Shakespeare in exchange for $50,000.00. Moore told the undisclosed witness that he and the other person would have to dig up the body and move it to another location.

On January 25, 2010, Moore met with an undisclosed witness and provided a Smith and Wesson .38 caliber revolver and told him this was the weapon that had killed Abraham Shakespeare. Later on the same day, Moore took the undisclosed witness to 5802 Highway 60 East in Plant City and showed him a concrete slab behind the residence and pointed to the location the body was buried. Moore placed a piece of steel bar on the slab to mark the spot and it was agreed that the body would be removed from the grave that night at 8:00 p.m. Moore told the undisclosed witness that she was leaving a white in color Ford F150 pick-up truck with an enclosed trailer attached to be used to transport the body. Moore gave the keys to the truck to the undisclosed witness. Moore showed the undisclosed witness the contents of the trailer, which she had purchased, that consisted of a galvanized metal trough, bleach, gloves and plastic sheeting.

On January 25, 2010, Moore admitted to Polk County Sheriff’s Office Detectives Wallace and Clark that she had purchased bags of lime to be place over the victim’s body when it was buried.

On January 28, 2010 members of the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office recovered human remains approximately six feet beneath the surface in the location where the metal bar was left by Dorice Moore. The remains were identified to be that of Abraham Shakespeare by way of fingerprints. The Hillsborough County Medical Examiner’s Office has determined the manner of death for Abraham Shakespeare was homicidal violence.