Murder of Abraham Shakespeare

Abraham Lee Shakespeare, a Florida man, won a $30 million Florida Lotto jackpot in November 2006 after asking a co-worker, Michael Ford, to buy him two lottery tickets at a convenience store in Frostproof, Florida. Shakespeare chose a lump-sum payout of $17 million. Ford later sued him, claiming the winning ticket had been stolen from his wallet, but a jury ruled in Shakespeare's favor in October 2007. Shakespeare used part of his winnings to buy a home in a gated community, a car, and a watch, but friends and family said he grew frustrated with constant requests for money from acquaintances and strangers.

Among those who befriended Shakespeare was Dorice Donegan "Dee Dee" Moore, who arranged to meet him in October 2008, reportedly to write a book about him. Moore went on to gain control of much of Shakespeare's remaining assets through a company, Abraham Shakespeare LLC, and later had his home transferred to her business, American Medical Professionals, in January 2009. Records showed Moore made substantial personal purchases, including a Hummer and a Corvette, using company funds, which she later claimed were gifts from Shakespeare.

Shakespeare was last seen in the Lakeland, Florida area in April 2009, and detectives determined his cell phone was last used on April 6, 2009. His family did not report him missing until November 2009. During the intervening months, Moore sent text messages and made phone calls impersonating Shakespeare to his friends and family, and paid at least one acquaintance to pretend to be him in phone calls to his mother — behavior investigators later cited as evidence of a cover-up, particularly notable given that Shakespeare was illiterate.

After Shakespeare was reported missing, investigators questioned Moore multiple times; she gave shifting accounts of his whereabouts, including claims he had gone to Texas, Jamaica, Puerto Rico, or was hospitalized. She also attempted to pay an acquaintance $50,000 to falsely confess to killing Shakespeare and offered another person a home in exchange for lying to detectives. That acquaintance, working with an undercover police officer, was eventually shown by Moore the concrete slab under which Shakespeare was buried and was given the firearm used in the killing, a .38 Smith & Wesson revolver.

Acting on this information, police excavated the backyard of a Plant City home and found Shakespeare's body buried under roughly nine feet of dirt beneath a newly poured concrete slab in late January 2010. The body was identified as Shakespeare's on January 29, 2010. Moore was taken into custody on February 2, 2010, and was formally charged with first-degree murder on February 19, 2010. She pleaded not guilty in March 2010.

On December 10, 2012, following a trial in Hillsborough County, Florida, Moore was found guilty of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole, along with an additional mandatory minimum sentence of 25 years for use of a firearm during a violent felony. Moore had a prior 2001 conviction for insurance fraud and falsely reporting a crime.