Florida Lottery Killing: Suspect Claims Anaphylactic Shock in Jail - East Idaho News
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Florida Lottery Killing: Suspect Claims Anaphylactic Shock in Jail

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Getty N 102411 PrisonCell?  SQUARESPACE CACHEVERSION=1354290550411Kevin Horan/Stone(TAMPA, Fla.) — Dee Dee Moore, the Florida woman on trial for allegedly swindling money from lottery winner Abraham Shakespeare, then fatally shooting him and burying his body, said on Friday that she went into anaphylactic shock while in jail overnight.

Tampa, Fla., Judge Emmett Battles discovered Friday morning that Moore had medical problems and asked her in court what happened.  Moore told the judge she went into shock after taking medication and was then admitted to the infirmary and put on 24-hour watch.

“I was having anaphylactic shock, sir, because they gave me a medicine called Bactrim for a kidney infection,” Moore said in court.  “I had an allergic reaction to it, and my tongue swelled up really bad last night and they admitted me into the infirmary.”

Moore, who is charged with first-degree murder, also told the court that she was having problems with cuts on her ankles from being cuffed every day.

Her comments came a day after Battles issued a final warning in scolding Moore for facial expressions she is believed to have made toward jurors.

“Miss Moore, I’ve cautioned you throughout these proceedings,” Battles said in court Thursday.  “I’m warning you.  I think I’m going to make it clear for the last time.”

Prosecutors say Moore, 40, befriended Shakespeare, who disappeared in April 2009, after he won $30 million in the Florida lottery.  After he burned through most of the cash, she agreed to manage the little he had left, but instead, prosecutors say, stole his money and killed him.

Authorities say Shakespeare, 47, was shot twice in the chest by a .38-caliber pistol sometime in April 2009.  He wasn’t reported missing until November.  His body was found under the slab in a backyard in January 2010.

Moore has denied the allegations.

Polk County authorities claim she offered someone a $200,000 house in exchange for reporting a false sighting of Shakespeare.  She also allegedly sent the victim’s son $5,000 in cash for his birthday, and used the victim’s cellphone to send text messages purportedly from him.

Moore continues to maintain her innocence, saying she was trying to help Shakespeare collect unpaid debts and protect him from the many people trying to take advantage of him.  Her defense attorneys have argued that the evidence against her was circumstantial, and that that Moore’s gun might have been used to shoot Shakespeare, but noted that ballistics tests were incomplete.

Prosecutors are not pursuing the death penalty in the case.  If Moore is convicted, she faces life in prison.

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