James Colley is scheduled to be sentenced Friday for the 2015 murders of his estranged wife Amanda Colley and her best friend Lindy Dobbins. Jurors recommended the death penalty in July. A judge in St. Johns County, Florida will decide whether this should be carried out. The hearing will begin at 10:30 a.m. ET.
Prosecutors said Colley killed his wife amid their all-but-finished marriage. In closing arguments, Assistant State Attorney Jennifer Lynne Dunton told jurors that the defendant was incense after seeing a photo of Amanda’s new lover mowing her lawn shirtless. Testimony established that the defendant also discovered that she owned sex toys.
Prosecutors said Colley badgered her with text messages, and phone calls. He called her “disgusting.”
“He couldn’t let it go,” Dunton said at the time.
Evidence showed premeditation, prosecutors said. For example, his father talked to him on the phone before the shooting, and insisted he not “do it.”
“I can’t take it anymore,” Colley said, according to testimony.
The defendant confronted his wife, called her a “fucking whore,” and fatally shot her, prosecutors said.. Jurors also convicted him of trying to kill her new lover Lamar Douberly, and a woman named Rachel Hendricks. All told, Colley was found guilty of two counts of first-degree murder, two counts of attempted first-degree murder, burglary with an assault or battery, aggravated stalking, and burglary of a dwelling.
The defense insisted that he was suffering from unintended side effects of prescription drugs.
“This was a horrible, terrible accident, and I wish it was different but it’s not,” Colley said at a hearing on October 2, according to Action News Jax. “I am sorry for all parties involved.”
[Screengrab via Law&Crime Network]
