CANTON, Ga. (TCD) — A 71-year-old man will spend the rest of his life behind bars for fatally shooting his 63-year-old wife and staging it as self-defense.
District Attorney Susan Treadaway announced Feb. 2 that a judge sentenced Charles Collins to life in prison plus five years after a jury convicted him late last month of malice murder, felony murder, family violence aggravated assault, and possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony for the death of Deborah Collins.
On July 24, 2023, shortly after 2 a.m., Cherokee County Sheriff’s Office deputies responded to a home off New Light Road, where they found Collins with a Smith & Wesson .38 Special revolver. According to the district attorney’s office, police discovered the defendant’s wife dead on the living room floor from a gunshot wound to her neck. She also reportedly had a knife in her right hand.
In an interview, Collins told detectives his wife threatened him with the knife, so he shot her in self-defense. However, the district attorney’s office said the knife and other objects near the victim’s body were not covered in blood. Additionally, a latent print processing expert with the Georgia Bureau of Investigation was unable to detect fingerprints on the knife.