A Florida man was found lying dead next to his daughter after a bitter custody battle with the child’s mother.
Colby Vinson, 24, was fatally shot at the Cayo Grande Apartments in Navarre on 19 March, the Santa Rosita County Sheriff’s Office said earlier this month. Deputies responding to the residence also found his four-year-old daughter, who was unharmed.
The child’s mother, 25-year-old Rachel Moore, has been arrested for allegedly tampering with evidence and being an accessory after the fact to first-degree murder. Ms Moore’s former stepfather Jason Layne Curtis, 53, has been charged with first-degree murder.
“I will say this about Mr Curtis though, what a human piece of trash. I mean, to shoot somebody with their four-year-old child right there,” Santa Rosa County Sheriff Robert Johnson said during a press conference on Monday.
“I mean, I get up here ad nauseam and tell you about how I’m shocked about how people treat other people, this just goes beyond that. It’s horrible.”
Mr Curtis was arrested by the Cullman County Sheriff’s Office in Alabama and is being held without bond. Authorities found a weapon and a detailed list with Vinson’s physical description, home address and work address in his car.
Authorities are now searching their phones for evidence of the alleged murder.
Mr Johnson said on Monday that the violence unfolded after a custody dispute.
The day he was killed was the first time in a year Vinson was allowed to spend time with his daughter after he was granted split custody on 13 March, FOX10 reported.
“He had texted us to let us know that he won in his court case and that they granted him 50/50,” Vinson’s coworker Austin Reynolds told Wear News.
“Immediately we’re all making plans, barbeques and getting all the kids together and everything like that.”
