Florida Lottery Murder Trial: Dee Dee Moore Claims Anaphylactic Shock in Jail

Nov. 30, 2012 — -- 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 today that she went into anaphylactic shock while in jail overnight.

Tampa Judge Emmett Battles discovered this 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 her 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.

She has denied the allegations.

Polk County authorities claim Moore 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.

For a third day, jurors also saw Moore cry in court. Prosecutors Thursday played an audio tape of her allegedly asking a friend to lie to police, saying, "Just go to jail for the false police report."

Shakespeare's mother, Elizabeth Walker, Thursday told jurors that Moore tried to hide that her son was missing.

"He [was] supposed to be going to California. They said he had AIDS," Walker said.

But prosecutors contend Shakespeare did not have AIDS. Instead, they allege, Moore had already shot him twice in the chest and buried him in her backyard. To keep her lie going, investigators say, Moore even orchestrated a call to Shakespeare's mother from someone pretending to be her son:

"He said, 'This is Abraham,' and I said, 'Well, you don't sound like Abraham.'"

The court also heard an hour-long police interrogation tape of Moore, in which investigators can be seen grilling Moore on her plan to manage Shakespeare's money.

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.