Abraham Shakespeare Killing: Woman Accused of Shooting Lotto Winner Goes on Trial

Nov. 27, 2012— -- Lawyers have begun jury selection in the trial of a woman accused of killing a Lakeland, Fla., lottery winner more than two years ago.

Investigators say Doris "Dee Dee" Moore, 40, befriended Abraham Shakespeare after he won $17 million and eventually swindled him out of his winnings before killing him in 2009.

Moore has denied killing Shakespeare.

Lawyers are expected to finish picking the jury later this morning with opening statements expected later today or Wednesday.

Shakespeare, 47, made headlines in 2006 when he won $30 million in the Florida lottery, only to be sued the next year by a co-worker who alleged that Shakespeare had stolen the winning tickets from him. A jury sided with Shakespeare in October 2007, and he took home a $17 million lump-sum payout before taxes.

But like many lottery winners, his life did not change for the better. By 2009, he had burned through much of the money, paying off the mortgages of family and friends.

"I would really like my old life back when I could walk the streets like a normal person without people coming up asking for money," Shakespeare said at the time.

Shakespeare met Moore in 2009 and she promised to manage his money and make it last, according to prosecutors.

But Moore has repeatedly defended her actions.

"Every bit of the money was done properly and professionally," Moore said in 2010. "There's no jury that's going to convict me. They're saying that I took a gun, put it up and killed another human being and I would never do that."

Authorities say that Shakespeare was shot twice in the chest by a .38-caliber pistol sometime in April 2009. He wasn't reported missing until November and his body was found Jan. 28, 2010, after days of digging in the woods on a rural property in Plant City, Fla.

"There had been a 30-foot-by-30-foot concrete slab that had been poured," Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office spokeswoman Debbie Carter said at the time of the discovery. "The human remains had been found about five feet under the concrete."

Public records show the property off Highway 60 is owned by Shar Krasniqi, the man Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd has identified as the boyfriend of Moore.

Moore was charged as an accessory after the fact to first-degree murder Feb. 2, 2010.

Authorities say they have a surveillance video from a Florida Walmart showing Moore rushing to buy large amounts of duct tape, trash bags and plastic sheeting.

But that's not all the evidence investigators say they have. Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd told "Good Morning America" on Feb. 4, 2010, that at the time of Moore's statement to reporters, the police never made it public that Shakespeare was shot.

Authorities say Moore's story began to fall apart at her very first interview with police shortly after Shakespeare was reported missing in November.

"From the very beginning of our investigation, which started seven months after he went missing, we found out she still had Abraham Shakespeare's cellphone and was texting his friends as well as her own cellphone pretending to be Abraham," Judd said.

Moore had made several attempts to make it look as though Shakespeare had been communicating with his family -- offering someone a $200,000 house in exchange for reporting a false sighting, sending his son $5,000 in cash for his birthday and sending text messages -- even though Shakespeare had already disappeared, Polk County authorities said.

Prosecutors are also expected to call Gregory Todd Smith, an informant to authorities, to the witness stand. According to investigators, Moore asked for Smith's help to conceal the killing.

According to Smith and official documents, Moore asked Smith whether he knew anyone who would take a murder rap for a $50,000 pay off, ABC News affiliate WFTS-TV reported.

Smith said for months he lived a double life as he worked with Polk County investigators to find Shakespeare's body and it finally paid off when Moore allegedly took Smith and an unidentified man to where the lotto winner was buried, according to WFTS.

The trial is expected to last two weeks and prosecutors are not pursuing the death penalty. If convicted, Moore faces life in prison.

ABC News' Sarah Netter and Dean Schabner contributed to this report.