Slain Lottery Winner’s Estate Goes to Court

TAMPA (CN) - The woman charged with killing a truck driver's assistant who won $30 million in a lottery stole more than $1 million from him, the Estate of Abraham Shakespeare claims.

Shakespeare's estate, through his personal representative Christine Miller, sued Dorice "Dee Dee" Moore and her company, American Medical Professionals LLC, in Hillsborough County Court.

Shakespeare, a 40-year-old truck driver's assistant who lived with his mother in Lakeland, won $30 million in the Florida lottery in 2006.

The middle school dropout chose a lump-sum payment of $17 million instead of annual installments.

A former co-worker sued him in 2007, claiming Shakespeare had stolen the winning ticket out of his wallet, but jurors sided with Shakespeare, according to contemporary news reports. Shakespeare said he asked the co-worker to buy him two $1 lottery tickets with the $5 bill he had in his wallet that day.

Dee Dee Moore, who had been charged with falsely reporting that she was carjacked and raped in 2001, introduced herself to Shakespeare in 2007, according to ABC News. She started a business with him, Abraham Shakespeare LLC, and allegedly controlled the company's money.

In April 2009, Shakespeare, who said that winning the lotto had ruined his life, went missing, but his disappearance was not reported until November.

In late January 2010, his body was found buried under concrete in rural property that Moore's boyfriend Shar Krasniqi owned, according to contemporary reports. A few days later, Moore was arrested.

ABC News reported that Moore had incriminated herself before she was arrested by stating that she knew Shakespeare had been shot, before that information had been released to the public. ABC also reported that police found Shakespeare's cell phone with Moore, which she had been using to text herself and his friends to make it appear he was still alive.

Police claimed Moore stole more than $1 million from Abraham Shakespeare LLC, which she spent on a Corvette, a Hummer and vacations, according to contemporary news reports.

Moore allegedly offered a man $50,000 to say he killed Shakespeare and showed him where the body was buried, but the man was cooperating with police.

Moore is awaiting trial.

Miller is the professional guardian of one of Shakespeare's two young sons.

Her 2-page complaint claims that "On or about January 2, 2009, defendants converted to their own use the sum of $246,493.00, which was the property of Abraham Shakespeare."

It adds that "On or about February 17, 2009, defendant Moore converted to her own use the sum of $1,000,095.00, which was the property of Abraham Shakespeare."

The estate seeks replevin of converted money and property bought with it.

Miller is represented by Stephen Martin of Lakeland.

(Information in this article came from the complaint in Hillsborough County Court, and from ABC News, The Associated Press, the New York Daily News, BBC News, the St. Petersburg Times, the Tampa Tribune, and other contemporary reports.)

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