Former Congressional Candidate Pleads Guilty to Murdering Her Husband

Victor Westerkamp
By Victor Westerkamp
August 11, 2019US News
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Former Congressional Candidate Pleads Guilty to Murdering Her Husband
Crime scene. (AP)

A former congressional candidate entered a plea deal on Aug. 8 relating to the death of her husband and campaign treasurer in 2018, a week after they got married.

Kellie Lynn Collins, 31, pleaded guilty on Aug. 8 on charges of voluntary manslaughter before Aiken County Court. Prosecutors dropped the charge of grand larceny as part of the deal, The Augusta Chronicle reported.

Collins initially refused the deal but conceded later on the day after having being briefed by her lawyer. She faces jail for the next 30 years and will stay under permanent assessment.

In 2018 Collins ran for candidacy for the Democratic Party to represent Georgia’s 10th Congressional District for the U.S. House. She was greatly aided by 41-year-old Curt Cain, who was her campaign treasurer, according to the Federal Election Commission, and would later become her lover and husband.

So much so, that four days after the two got married Collins allegedly shot Cain in the back at his home in the 3000 block of Old Powderhouse Road on Aug. 1, 2018. An autopsy ruled Cain had died of blood loss.

Collins would be the full beneficiary of Cain’s life insurance should he happen to die.

Three days later, officers responding to a wellbeing check found Cain dead in a pool of blood in his house.

Cain’s wallet lay open on the bed with its debit card missing. Police also found bloody female sized footprints all across the room, a set of car keys in the washing machine, a holster in the kitchen sink, and blood in the bathroom sink, according to attorney Strom Thurmond Jr., Aiken Standard reported.

After the killing, Collins took Cain’s blue Subaru Legacy and ditched the gun in a nearby pond near interstate 20.

Later she ditched the Subaru for a Chevrolet Tahoe at a Grovetown Walmart Parking lot after Collins had checked-in into a motel where she had died her hair red, apparently in an attempt to evade prosecution.

However, later, family members stated that she would turn herself in. She surrendered to authorities in McDuffie County on Aug. 8, 2018, according to the Standard, and was transferred to Aiken County on Aug. 13, 2018.

At first, Collins came up with several contradicting theories as to what happened on that day. At one time she contended that she actually wanted to shoot herself but incidentally shot her husband in the back. Eventually, she had to concede and admitted she had killed her new husband in cold blood.

“He was looking forward to his future,” said Norman Cain, the father of the victim in a statement to the Jury, according to the Aiken Standard. “He had a new marriage. He was looking for a new job. What an adventure he had. Now it’s gone.” He said his son truly “loved” Collins and he would help anyone he could.

Collins’s grandparents, who also attended the hearing, argued that Collins had mental problems that may have contributed to her actions.

Her lawyers, however, did not use mental illness for her defense as it was already arranged in the plea deal that Collins would accept full responsibility for her deeds.

Collins withdrew from her campaign for “personal reasons.”

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