ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla. -- Prosecutors will seek the death penalty against James Terry Colley Jr. in the August shooting deaths of his estranged wife Amanda Cloaninger Colley and friend Lindy Morgan Dobbins, authorities announced Tuesday.
Colley Jr., 35, of St. Augustine, was indicted Sept. 4 on two counts of first-degree murder, two counts of attempted first-degree murder, burglary with assault or battery, burglary to a dwelling and aggravated stalking after injunction.
That's after the Aug. 27 shooting rampage that left Cloaninger Colley, 36, and Dobbins, 39, dead inside an upscale St. Johns County home.
Colley Jr. was arrested later that night in Norton, Va. on a DUI charge after a massive manhunt. He's being held without bond.
About 10:30 a.m., Colley emerged from a wooded path behind Cloaninger Colley's South Bellago Drive home armed with a handgun before opening fire through the rear sliding glass doors near where witnesses were standing, witness Rachel Hendricks told investigators. Hendricks and Dobbins hid inside a closet when Colley Jr. came inside while Amanda Colley hid in a bathroom, Hendricks said.
Hendricks was barricading the closet door with her body as the suspect searched the home for a second witness, Lamar Douberly, yelling, "Where is he?" Hendricks recalled. Hendricks told Colley Jr. that Douberly wasn't in the closet, that it was just she and Dobbins inside, she told investigators. Then, according to the statement, Colley Jr. shot through the closet door, narrowly missing Hendricks.
When Colley entered the closet and allegedly started shooting Dobbins, Hendricks fled the home and called 911. Court papers suggest Douberly ran from the home after the initial gunshots.
The suspect's father, James Colley Sr., told deputies afterward that his son had just called him, saying that he had shot his wife and his wife's friend, according to a sworn statement. Colley Jr. was "furious" after a court hearing earlier that morning, said his father, who had told him "not to do anything foolish."
Hours before the shooting, Colley had been in court pleading no contest to violating a restraining order his estranged wife had taken out against him Aug. 10, according to court records.
The same day, Colley Jr. had received a year of unsupervised probation as part of his plea deal. A judge had ordered him to surrender his weapons, complete a batterers' intervention class and avoid any contact with his estranged wife.
