News

Mom Admits To Stabbing Dad in Front of Their Kids After Finding Out He Was Granted Custody

NewsPublished Oct 24, 2019
By Genny Glassman
Scott WeylandGoFundMe

A mother has been sentenced to 32 years in prison for stabbing her ex-husband to death in front of their two kids in 2017. Kandee Collind of Acton, Maine, reportedly drove to her ex-husband Scott Weyland's home in a fit of rage, after learning that he obtained primary custody of their children. It's only now, more than two years later, that justice has finally been served.

It happened in the dead of winter, February 22, 2017, after Collind raced over to her ex's home with their two children.-placeholder
It happened in the dead of winter, February 22, 2017, after Collind raced over to her ex's home with their two children.
GoFundMe

It happened in the dead of winter, February 22, 2017, after Collind raced over to her ex's home with their two children.

Collind had just received a letter awarding Weyland primary custody in the wake of their divorce, and loaded her 7- and 11-year-olds into the back seat before driving over to the home, the Journal Tribune reported.

When she got there, Collind and Weyland began to argue, until the fighting eventually escalated out of control and Collind stabbed Weyland in the chest. With her children nearby, one of them frantically dialed 911 around 1 p.m.

Police arrived to find Collind hysterically crying and attempting to resuscitate Weyland using CPR. She told police that after she plunged her knife into her ex-husband's chest, he also pulled out a knife. An autopsy in the case revealed that Weyland died from a stab wound to the heart. Collind was taken into police custody.

In August 2018 she pleaded guilty killing Weyland, but days later she tried to take back her plea.-placeholder
In August 2018 she pleaded guilty killing Weyland, but days later she tried to take back her plea.
WGME

In August 2018 she pleaded guilty killing Weyland, but days later she tried to take back her plea.

Only four days after the mom made a guilty plea to intentional and knowing murder, she told her defense lawyer that she wanted to withdraw her plea. The two discussed her case and ultimately decided not to withdraw her plea. On October 15, Collind again went to her lawyer, Molly Butler Bailey, and asked to withdraw her guilty plea.

She allegedly told the lawyer that she hadn't taken her psychological medication on the day she originally entered her plea and she hadn't understood some elements of her murder charge. In her motion to withdraw, Bailey stated that her client was pursuing an abnormal condition of the mind defense.

“That is a very complicated concept,” Bailey wrote. “She has struggled to understand the application of this defense to the elements of the murder. She has maintained throughout the case that she was not in her normal state of mind when these events occurred. This is essentially an assertion of innocence.”

But Assistant Attorney General Megan Elam turned down the motion, saying, “The defendant has now whiplashed those children with her new request to proceed to trial. This manipulation of these minor children, who were present for the murder of their father and are likely trial witnesses, causes prejudice to the state’s ability to present those witnesses and potentially other witnesses as well.”

Elam then claimed she believed Collind was looking for "a better deal."

Collind's case finally came before a court Monday when she was sentenced to 32 years in prison.

A lawyer for Collind tried to get the sentence reduced to 25 years, News Center Maine reported, but after the sentencing had been completed, her lawyers recognized that the mom had actually received a better deal. If she had decided to pursue her not guilty plea, the case could have gone to trial, where both of her children would have had to testify and she could have been sentenced to up to 45 years.

Her lawyer, Verne Paradie, also noted that the children being at the scene while she committed the crime was "a significant aggravating factor" and the sentence was "within the realm of a reasonable sentence."

"We are grateful that these two children, who witnessed their mother murder their father, were spared the further ordeal of having to testify," Elam said Monday.

In court, Collind showed remorse for her actions and apologized for what she'd done.

"The kids, I started to think what kind of problems they’re going to have when they’re older," she said in court, WGME reported. "What mental problems have I caused them? What are they going to become? What have I done?”

It wasn't the first time she'd apologized publicly for her actions, WGME reported. Shortly after her ex-husband's death, she reportedly said, “I'm very sorry for Scott's death. It's nothing I foreseen."

The Weyland family thinks her time in prison will cause Collind to fully pay for what she's done.

“I truly hope that you think about all the action, all the lives that you've changed by your careless actions," Weyland’s cousin Crystal Bernis-Tobias said. "You took an amazing father and beautiful man away from his children."

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