In the quiet, rural community of Concho, Arizona, a place she and her husband envisioned as their future retirement haven, 54-year-old TerriLynne Collins' life was tragically cut short in the pre-dawn hours of an October morning in 2017. The harrowing event unfolded while she was on the phone with her husband, Ernest Collins Jr., who was miles away in the Phoenix area.
He was forced to listen, helpless, as his wife confronted an intruder in what became a fatal struggle.
The incident began when TerriLynne received a distressing text message from her 18-year-old daughter, who was staying in a trailer on their property with a friend. Responding to the call for help, TerriLynne went to the trailer and encountered a masked intruder armed with a knife. What her husband overheard on the phone was a chilling exchange, with his wife telling the young intruder, 'you're just a kid, you're just a stupid kid and you're going to ruin your life.' The situation escalated, and Ernest heard his wife yell for their daughter and her friend to run. As they fled the trailer, they heard a gunshot.
Following an intensive search, authorities apprehended the suspect the next day in the Pinetop-Lakeside area. He was identified as 14-year-old Joshua Cade Richardson. At the time of his capture, he was described as being hungry and thirsty but was taken into custody without incident. The investigation revealed that Richardson had broken into the property with the intention of stealing a car.
Joshua Cade Richardson was subsequently charged as an adult with first-degree murder and burglary. He pleaded not guilty to the charges. Later, a proposed plea agreement that would have allowed him to plead guilty to manslaughter and aggravated assault was met with strong objection from TerriLynne's husband, who felt that such a deal would not bring justice for his wife's death. He had initially agreed to a plea of second-degree murder, but the lesser charge was unacceptable to the grieving family.
