Dana Collins, 63
State’s Attorney Jaymi Sterling announced today that a convicted murderer’s sentence of LIFE without the possibility of parole will stand. Earlier this year, Dana Collins, 63, asked the Court to reconsider his sentence stemming from a 1995 murder.
The State argued against Collins’s motion. The Court agreed with the State, denied Collins’s motion, and kept his sentence intact as LIFE without the possibility of parole.
In 1995, Collins lured a man outside of his home in California, Maryland, before fatally shooting him with a crossbow. Collins then dismembered the victim’s body and disposed of his remains in a dumpster at a nearby school.
In July 1996, Collins entered a plea of guilty to First-Degree Murder and was sentenced to LIFE without the possibility of parole by the Honorable Marvin S. Kaminetz. After multiple post-conviction motions filed by Collins, in March 2002 the Court of Special Appeals (now the Appellate Court of Maryland) vacated the original judgment and ordered a new trial.
In 2003, at the new trial, Collins entered a plea of “not criminally responsible.” On September 12, 2003, a jury found Collins criminally responsibly and guilty of first-degree murder. In February 2004, Collins was again sentenced to LIFE without the possibility of parole.
Since his 2003 trial, Collins has filed 15 motions, petitions, and appeals for relief. His most recent motion, filed in January 2024, was scheduled for a hearing in October of this year.
During the October 2024 hearing, the State maintained that Collins has exhausted all legal avenues for reconsideration. The State successfully argued that there was no legal basis for granting Collins another reconsideration. The Court agreed with the State and denied Collins’s motion, requiring Collins to continue to serve his LIFE without the possibility of parole sentence.
Collectively, on behalf of the citizens of St. Mary’s County, Senior Assistant State’s Attorneys Fran Longwell and Lisa Ridge handled the 2024 matters, while former State’s Attorney Richard Fritz prosecuted the case in 2003.
The Honorable Brooke Murdock presided over the 2024 hearing.
