Valrico Man Charged with Second Degree Murder in Death of Wife

Colin Joseph Maloney of Valrico was arrested and charged last week with second-degree murder. Authorities claim Maloney killed his wife in their home back in March.

Maloney allegedly called 911 on March 18 and told a dispatcher he had found his wife, Felicia, unconscious in the bathroom of their home. He told the police dispatcher, “She is non-responsive, her jaw is clenched and she’s a little blue.”

Paramedics arrived at the home a short time later and performed CPR on Felicia Maloney for about 20 minutes but they were unsuccessful. Upon moving Felicia Maloney to an ambulance, paramedics discovered marks around her neck.

After Felicia Maloney was removed from the home, two Hillsborough County deputies stayed inside the home with Maloney and his 8-year-old son. They observed the boy take a white cord out of a trash can. At that time, Maloney told deputies that Felicia Maloney used the cord to hang herself on a bed board. This assertion was not mentioned in the 911 call.

Ultimately, the medical examiner’s office determined the cause of Felicia Maloney’s death was strangulation. Horizontal marks were found along Felicia Maloney’s neck. Authorities believe these are not consistent with Maloney’s version of the evening’s events.

According to law enforcement, a forensic specialist determined it was “extremely unlikely” that Felicia Maloney could hang herself with the cord from the bed board. Maloney has been charged with second-degree felony murder. He is currently being held at the Hillsborough County jail without bail.

There are two types of second-degree murder under Florida statute. For a typical second-degree murder charge, prosecutors must allege that someone was killed, “when perpetrated by any act imminently dangerous to another and evincing a depraved mind regardless of human life, although without any premeditated design to effect the death of any particular individual”. For a felony-murder charge, though, prosecutors allege someone was killed during the commission of one of a specific list of felonies. There is no indication in the media reports exactly what crime law enforcement claims Maloney was committing at the time of Felicia Maloney’s death.