Scott Forrest Collins: California man who robbed and killed father of 3 children dies in prison
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: Scott Forrest Collins, a California criminal whose death sentence was overturned this fall by Los Angeles District Attorney George Gascon, reportedly died in jail, according to the family of the victim. Collins had been given the death penalty for a crime he had committed in 1992.
Collins, who was 21 years old at the time of the incident, committed the robbery and "execution-style" shooting of Fred Rose, a 41-year-old father of three. Gascon requested that Collins' death sentence be overturned in 2022, and in September, he was transported from San Quentin State Prison's death row to the California Correctional Institution. Rose's daughter Heather Scott and her attorney confirmed Collins' death on Wednesday, January 25. Scott, who was 12 years old at the time of her father's death, stated that Collins died around January 15. She doesn't yet know the cause of death because the findings of the autopsy were still pending.
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California prison records stated that Collins was not reported as being in custody as of Wednesday, January 25. He received a life sentence without the possibility of parole when his death sentence was overturned. Collins allegedly killed Rose while on parole for a different armed robbery. He was accused of threatening and intimidating Rose's family and witnesses after the trial.
On September 30, 1993, Collins was found guilty of murder and was given the death penalty on November 2 of the same year. He received another death sentence in 1996 following an appeal, and that sentence was upheld in 2010 following a further appeal.
'They fought for us, like you would fight for your own safety'
In February of 2022, Scott told Fox News that she felt abandoned by the prosecutors when Gascon announced his judgment. "My feeling was that the detectives and the police department, they sought justice, they wanted to know the truth," Scott said in reference to law enforcement in the '90s.
Scott said, "They wanted to make sure they had the right person, and they didn't stop until they felt confident that they had him behind bars," and added that the district attorney's office served as her "advocate" at the time. "They fought for us, like you would fight for your own safety," she said.
'We're not asking for his release'
Gascon has long been vocal about his opposition to the death penalty, and last year, his office informed Fox News that no effort would be made to secure Collins' release. Alex Bastian, who at the time served as DA Gascon's special assistant, said, "We're not asking for his release, we're asking that his sentence be commuted to life without the possibility of parole."
"That is something that is I think important to note," Batian stated. "We are not asking that he be resentenced to something that would put him in front of a parole board." Collins had a lengthy criminal history that began when he was still a minor, in the mid-'80s.
Prior to killing Rose, Collins is accused of using a Molotov cocktail to start a fire. Court records show he was also charged with stabbing a man in the back, carjacking a woman, assaulting a Black 15-year-old while holding a knife and hurling racist slurs, threatening a cellmate with a razor, and kicking officers who inquired about the incident.