Man kills husband and wife over debt and dumps bodies in swamp, Florida cops say

A man is accused of fatally shooting a married couple and leaving their bodies in a swamp because he believed the husband had stolen $30,000 from him, Florida authorities said.

A jury has now convicted 39-year-old Todd Jackson of two counts of first-degree murder, armed kidnapping, burglary of an occupied dwelling with a firearm and tampering with physical evidence, the State Attorney’s Office for the 10th Judicial Circuit said May 5.

A judge sentenced him to life in prison.

Two others face charges in the case: Jackson’s stepdaughter, Amberlyn Nichols, and her boyfriend at the time, Larry James Waters Jr. They’re each charged with two counts of failing to report a death and accessory after the fact, according to the Polk County Sheriff’s Office.

Jackson’s attorney, Bradley Wilson, argued during the trial that Nichols and Waters were the killers and were framing Jackson.

“They realized law enforcement suspected them, and concocted a story blaming Mr. Jackson prior to being arrested themselves,” Wilson told McClatchy News.

The pair testified for the prosecution at Jackson’s first trial, which ended in a hung jury, as well as at the second trial, which ended in a conviction.

“Law enforcement investigated Mr. Jackson’s bank records, and found no suspicious transactions which would indicate the victims stole from Mr. Jackson’s bank accounts as the co-defendants claimed,” Wilson said. “We further argued that while the co-defendants had numerous motives to commit the crime, Mr. Jackson had none. No physical evidence linked Mr. Jackson to the crime scene.”

In March 2020, a witness reported to law enforcement that Nichols told him she had shot Raymond Cline and his wife, Crystal Ann Cline, “execution style” and left their bodies in the swamp, deputies wrote in an arrest affidavit.

That witness then told law enforcement what Nichols had said, according to the report.

Deputies used a “surveillance technique,” then Nichols said her stepfather was the one who shot and killed the couple because he thought Raymond Cline had stolen $30,000 from him, investigators wrote.

Nichols and Waters said Jackson was mad about the money, so Jackson rounded them up and drove to the couple’s home in Haines City, where he went inside and is accused of shooting the Clines as they slept, deputies said in an arrest affidavit.

Waters told deputies that Jackson forced him to help get rid of the evidence, so they pushed the bodies out the window and loaded them one at a time onto a dolly, then wheeled them to a swamp behind the property and dumped them there, according to investigators.

Then they pushed the mattress out the window as well, and the group burned it along with bloody clothes and a comforter, deputies said.

According to investigators, a third person was home during the shooting, and they threatened her to keep her quiet.

When investigators went to the home, she took them to the swamp, where deputies found the couple with gunshot wounds in “advance stages of decomposition,” according to the report.

The Clines’ family members hadn’t heard from them in weeks, deputies said.

Nichols was found trying to sell Raymond Cline’s truck for $200 and was also charged with dealing in stolen property, deputies said.

Haines City is about 40-mile drive southwest from Orlando.

This story was originally published May 6, 2025 at 6:38 PM with the headline "Man kills husband and wife over debt and dumps bodies in swamp, Florida cops say."