Orinda Man Ordered To Stand Trial In Girlfriend's Murder

Bay City News Service

An Orinda man accused of beating and hacking his live-in girlfriend to death with a machete last year was ordered to stand trial on Friday, according to a Contra Costa County prosecutor.

James Collin, 63, was ordered to stand trial for the murder of his longtime girlfriend, 56-year-old Evangeline Devera, according to Deputy District Attorney Mary Knox.

Police found Devera the afternoon of June 26, 2012 lying facedown in the kitchen of the couple's home in the 600 block of Moraga Way in Orinda after receiving a report of a murder there.

Police said Collin confessed to officers arriving on the scene that he was responsible for the slaying.

Autopsy results listed Devera's official cause of death as "blunt force" and a "sharp force injury" to the head.

Collin has been linked to previous cases.

In 1986, he fatally shot his younger brother, 32-year-old Tim Collin on Halloween night. The incident was ruled an accident by the Contra Costa County Sheriff's Office and never forwarded to the district attorney's office, according to Knox.

And in 2006, Collin was sentenced to probation after he pleaded no contest to misdemeanor domestic battery charges involving Devera, according to prosecutors.

Collins' arraignment was set for Oct. 8, Knox said.