Kathy E <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:
This case will be aired tomorrow on CTV, If it's all shown in the
morning I will miss part of it, due to a meeting I have at 10a.m.
==========
For months prior to his trial, attorneys for Allen Holman had
unsuccessfully advised him to plead guilty to murder of his wife. On
July 28, 1997, police responded to the frantic 911 call of the victim
Linda Holman. Mrs. Holman was in a car chase, fleeing from her husband.
She told police that she needed help because Allen was trying to kill
her.
Police responded to the call, caught up his Allen and engaged in a car
chase with him while Linda pulled over in a supermarket parking lot.
However, Linda was not safe. Allen eventually lost his pursuers in the
car chase and came upon his wife in the parking lot. Linda desperately
tried to run away from Allen, but he shot her twice in the parking lot.
When police caught up with Allen at his home, he tried to hold them off
with a gun before he shot himself in the stomach in a suicide attempt.
As jury selection started in his capital murder trial, Allen Holman
surprised his attorneys when he took their advice and pleaded guilty to
the parking lot shooting slaying of his wife. Since he had admitted his
guilt, the only issue before jurors at Allen's April sentencing hearing
was whether he should spend the rest of his life in prison or receive
the death penalty. But the defendant's own lawyers even wondered about
his motivation for pleading guilty. In the months leading up to the
tragic slaying, Allen had injured his back, lost his job at Food Lion
Supermarket because of the injury, and had suffered from depression.
Allen had even attempted suicide and was on medication for depression.
So the question was this: was Holman merely pleading to the charges
because he was admitting his guilt? Or was he really using North
Carolina's criminal justice system to fulfill his own suicidal mission?
Holman's lawyers hoped that this speculation would help them prove that
he was mentally ill and needed treatment in prison and not death.
Words from the Grave
Friends of Linda Holman reportedly claimed that she was terrified of
Allen in the months leading up to her death. Linda, 49, and Allen, 39,
had been married for seven years, but Allen's bouts with depression had
become severe, and he had attempted suicide in March 1997. Linda
confided in friends that she locked her bedroom door at night because
she was so afraid of him. And Allen allegedly refused to take his
medication.
Allen had endured much hardship during that time. He had suffered a back
injury that led to his being laid-off from his job as a bagger at Food
Lion. He was injured, unemployed, in debt, and his relationship was
crumbling.
On the early morning of June 28, 1997, Allen and Linda argued,
culminating in Linda fleeing from Allen. A high-speed chase ensued, with
Linda calling the police from her car phone and telling them that Allen
was going to kill her. "Oh God, I don't want to die now," Linda screamed
to the 911 operator. Linda described to the operator how her husband was
ramming the back of her car at 85 mph.
The operator told Linda that the police would meet her on the road.
Officer Jacques Gilbert, notified of the chase over police radio,
positioned himself at the entrance to the A&K Food Mart just off the
corner of highway N.C. 55 and Olive Chapel Road. Upon seeing the
officer, Linda jerked her car into the parking lot, rolled down her
window, and yelled, "He's behind me!" Allen drove past the gas station,
but Officer Gilbert drove after him. Linda was left alone, perhaps
thinking that she was now safe.
But Allen eluded, and eventually lost, Officer Gilbert. He would return
to the Food Mart parking lot and shoot Linda to death. Officer Gilbert
was still looking for Allen when he heard another officer call on the
police radio and say, "She's been shot! 400! She's been shot!" Gilbert
soon saw Allen driving in the opposite direction of the Food Mart
parking lot and started chasing him. As he sped past the parking lot, he
saw Gilbert's motionless body laying in a pool of blood.
Gilbert chased Allen until he reached his home. Other officers soon
joined Gilbert, but Allen held them at bay with a shotgun for two-and-a
half hours. The stand-off ended when Allen shot himself in the stomach
in yet another suicide attempt. Allen was arrested and transported to a
nearby hospital.
A History of Suicide Attempts
Allen Holman's history of being suicidal dates back to his teens.
Apparently, he has attempted to kill himself at least five times. During
his March 1997 attempt, he had swallowed 50 painkillers and slashed his
wrist with a razor. Allen was diagnosed as being mentally ill and was
involuntarily committed for a time. But when he was released, Allen
refused to take his medication. Reportedly, during his pre-trial
hearings he was sedated.
As he awaited trial, Allen refused to cooperate with his lawyers. He
refused to let his defense's psychiatrist evaluate him. It took a
court-appointed psychiatrist to examine Allen and diagnose him as
severely depressed. Against his lawyers' wishes, Allen shaved his head,
giving himself a somewhat menacing appearance. According to reports,
during his sentencing, Allen even asked his attorneys if he could tell
the jurors that he was not sorry for his wife's murder. He was also seen
nodding in agreement when the prosecutor told jurors that Linda Holman's
murder was "cold, calculated, and particularly heinous." Allen
seemed like a severely mentally-disturbed man. But prosecutors hoped
that jurors would realize that perhaps Allen is "crazy like a fox" and
sympathize with his alleged illness.
--
Kathy E
"I can only please one person a day, today is NOT your day, and tomorrow
isn't looking too good for you either"
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