Thursday, June 28, 2007
Florida Supreme Court Stands Firm on Spousal Privilege
Notorious defendant's 7th murder trial has slow start
© St. Petersburg Times,
published October 16, 2001
NEW PORT RICHEY -- Prosecutors and defense attorneys have a long trial ahead of them. There's a witness list with more than 100 names, opening statements and closing arguments to prepare, and then, if there's a guilty verdict, a penalty phase to determine whether the defendant should be executed.
But as the lawyers began picking a jury on Monday, the looming question was:
Could they find 12 Pasco residents who could give Oscar Ray Bolin the presumption of innocence?
It seemed a tall order. After all, the 39-year-old Bolin is accused of killing three Tampa Bay women in 1986, crimes that remain among the area's most notorious. Six times Bolin has stood trial -- twice for each crime. Six times he has been convicted and sentenced to death. And six times the Florida Supreme Court has ordered new trials.
Now, it seems, Bolin is a forgotten man in the minds of many.
Despite the hundreds of sensational news stories that have appeared over the past 15 years, only a handful of the 50 prospective jurors questioned Monday had ever heard of Bolin. "I remember the name," one woman said.
"The name sounds very familiar," said another. Neither could say why the name stuck in their memory.
Bolin is on trial in a New Port Richey courtroom in the December 1986 slaying of Teri Lynn Matthews, a 26-year-old Land O'Lakes bank clerk. He is awaiting retrials in Hillsborough County for the slayings of Stephanie Collins, 17, and Natalie Holley, 25.
Given Bolin's well-publicized history, lawyers and Circuit Judge Craig C. Villanti proceeded with caution Monday as they questioned prospective jurors. One woman said something about past trials, but before she could elaborate, there was an objection from defense attorneys. Villanti immediately cleared the courtroom and ordered a fresh panel.
By day's end, attorneys had made little progress. Jury selection resumes this morning.
Bolin was partly responsible for the slowness. "I'm having a problem with counsel," Bolin told Villanti.
Bolin threatened to fire his court-appointed attorneys, John Swisher and Sam Williams, over their refusal to let his wife, Rosalie Bolin, sit in the courtroom during the trial.
During a recess, Bolin argued openly with his attorneys, constantly running a hand through his thick, gray hair.
When the trial resumed nearly an hour later, Rosalie Bolin, who has worked on her husband's case as a private investigator, was still sitting outside the courtroom.
| Murder defendant Oscar Ray Bolin, left, listens during the jury selection process Monday with his attorneys, John Swisher, center, and Sam Williams at the opening day of his trial. |
#SC95775 - Oscar Ray Bolin, Appellant, vs. State of Florida, Appellee. 793 So. 2d 894; July 13 2001.
- Docket #SC95775 - Oscar Ray Bolin, Appellant, vs. State of Florida, Appellee. 793 So. 2d 894; July 13 2001.
SC95774 - Oscar Ray Bolin, Appellant, vs. State of Florida, Appellee. 796 So. 2d 511; August 30, 2001.
- Docket #SC95774 - Oscar Ray Bolin, Appellant, vs. State of Florida, Appellee. 796 So. 2d 511; August 30, 2001. Oral Argument
- RealVideo must be installed on your computer to view the oral argument. Gavel to Gavel is produced by WFSU-TV.
Defense team a seasoned lot 6/2003
By Pat Moore, Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Sunday, June 22, 2003
STUART -- An Arkansas attorney and a Florida private investigator -- both no strangers to high-profile murder cases -- have joined the defense team representing a Tequesta man charged with killing the wife of his wealthy father-in-law last year.
Stuart attorney Ed Galante asked his cousin, Arkansas attorney Paul N. Ford, to join the team because of his experience in death-penalty cases, including his representation of one of the infamous "West Memphis Three" nearly a decade ago.
Together, they asked private investigator Rosalie Bolin to assist with the defense of Edward Eugene "Gene" King, 54, who is charged with murdering his wife's stepmother Dec. 3 while she was decorating a Christmas tree.
But the men had no idea Bolin was married to a serial killer on Florida's Death Row.
"I am surprised by that," Ford said Friday. "But I know she is a zealous advocate for people and I could see how she gets emotionally involved in the representation of her clients."
Ford and Galante met Bolin this year an educational seminar required for Florida attorneys handling death-penalty cases.
They said they asked Bolin to assist with the King case because she came highly recommended by defense attorneys in Florida. The two insist her marriage to a Death Row inmate will not affect her work on the Martin County case.
Bolin, 44, a licensed private investigator, previously lived a life of luxury as the wife of a prominent Tampa defense attorney. That marriage ended in 1996, a month before she married Oscar Ray Bolin Jr., who has been sentenced to death seven times for the 1986 murders of three women in Hillsborough and Pasco counties.
The Florida Supreme Court has overturned the convictions twice. He was sentenced to death again in one case last year and is awaiting retrials in the two other cases.
The Bolins exchanged wedding vows over the telephone -- her in a Gainesville apartment and him on Death Row -- in a ceremony televised nationally on ABC's news magazine 20/20.
They met a year earlier, after she went to work for the Hillsborough County public defender assisting lawyers in death penalty cases. Bolin was her first case.
Ford, meanwhile, represented one of three Arkansas men accused of the 1993 cult-ritual killings of three 8-year-old boys that spawned several television documentaries, a book, and an off-Broadway play.
"I didn't think my client was guilty," Ford said of his most famous client, Charles Jason Baldwin, 16, who was sentenced to life in prison.
National interest began after the 1994 convictions of Baldwin and co-defendants, Jessie Lloyd Misskelley Jr., who also received a life sentence, and Damien Wayne Echols, 19, who was sentenced to death.
Televised documentaries, including HBO's Paradise Lost, question the fairness of the three men's trials for killing three second-graders. The films suggest the men were wrongly convicted on little evidence of a ritual slaughter and their alleged association to the occult.
A movie about the case is in production and popular groups, including Pearl Jam, have performed concerts to raise money for the men's defense fund.
While those cases continue to draw national attention, Ford and Bolin have turned their efforts toward King's defense in Martin County.
Galante told a judge he was intending to rely on an insanity defense for King, who had visited a psychiatrist and was taking prescribed psychotropic medications on the day he shot Brooke Berndt, 52, at her waterfront home at 17369 S.E. Conch Bar Ave.
Her husband, Edward Berndt, 81, who made his fortune in real estate, told investigators he was helping his wife trim the tree when King burst into the room and shot her.
Berndt said King also pushed him to the floor, put the gun to his head and asked, "Do you wanna go with her?" Then he put the gun to Brooke Berndt's chest and fired again into her heart.
Assistant State Attorney Nita Denton said her office has not decided whether to seek the death penalty, but she is concerned about the defense investigator's efforts to take her elderly, wealthy victim to dinner.
Berndt testified in a deposition last month that Bolin visited him and invited him out to dinner. He said he did not think she was being unprofessional, but he rejected the invitation after talking to the prosecutor. He said he was afraid he would say something that could be used against him at King's trial.
But Denton said she had a problem with the invitation.
"In my 17 years as a prosecutor, I've never had a defense investigator take one of my victims out to dinner," Denton said. "I was very concerned... so I did some research and I learned who she is."
Ford said he disagreed with Denton, saying Bolin did not invite Berndt to dinner. Even if she had, nothing was improper about it, he said.
"That's what investigators do. They get people to tell them things," he said. "I don't care if they agree to meet at a coffee shop, around a conference table in a law office or over dinner. If they are going to discuss information that could help, I want to get that information."
Bolin has made no secret of her Death Row spouse, whose case has been featured on Court TV, or of her efforts to exonerate him. She could not be reached for comment for this story.
Berndt told attorneys last month that Bolin also asked him to agree to a reduced manslaughter plea for King -- a suggestion he adamantly rejected -- saying he "would probably like to see (King) rot in jail."
He said he later changed his mind.
"I think I'd like to see him die, yes," Berndt testified. "If I were in his shoes, I would want the needle."
If you have a better story, I'd like to hear it
Tuesday, March 15, 2005
Ok...the moment you've all be waiting for...I have found something worse than being white trash in Florida...
So. I coached soccer at an insanely rich, private, all girls Catholic High School this winter (and by rich I mean, Tino Martinez's kids go here, George Steinbrenner's grandkids go here, they spent $4 million to build a new bridge so the kids don't have to walk across the street).
Doug came to almost all of our games (he never told you he loves watching high school girls play soccer???) and there was always one mom who would sit near him and talk with him...they became friends. This mom is is quite possibly the happiest, nicest person you would ever like to meet. She had us over to her house for dinner, she would pay for our dinner's when we'd go out to eat with the team, she is just lovely. I would think occasionally to myself...how is a person so nice all the time? I didn't want to seem overly pessimistic but it seemed to me as though no person could be that nice and happy all the time and still be sane.
This mom owns her own bail bond store and also works as a death row advocate...she's not an attorney but rather an expert witness trying to get convicted murderers off of death row. She has 4 daughters who range from early 20's to 15 years. She is divorced from a man who I have never seen but is one of the best known criminal defense attorney's in Florida. He is rich.
Whenever one of his daughter's turns 16, they are allowed to pick out any car they like and daddy buys it for them.
What is the point you may be asking.
This mom's name happens to be Mrs. Bolin. I never thought much of this until a nun at the school told me the following story...it is important to remember that nuns know everything about everyone. I don't know how they do it but it's true.
There is a man named Oscar Ray Bolin. He has been convicted 7 times for rape and murder. CONVITED 7 times...suspected in several others. Mrs. Bolin, the soccer mom, met this man one year before she and her husband were divorced. One month after their divorce, Mrs. Bolin married Mr. Oscar Ray Bolin.
How does a person marry a person who is on death row, you might ask. You could do it on the television show 20/20 via telephone...you in your apartment and he in his prison cell. You would then be married to a serial killer.
If you do not believe me, please go to google and search Oscar Ray Bolin and Rosalie Bolin and read any of the millions of articles that pop up.
Or you could go to Serial Killer Hit List: http://www.mayhem.net/Crime/serial4.html and scroll about half way down until you see Oscar Ray's name. There you can read about this lovely person and even see some quotes from Mrs. Bolin about how she really loves him and believes that he is *not* a serial killer.
Now if you were one of Mrs. Bolin's children, you would walk around knowing that your step father has been convicted on 7 accounts of raping and murdering girls your own age? How would you like it if your mother married a serial killer on national television? How would you like if your mother was quoted on a website called "Serial Killer Hit List"?
I have eaten dinner at the home of a woman who is married to someone who brutally murders people for sport.
This has taught me a lesson. Nice people are married to serial killers. I will continue to be mean and evil and you should all do the same.
And also, seriously, thank God for Florida...this place gets worse and worse with each passing day...
Bolin Verdict: Guilty 11/2006
By THOMAS W. KRAUSE / The Tampa Tribune and
JEFF PATTERSON / News Channel 8
TAMPA - Oscar Ray Bolin, 44, has been found guilty of murder in the first degree for the 1986 killing of Stephanie Collins.
Two previous convictions and death sentences for Bolin were reversed on appeal.
Bolin waived the jury recommendation portion of the penalty phase in his case, meaning it is up to the judge to decide if he gets life or death.
In the state of Florida, typically after any death penalty case, the jury hears more evidence and makes recommendation to judge of life in prison or the death penalty. The defendant can waive that portion in which case, the evidence would be presented directly to the judge and the judge would make the decision without hearing from the jury.
Closing arguments concluded this morning.
Assistant State Attorney Mike Halkitis offered a surprise in his closing argument. He reached into Collins’ purse and pulled out a folded yellow piece of paper. Written on the back was the name “Ray” followed by a series of letters and numbers. The numbers, Halkitis said, corresponded with Bolin’s license plate number.
It was the first time in the 20-year case that information was made public. Halkitis told the jury that the note proved Bolin, whose nickname was Ray, had some contact with Collins before her abduction.
Halkitis suggested to the jury that Bolin may have been stalking Collins or that the two had been in a minor fender bender and she wrote down his name and license number in the days before her abduction.
Bolin’s attorney, David Parry, who was surprised by the information, told the jury that no witnesses said the note was in the purse and no one could say for sure where it came from. He also questioned why law enforcement never found it or never ran the tag number.
“Before today, no one did anything about it,” he said.
Bolin sentenced to life in Holley murder
Published October 11, 2005
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After a third appeal for the 1986 stabbing death of 25-year-old Natalie Blanche Holley, whose body was dumped in a Lutz orange grove, Hillsborough Circuit Judge Barbara Fleischer sentenced convicted killer Oscar Ray Bolin Jr. to life in prison Tuesday morning, the maximum Bolin could get for the second-degree murder conviction a jury issued him Friday.
While he has seven times been convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to death in three separate murder cases, this is the first time a jury convicted him of second-degree murder, giving him life instead of the death penalty.
Fleischer based the sentencing decision solely on the evidence presented in this four-day trial, taking other convictions of first-degree murder, kidnapping, rape, assault on an officer and conspiracy to kidnap off Bolin's sentencing score sheet.
Fleischer also told the courtroom that a passionate six-minute tirade the victim's sister Anita Holley unleashed against Bolin and his wife Rosalie Monday morning did not factor into her decision.
"There's no question that I listened to Ms. Holley's statement yesterday, and as a human being, I feel sorry for the victims and families, and I know that the pain and loss are not going to be any less, I don't want anyone to believe that the sentence I'm about to impose is based on anything Ms. Holley said in court," Fleischer said.
Anita Holley was pleased with Fleischer's decision.
"That actually makes us feel better, since she went on the facts alone," Holley said, adding that Fleischer had corrected grave mistakes the jury made when issuing the second-degree conviction.
Holley's mother Natalie Holley agreed.
"That's the stiffest she could do," she said, adding that she takes comfort in knowing that Bolin still has a death penalty sentence on other cases and will never walk free.
Bolin is serving a 15- to 75-year sentence for a 1987 Ohio rape and remains on death row for his conviction in the bludgeoning death of 26-year-old Teri Lynn Matthews in 1986.
Bolin returns to court in January for a third trial in the 1986 murder of 17-year-old Stephanie Collins.
The Holley family will be there, too.
Anita Holley challenged Rosalie Bolin, a former Hillsborough County death penalty mitigation expert who married him on death row and has since helped him successfully appeal his murder convictions.
"She's obsessed. She's pursuing an obsession at our expense," Holley said. "We dread it, but we are going to be just as obsessed. I will physically be there when he dies."
Despite all the anger the Holleys hold toward Blanche's killer, they have separated her memory completely from the circumstances of her death.
"Blanche's soul is completely disconnected from this monster. She is at rest, period. She will always be at rest," Anita Holley said.
Natalie Holley feels this outcome will allow her family to finally rest.
"For me, it's over," she said.
Killer receives a tongue-lashing
By JUSTIN GEORGEOscar Ray Bolin Jr., facing sentencing today for the murder of Natalie Holley, is the target of a six-minute courtroom tirade by her half-sister.
Published October 11, 2005
TAMPA - At what was to have been the sentencing of convicted killer Oscar Ray Bolin Jr. Monday, the sister of one of his victims unleashed a six-minute tirade against Bolin and his wife.
In the end, Bolin's sentencing for second-degree murder in the 1986 slaying of Natalie Blanche Holley was postponed until today to give attorneys more time for legal research.
But Holley's half-sister, Anita Holley, couldn't wait. Standing in the courtroom, she blasted Bolin, 43, and his wife, Rosalie, a former Hillsborough County death penalty mitigation expert who married him on death row. She helped him successfully appeal three separate murder convictions over the years.
Here are excerpts of what Anita Holley, 56, said:
"The impacts of Blanche's murder on me are deep and wide. But two main sources of impact are Oscar and Rosalie Bolin. I appreciate this time to express the feelings of the mothers Ray Bolin has tortured. ... While on the outside the mothers are poised, on the inside, they are filled with tears and anger. If you, Oscar, were put in an empty room with these three mothers, you would be dead within 30 minutes. ...
"Me, I have become hardened and without fear. If someone were to attack me, they would quickly regret it. But it's not a good way to live. This murder has colored my soul with a putrid anger. It bubbles and poisons the garden of my life. But I have learned to gather it and put it in a box. ...
"I address this to Oscar. I understand your nickname is Needle. There is irony in that. I feel like we're in the killer and his jester show. You're loving it, aren't you? Coming from a cheap carny background, these freak show trials are what you know as normal. The spotlight is pleasurable isn't it? You thrive on Rosalie's sacrifice, don't you? You don't have to stab her, she just falls on the knife all by herself and dresses you in Armani in the process. ...
"Oscar has turned me into a person without fear, and if I were the same delusional, uncivilized person that Rosalie is, she would be dead at my hand. I'm not. ... On the surface, she appears to be an energetic, intelligent and even attractive woman. Under the surface, she has proved to be the very definition of narcissistic. She needs a psychiatrist. ... It is clear that she thrives in the spotlight Oscar has generated from these horrible murders....
"This will never go away for us. The only way there can be relief is if I know he is out of existence. I don't want to think of him even in what I know as reality. I just don't want to think of him at all."
Inmate Population Information Detail
Inmate Population Information Detail
Sadly, he only has two Florida sentences left. Don't let this monster walk out of prison!!!!| Current Prison Sentence History: | |||||||
| Offense Date | Offense | Sentence Date | County | Case No. | Prison Sentence Length | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 12/05/1986 | 1ST DG MUR/PREMED. OR ATT. | 12/28/2001 | PASCO | 9100521 | DEATH SENTENCE | ||
| 01/25/1986 | 2ND DEG.MURD,DANGEROUS ACT | 10/11/2005 | HILLSBOROUGH | 9011832 | SENTENCED TO LIFE | ||
from SERIAL KILLER HIT LIST - PART 4
Oscar Ray Bolin Jr. (3+) A death row Romeo, Oscar was convicted in 1986 of the brutal rapes and murders of three women and suspected of four other killings.
A former carnival worker, Bolin was found guilty of first-degree murder and false imprisonment in the November 1986 death of Stephanie Collins, 17. The high school senior's disappearance from a suburban shopping center sparked a massive monthlong search. He was sentenced to death almost eight years ago for the murders of Stephanie Collins, Terry Lynn Matthews and Natalie Blanche Holley, 25, of Tampa. He won new trials, however, when the Florida Supreme Court said improper evidence had been introduced.
Bolin was retried in 1996 and sent to death row for murdering Matthews. In February, a Hillsborough jury recommended that Bolin get the death penalty for killing Holley. He is to be formally sentenced by a judge in May in the Holley and Collins cases. Prosecutors say Bolin abducted Collins after she stopped by the drugstore where she worked to see about picking up extra work over the holidays. She was on her way to chorus practice. Bolin took the teenager to his north Tampa travel trailer and bludgeoned and stabbed her to death, jurors were told.
A hair found on Collins was matched to Bolin, FBI analysts testified. Bolin's wife at the time of the murders, who now is dead, testified on videotape that he admitted killing Collins. Bolin's attorneys said their client merely helped conceal the crime of an unnamed person. Bolin did not take the stand. After the trial, his attorneys said they think numerous issues will provide a basis for an appeal. They argued during trial that they were hamstrung by a poor cross- examination of Bolin's ex-wife by his previous attorneys.
However completely unremarkable Bolin is as a serial killer, he became the focus of national media attention when he married Rosalie Martinez, a socially prominent Tampa woman. Rosalie left her attorney-husband and four young daughters, for her jailhouse Lothario.
"We were married Oct. 5, over the phone," said Rosie, 37, of her 1996 death row nuptials to Oscar Ray Bolin Jr. It wasn't exactly a traditional ceremony. "I was in my apartment in Gainesville, and he was in the county jail." As newlyweds they meet every Saturday in the cafeteria of the state prison in Starke, Fla., where they kiss, hug and hold hands. However, they have not consummated their union. "I... desire to be passionate with him," she said, "but we have to be strong." The very devoted and, in our opinion, somewhat gullible bride accepted Oscar's wedding proposal because she believes he is innocent. "I never wanted him to think that I would abandon him," she said. "He's given me a purpose. I'm on a crusade."
Shedding a different light on the case, on October 26, 1997, Mrs. Oscar Ray Bolin, Jr. wrote to the Archives:
"My name has never been "Rosie" and I am not 'strangely idiotic' -- Oscar has one conviction -- and has not been tried on other two cases -- he is not a suspected serial killer -- he has been kicked out of the club! I want my husband's name taken off (The Serial Killer Hit List) -- Rosalie Bolin.
Cupcake, a visitor to the Archives had this to say about Rosalie Martinez:
During the trials in the early 90's I was training to be a victim advocate. I was privileged to sit with and "support" the parents of the 3 women Bolin murdered. I was present during the first trial AND the 1st retrial of Terry Lynn Matthews. I was present when Rosalie Martinez was evicted from the court room for "trying" to intimidate Bolin's half-brother while he was testifying. (it was quite heartening for the mother of Matthews I might add) I just finished reading her ridiculous letter to this site saying he was only tried for the one murder and was not a serial killer. In fact, I nearly fell off my chair. He has been tried AND convicted 6 (maybe 7 times for Christ's sake)
When I think of Rosalie Martinez Bolin I can't help but remember her truly outrageous statement of "I feel pretty" when 20/20 asked her what in the world could she possibly be thinking marrying this headcase. I wonder how pretty SHE would feel with a tire iron across her head. And lets not forget that the tire iron was only used because Bolin's stabbing and drowning didn't kill Matthews. How pretty she would be. On behalf of all of us women out here, I would like to make a collective sigh of relief that he is not on the streets. Perhaps THAT is why Martinez is hopping around making noise? She's safe. Sit down and shut up sweetheart. Your 15 minutes are over, and I will say an extra prayer tonight that your soon to be dearly departed will get a "date" soon.
UPDATE: October 25, 2001
For the seventh time in a row, Florida serial killer Oscar Ray Bolin has been found guilty of first-degree murder. Since 1986 he has been found three times guilty of killing Terry Lynn Matthews. He has also has stood trial for the 1986 murders of two Hillsborough County women, Natalie Blanche Holley and Stephanie Collins. Twice he has been convicted for each of those murders. Each time the victims' families, the prosecutors, the judges, thought they had moved closer to justice, the Florida Supreme Court found mistakes in the trials and overturned the convictions. During Bolin's eight-day trial, signs of just how much time has passed since the killings were everywhere. Time and again, witnesses were forced to answer questions apologetically by saying, simply, "I don't remember. It's been so long." Bolin was 24 when Matthews was murdered; now he's 39.
Some witnesses have died, including Bolin's ex-wife, Cheryl Jo Coby. Another witness, Robert Kahles, committed suicide in 1991. He owned the tow-truck company that Bolin worked for in 1986. Ultimately, it was his decision to allow Bolin to take a wrecker to Pasco County on the day Matthews was abducted and murdered. Before putting a gun to his head, Kahles called his wife and said, "I shouldn't have had that boy working for us."
Moms Steel Each Other Through Trials
Occasionally, they grab lunch together when they're in the same part of town.
Often, however, it's just two of them for lunch. It's rare that all three show up at the same place at the same time.
Except for court.
The three never miss court.
"Nothing about the case subsides with us," said Kathleen "Kay" Reeves. "It's as though it is imprinted on your mind, like a child's mind at birth."
Reeves, 67, Natalie Holley, 80, and Donna Witmer, 56, have lost daughters to violent deaths.
The suspect in all three deaths is the same man: Oscar Ray Bolin.
In July 1991, Bolin was convicted in the death of Holley's daughter. Three months later, he was convicted in the slaying of Witmer's daughter. In 1992, he was convicted in the killing of Reeves' daughter.The three mothers sat through the three trials, then through three sentencing hearings where Bolin received the death penalty.
In 1994, they comforted each other when all three convictions were overturned.
They sat through three more trials, then three more reversals on appeal.
In 2001, Bolin was again convicted and sentenced to death for the murder of Reeves' daughter. Last year, the Florida Supreme Court unanimously upheld that conviction and sentence.
The three were overjoyed.
Today, lawyers will select a new jury as prosecutors try, once again, to convict Bolin in the death of Holley's daughter. Immediately after that trial, another trial will begin, seeking to convict Bolin in the death of Witmer's daughter.
Reeves, fulfilling a pledge she made years ago, will sit next to Holley and Witmer throughout both trials -- and throughout any future hearings, should they be necessary.
"You just fortify yourself with the fact that this is another nail in the coffin," she said. "His coffin."
The mothers will lean on each other, Reeves said, until Bolin is executed.
Three deaths
In January 1986, Natalie "Blanche" Holley, 25, was abducted after she left the north Tampa Church's Chicken where she worked. Her stabbed body was found the next day in a Lutz orange grove.
Ten months later, Witmer's daughter disappeared from a shopping center parking lot in Carrollwood. The body of Stephanie Anne Collins, 17, was found on Dec. 5, 1986, with blunt injuries to her head.
On the same day authorities found Collins' body, they recovered the body of Reeves' daughter, Teri Lynn Matthews, beside railroad tracks in Pasco County.
The previous night, Matthews, 26, was abducted from the Land O' Lakes post office. She had been beaten, raped and stabbed, authorities said.
The three mothers would wait four years for an arrest.
The case broke when Bolin's wife came forward, saying she was with him when he dumped Collins' body.
At the time of Bolin's arrest, he was serving a 75-year prison sentence in Ohio for the abduction and rape of a truck-stop waitress.
After Bolin's murder convictions, the Florida Supreme Court granted new trials citing improper testimony from his wife, too much pretrial publicity and jury selection issues.
In his most recent appeal, for his Pasco County conviction in Matthews' death, the high court unanimously rejected defense arguments that some jurors were improperly excused from duty.
Although this week's retrials will take place in Hillsborough County, the prosecutor, Michael Halkitis, is an assistant state attorney from Pasco County. Local prosecutors recused themselves because Hillsborough County State Attorney Mark Ober has previously represented Bolin.
Back To Court
Over the years, as newspapers and television news stations have reported on Bolin's many trials and appeals, he also has made headlines for an unusual relationship.
In 1996, via a telephone ceremony, Oscar Ray Bolin married Rosalie Martinez.
Martinez, now Rosalie Bolin, worked for the Hillsborough County Public Defender's Office as a death penalty mitigation expert.
Long before the marriage, rumors of the romance abounded in courthouse and jail circles.
The public defender's office removed Rosalie Bolin from Oscar Ray Bolin's case because she was spending too much time on it, at the expense of other cases. She also was banned from the Hillsborough County Jail after detention deputies saw her caressing Bolin's neck and Bolin was found with a love note from her, prosecutors have said.
Now, Rosalie Bolin works as a private investigator, specializing in death penalty mitigation.
Through her husband's lawyer, she declined to comment until after the trial.
In previous interviews, she has said she will not give up fighting for her husband.
As prosecutors and defense attorneys have prepared for trial, Natalie Holley has braced herself for another stress-filled week.
"There's no way I can prepare for it," she said on Thursday. "I just have to grit my teeth and keep a straight face."
She said she always worries at the beginning of a trial, but she recently spoke to Witmer and Reeves on the phone. They talked about the pending trial, the past appeals, their other children.
"They are providing strength for me," Holley said. "I didn't know either of them at my daughter's trial, the first one. That's where we met, and we've been together ever since."
Wife stands by Bolin for his 8th murder trial
By CANDACE RONDEAUX, Times Staff WriterOscar Ray Bolin is on death row, but Rosalie Bolin says his life is worth saving.
Published October 4, 2005
TAMPA - Rosalie Bolin can't put her finger on it. There's no way to explain what made her give it all up for him. All she knows is she saw something in Oscar Ray Bolin Jr. before she married him that no one else did and she needs to save him from being executed.
"Some people have whales. I have Oscar," she said. "I'm sure my mother would rather see me save the whales than a death row inmate but it's Oscar I'm trying to save."
On Monday, she came to court ready to try again as jury selection began in her husband's eighth murder trial. In the decade since Bolin, 43, said "I do" to her over a death row telephone, she's sat through a lot of legal proceedings, but this one is different. This time prosecutors are doubly determined to convict Bolin for the 1986 murder of Natalie Blanche Holley.
Holley, 25, was kidnapped as she left the north Tampa Church's Chicken where she worked. Her body, stabbed and bloody, was found the next day in an orange grove in north Hillsborough County.
Holley was the first but not the last woman Bolin would be accused of killing. On Dec. 5, 1986, authorities found the body of Stephanie Anne Collins, 17, after she disappeared from a parking lot in Carrollwood. Investigators later that day found the body of bank clerk Teri Lynn Matthews, 26, in Pasco County after she had been beaten, raped and stabbed.
During the trial for Matthews' murder, Bolin's half brother, Phillip, said Bolin woke him the night before the young woman's body was found and asked him to go outside. There, Phillip Bolin said he heard moaning coming from a body wrapped in a sheet. He said Oscar Bolin hit the woman with a piece of wood, sprayed her with a hose and asked for help loading her body into the back of a truck.
In 1991, Bolin, a former carnival worker, was convicted after two separate trials of murdering Holley and Collins. A year later he was convicted of killing Matthews.
But those convictions were overturned in 1994. He was convicted again but won reversals on appeal.
In 2001, he was sentenced to death a third time for the murder of Matthews. The Florida Supreme Court upheld that conviction last year.
Rosalie Bolin, 47, was there for all the court proceedings.
Monday, she sat on the same bench as Holley's mother, Natalie Holley, who chatted quietly with Matthews' mother, Kathleen Reeves, and Collins' mother, Donna Witmer, shortly before bailiffs brought in the 80-member pool of potential jurors.
While the three women whispered their hopes that the trial would go fast and that Bolin would be convicted again, the death row inmate's wife hoped jurors would see what she saw in Bolin a decade ago.
"His life is worth saving because he's a human being," she said.
She came to know him when she was a death penalty mitigation expert for the Hillsborough County Public Defender's Office. Removed from Bolin's case for spending too much time on it, she fell in love with the man who eventually cost her a job.
Bolin is scheduled to be retried in the Collins murder immediately after the trial in the Holley case.
Bolin convicted of second-degree murder 10-7-05
Published October 7, 2005
TAMPA - It took eight murder trials for Oscar Ray Bolin Jr. to give the executioner the slip. But in the eyes of the law he's still a murderer.
On Friday, a jury found Bolin, 43, guilty of second-degree murder nearly 20 years after he stabbed Natalie Blanche Holley, 25, to death and dumped her body in a Lutz orange grove. Years after two separate juries convicted and sentenced Bolin to death on charges of murder, the outcome in the third trial was a stunning departure from the first-degree murder conviction prosecutors had hoped for and left the victim's family reeling.
"The jurors are not going to sleep well when they find out who this man is," said Holley's half-sister Anita Holley, 56. "The ones that capitulated -- because I heard there was a lot of fighting in the jury room -- I hold them responsible for a lot of my misery in my soul. I will be at his extermination."
Bolin, shook his head in seeming disbelief as a court clerk read the verdict and it became clear that after eight murder trials he had for the first time eluded the death penalty. His wife Rosalie Bolin smiled. Outside the courtroom, she said the decision would give her husband hope and vowed to keep fighting until Bolin is exonerated.
"I believe that Mr. Bolin was innocent and maybe this is one step closer to the truth," she said.
Bolin, who is also serving a 15- to 75-year sentence for a 1987 Ohio rape, remains on death row for his conviction on charges he murdered Teri Lynn Matthews, a 26-year-old bank clerk whose bludgeoned body was found in Pasco County on Dec. 5, 1986. Bolin was also tried three times in that case but last year the Florida Supreme Court upheld his conviction and death sentence. He was twice convicted for the December 1986 murder of 17-year-old Stephanie Collins, he could also still face the death penalty when he is tried for a third time on first-degree murder charges in that upcoming case.
Cousin breaks silence, testifies against Bolin
By CANDACE RONDEAUX, Times Staff WriterFrank Bolin says he regrets keeping silent for years after Oscar Ray Bolin told him about the slaying in 1986.
Published October 7, 2005
TAMPA - Frank Bolin will always regret the silence. He'll always wonder why he didn't say something sooner about the night his cousin said he killed Natalie Blanche Holley.
Nearly 20 years have passed since he and Oscar Ray Bolin Jr. drove past the Church's Chicken where Holley, 25, worked before her bludgeoned body was found in a Lutz orange grove. There's a lot he has forgotten since then. But his memory of what the convicted killer said to him that night in January 1986 is crystal clear.
"He told me he did that girl," Frank Bolin said Thursday.
He thought he was joking. When Bolin started to tell his cousin more than he wanted to know, Frank Bolin stopped him short.
"I said, "Ray, it's not funny,' " he said. "If I had thought he was serious, I would have called the authorities."
Instead Frank Bolin lived with the secret for years. But after sitting on the sidelines for Oscar Ray Bolin's seven previous trials, Bolin's cousin broke his silence Thursday at his eighth murder trial. He told the jury it wasn't until four years after Holley's murder on Jan. 25, 1986, that he finally told detectives what he knew about Bolin's involvement.
"I thought it was a sick joke, and I just didn't want to hear it. It wasn't a joking matter," he said.
It was no joking matter for Bolin's ex-wife, Cheryl Jo Coby, either. Coby died of diabetes complications several years after the murder, but prosecutors played a tape of her testimony from a previous trial Thursday. Jurors listened to a distorted recording of Coby explaining how she kept silent about what had happened for years.
In July 1990, she told investigators what she knew after her then-husband Daniel Coby called in an anonymous tip from their home in Indiana. She said she and Bolin sat parked in their Pontiac Grand Prix across from the Church's Chicken for nearly an hour on the night Holley was abducted after she closed the restaurant. After that the couple returned to their mobile home about a half-mile away, watched the news and went to bed.
Things took a strange turn around 2 a.m. when Coby woke to see Bolin changing out of a pair of bloody Traxx tennis shoes in the bathroom. Then he dumped the contents of a woman's purse on their waterbed, took money out of the wallet, pocketed a bottle of pills and told Coby to get ready to go. They drove to Lake Magdalene Boulevard and Smitter Road where Bolin wiped down the inside of Holley's abandoned 1972 Dodge Dart, Coby testified. Bolin chucked the bloody shoes and the purse out the window as they drove down the highway, Coby said.
But on the tape, one of Bolin's previous defense attorneys raised doubts about Coby's account, pointing out that diabetes had caused Coby to go legally blind around the same time the murder occurred.
Prosecutors tried to bolster their case further when they called on an FBI forensic expert, who testified that reddish-maroon fibers found on Holley's pants matched a sample taken from the back seat of Bolin's Grand Prix four years after the murder.
During cross-examination, however, Bolin's attorney, David Parry, pointed out that the fibers could have come from any number sources. Parry later noted that fingerprint analysis on Holley's Dodge Dart turned up seven matches for Holley and three unknown prints.
Bolin was convicted of killing Holley and sentenced to death in 1991. He was also convicted in the 1986 murders of Stephanie Anne Collins, 17, and Teri Lynn Matthews, 26. But all three cases were overturned and retried. Last year, the Florida Supreme Court upheld Bolin's conviction for Matthews' murder, 18 years after the bank clerk's body was found in Pasco County.
Outside the courtroom Thursday, Frank Bolin talked quietly with the three victims' mothers. He hugged Matthews' mother and recalled with tears in his eyes how he'd gone to middle school with her years before Bolin kidnapped her and stabbed her to death. He then turned to Holley's mother and asked her to forgive him for remaining silent for so long.
Afterward, Natalie Holley, 80, said she was relieved he came forward and testified.
"I thought he did well. Afterwards he apologized to us and he was remorseful. That means a lot because I haven't heard a word of remorse," Holley said.
Both sides rested their case Thursday. Closing arguments are scheduled for this morning. The jury could reach a verdict today.
