Published October 11, 2005
 | |
| |
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.
