State to present Holsey appeals response next week

By Payton Towns III - The Union-Recorder

The state habeas hearing for a man found guilty of killing a Baldwin County sheriff’s deputy will conclude next week.

The hearing is a continuance from last June when Neal Dickett, a Superior Court judge from the Augusta Judicial Circuit, heard from Robert Wayne Holsey’s witnesses but did not hear any from the respondent.

The hearing is to include testimony from the petitioner (Holsey) and the respondent (the state), said Fred Bright, district attorney of the Ocmulgee Judicial Circuit.

Holsey, 38, was convicted of malice and felony murder in the Dec. 17, 1995, death of William E. Robinson IV and the armed robbery of a convenience store that same day.

Michael Watkins, assistant attorney general from the State Attorneys General Office, said the hearing will be held at the Butts County Courthouse in Jackson. The hearing is scheduled to begin at 10 a.m. Monday and end Wednesday.

Holsey’s lawyers are seeking his release from death row.

According to Bright, he along with Bill Massee, Baldwin County sheriff, Putnam Sheriff Howard Sills, Ricky Horne and Russell Blenk of the Putnam County Sheriff’s Office, BCSO Det. Bobby Langford, Jimmy Josey (BCSO chief of detectives) and DA investigator Mark Robinson will be called to testify for the state.

At the time of the shooting, Sills was a chief deputy at the BCSO and the chief investigator in the case. Horne and Blenk both worked for the BCSO and Josey was chief of detectives with the Milledgeville Police Department.

Holsey’s lawyers - Thomas Dunn from the Georgia Resource Center in Atlanta and volunteer lawyer James Harrington from New York - are arguing just about everything they can, more than 100 different claims, Bright said in June.

According to Bright, the defense is claiming Holsey was mildly mentally retarded and that his original defense lawyers were ineffective in their representations.

Payton Towns III covers law enforcement, the court system and Baldwin County education for The Union-Recorder. He can be reached at (478) 453-1456 or by e-mail.

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