Wife-killer finally gets his wish: a death sentence

Bill Gang

Thursday, Oct. 30, 1997 | 11:18 a.m.

Convicted killer Roy Hollaway wasn't shocked when a jury handed him the death sentence after an hour of deliberations, but he was shocked when a 50,000 volt security stun belt he was wearing accidentally was triggered.

The crackling electrical charge from the device that is, in essence, a remote controlled stun gun, sent him tumbling from his chair and left him shaking uncontrollably on the floor as astonished jurors watched.

"What the ...?" Hollaway muttered as apologetic corrections officers helped him to his seat and tried to explain to District Judge Jeff Sobel how the remote control had inadvertently been touched when one officer leaned across a desk.

Just minutes before, the 40-year-old man had told the jury during closing arguments, "I think you should give me the death penalty. If you give me a life prison sentence, you're telling me it's OK to kill.

"Do you want on your conscience that I may kill again?

Hollaway had not disputed the evidence against him and had acted as his own attorney in his two year quest to be executed for the strangulation slaying of his wife.

Hollaway had qualified for the death penalty because he murdered 42-year-old Carolyn Whiting in January 1996 after being previously convicted of a violent crime -- an armed robbery in 1990.

Deputy District Attorney David Barker chastised Hollaway for his "nonchalant" demeanor in calling 911 and confessing to the crime while complaining of the trouble he had killing her.

"You must wonder how deeply into his being this violence runs," Barker said an instant before Hollaway flopped to the ground amid anguished cries as the stun belt disabled him.

He declared himself fit a few minutes later and Barker resumed his closing argument.

"Without a doubt this man has forfeited his right to live in society," the veteran prosecutor said. "The question is whether he has forfeited his right to live.

"Do justice for society."

An hour later, the jury granted Hollaway's request for the death sentence that began with his frustration-filled 911 call as his wife lay dying and carried on through a string of psychiatric examinations to the state mental facility at Lake's Crossing to Sobel's courtroom.

Hollaway chose to represent himself because defense attorneys wouldn't agree to be part of his destructive course.

There was even a hang up when he said he wanted to plead guilty to facilitate a trip to death row. Doing so would have meant the penalty would be decided by a three-judge panel, but Sobel said that most judges have seen more heinous murder cases and may not give him the death penalty.

Sobel candidly told Hollaway that he may have better luck pleading not guilty and taking the case to a jury that hasn't had the opportunity to compare murder cases.

In the final analysis, that proved to be the means to his end.

The key evidence against him was his voice on the 911 tape lamenting, "She won't die. I've tried to strangle her about four different ways. She won't die."

"Why are you trying to kill her," the Metro operator asked?

"Because I don't like her," Hollaway replied.

When the operator, trying to keep him on the phone, asked if he had considered divorce, Hollaway responded, "Isn't it a lot easier just to kill her?"

Whiting actually survived in a coma for two weeks after the incident in the couple's apartment at 5501 Harmon Ave.

Hollaway will be formally sentenced Dec. 15.