Ex- Quincy Man's Appeal of Wife's Brutal Murder Denied

BOSTON, MA -- The state's highest court has rejected a former Quincy man's appeal for a new trial in the drug and alcohol-fueled fatal shooting of his estrange wife in 1998. Daniel L. Holland argued in his appeal to the state Supreme Judicial Court that during his 2001 murder trial his attorney failed to offer an insanity defense based on a history of mental illness.

Prosecutors say Daniel Holland and his wife, Elizabeth Holland, had been estranged for several months in October 1998 when at around 11:30 p.m. on Oct. 13, 1998, he broke into her Dysart Street home. Using a .22-caliber rifle he kept in his golf bag, Holland fatally shot his wife eight times in the chest and abdomen, then used the rifle stock to beat her head until the stock broke into pieces.

Their son, Patrick Holland, then 8 years old, found his mothers’ body and ran outside the house to ask a neighbor for help.

Holland testified at his trial that he could not recall driving to Quincy or killing his wife.

On the day of the murder, Holland admitted to drinking 100 proof peppermint schnapps and taking Elavil, an anti-depressant he found. Then he bought two, 12-packs of beer, drove to a nearby bridge where he drank the beer, smoked crack cocaine and took more Elavil. Then he drove to a bar where he drank more alcohol until the bartender refused to serve him.

Holland's uncle testified his nephew was "pretty well burned out'' and "loaded'' in the days leading up to the murder.

Holland argued in his appeal that his trial attorney, and two other attorneys who represented him leading up the trial, failed to investigate his self-reporting diagnosis of schizophrenia made 17 years earlier and an "organic brain abnormality.''

But in her written opinion issued Wednesday, Justice Barbara Lenk wrote that Holland's claim that his attorneys should have investigated a history of mental illness is "not borne out by the record.''

Holland was evaluated at Bridgewater State Hospital and the report indicates he was not suffering from any major mental illness, according to the decision.

Even if Holland suffered from some mental illness as an adolescent there was "no basis to assume a connection between his mental condition as a teenager and his mental condition at the time of the murder,'' she wrote.

Holland will continue to serve life in prison without parole.

The son, Patrick Holland, made international headlines when at the age of 14, he took his father to court to force him to give up his parental rights. He was later adopted by friends of his mother and moved to New Hampshire.

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