North Hollywood Man Sentenced to 11 Years in Slaying
A North Hollywood man who plotted with his girlfriend to kill her stepfather, a well-known tap dance instructor, was sentenced Monday to 11 years in prison.
Robert Lewis Holmes, 25, and his girlfriend, Mary Anne Hayden, 46, also of North Hollywood, pleaded guilty March 23 to second-degree murder for the stabbing death of Hayden’s 72-year-old stepfather, Eddie Gay, in order to inherit his half-million dollar estate.
Under a plea bargain with prosecutors, San Fernando Superior Court Judge Joyce Kennard on Monday reduced the charges against Holmes to voluntary manslaughter. Deputy Dist. Atty. Harold S. Lynn said the charge was reduced because there was no evidence that Holmes participated directly in the killing of Gay in the garage of his North Hollywood home last Sept. 22.
Hayden, who stabbed Gay, was sentenced Friday to 15 years to life in prison.
During the couple’s preliminary hearing in October, Los Angeles police detectives testified that Holmes told them that Hayden began plotting to kill her stepfather because he was considering changing his will to prevent her from collecting her inheritance until she turned 65.
As a result of her conviction, Hayden will be unable to collect the inheritance.
Holmes will be eligible for parole in about five years, and Hayden in about seven years.
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