Sides Sum Up in Penalty Phase of Killer’s Trial

Convicted killer Alan Brett Holland deserves the death penalty because he has shown no remorse for shooting a 65-year-old woman through the heart in a Ventura parking lot, continues to lie to authorities and represents “every female shopper’s worst nightmare,” prosecutor Don Glynn told a jury Tuesday.

But Holland’s attorney, Willard Wiksell, argued during closing arguments in the penalty phase of Holland’s murder trial that he should only receive a life sentence for killing Mildred Wilson at the Poinsettia Plaza shopping center in 1996 and taking her car and credit cards.

Holland, Wiksell argued, could not make rational decisions because he suffered from brain damage caused by bathing his dog in toxic flea chemicals at age 11.

Moreover, Wiksell argued, Holland was abandoned by his parents after he ran away at age 14, became a prostitute and descended into heavy drug use.

“Nobody even threw him a bone,” Wiksell said. “And he’s going to die friendless, neglected, with nobody to say anything nice about him.”

Glynn argued that there was no evidence that Holland had mental defects, and if he did, they could have been caused by his drug use. He described the various stories Holland had told authorities about Wilson’s murder--including a letter Holland sent Glynn saying he killed Wilson for berating him for panhandling--and said Holland’s word was worthless.

“Ladies and gentlemen, this man is a sociopath,” Glynn said.

Closing arguments should end today. The only decision jurors have left to make is whether Holland, 31, should die or spend the rest of his life behind bars. He has already been convicted of first-degree murder.