Holloway had been drinking day of shooting
Published 11:00 am Wednesday, June 4, 2014
- Timothy Claytor
RUSSELLVILLE — When Dale Holloway was released from jail Aug. 30, 2012, in Nashville, he rode to Logan County with Laura Ann White and another person.
That night, Holloway was shot dead outside Timothy Claytor’s house while White hid from Holloway in Claytor’s kitchen.
This testimony emerged Tuesday in Claytor’s murder trial in Logan Circuit Court.
Logan County Commonwealth’s Attorney Gail Guiling rested the state’s case against Claytor on Tuesday, calling on a mix of expert witnesses and people who were associated with Claytor and Holloway.
On the witness stand under questioning from Guiling, White had difficulty recalling many details of the events surrounding the shooting, but testimony from White and other witnesses helped form a timeline.
White and Claytor lived together in late 2011 when the two were in a relationship, but she dated Holloway before that relationship and returned to him after her relationship with Claytor ended.
When White and Earl Wells drove to Nashville on Aug. 30, 2012, to pick up Holloway from jail, Holloway had spent about 20 days incarcerated after a drunken driving arrest.
The group made two stops for beer on the way back to Darlene Rust’s house in Logan County, where they met with Rust and Cindy Drake and ate and drank for several hours.
White recalled that Holloway’s mood was “ill” because he was unable to get his money back from jail officials upon his release.
White and Holloway had sex at some point during the day at Rust’s house, White testified, but White later told him she wanted to end the relationship. “He was upset,” White said. “He grabbed me by the head and threw me on the bed.”
White estimated that she drank 18 beers over the course of the day before being taken by Phillip McKinney to Claytor’s house after McKinney had been contacted, leaving Rust’s home while Holloway slept.
White testified that she did not remember asking to be taken anywhere in particular from Rust’s house, though she recalled that she was scheduled to work at J.C. Stacy’s farm the next day.
While at Claytor’s house, White said she “probably” told him that she had broken up with Holloway but did not recall Claytor being scared of Holloway then or at any other time.
McKinney called Claytor to tell him that Holloway was on his way to Claytor’s house.
White said that Claytor warned her about it after hanging up with McKinney and then let her know that Holloway had arrived.
“(Claytor) was coming out of the utility room. I was getting off the couch and was going to duck down in the kitchen,” White said, adding that she did not see Claytor load his pistol and could not see the front door from the kitchen.
White recalled hearing three shots and said she “froze” in the immediate aftermath, then yelled at Claytor and eventually left the house while Claytor was on the phone with a dispatcher. She said she spent the night at a pond several hundred yards away.
White said she did not remember Claytor and Holloway having any disagreements with each other prior to the shooting and remembered Holloway and his daughters previously coming to Claytor’s house once.
‘Not an ordinary individual’
McKinney, a friend of Claytor’s as well as White’s former father-in-law, testified Tuesday that after picking up White from Rust’s house and taking her to Claytor’s house, he received a phone call at his home from Holloway, who asked where he had taken White.
McKinney responded that he had taken her “cross country,” in the hopes that Holloway would interpret that to mean White was at Stacy’s farm.
Holloway was at McKinney’s door about 10 minutes later, angrily asking him where White had gone, and McKinney admitted taking her to Claytor’s house.
“(Holloway) just looked at me and … said, ‘Y’all got your own little circle, I promise you you’re gonna pay,’ ” McKinney said. “I said, ‘I don’t know what you’re talking about, but this conversation’s over.’ ”
McKinney said that after Holloway left, he called Claytor to tell him that Holloway might be headed his way and to be prepared.
Under questioning from Claytor’s attorney, Stewart Wheeler of Russellville, McKinney said Holloway had previously gotten physical with him when he visited McKinney’s house for another purpose.
“He grabbed my hat and pulled it down and tried to pull me onto the porch,” McKinney said about the prior confrontation.
McKinney said when he picked up White he was not aware that Holloway was at Rust’s house as well, and he lectured White on the drive to Claytor’s house about that point.
McKinney said he was reluctant to tell Holloway where he had taken White, but felt he had to tell the truth when Holloway angrily knocked on his door.
“I knew if I didn’t tell him I took her over there, (Holloway) would come back to my door and I did not want to run into him again,” McKinney said. “This is not an ordinary individual. It was somebody you did not want have a tussle with.”
Guiling asked McKinney about his police interview with Logan County Sheriff’s Detective Kevin Bibb, who led the homicide investigation, and whether he remembered telling Bibb that he wanted to help Claytor. McKinney said he did not recall making that statement.
Rust offers testimony
Rust said Holloway seemed to be in a happy mood when he and White were at her house that day and that she did not see any disagreement between the two that day.
Holloway would come over to Rust’s house after work most days and drink, Rust testified.
Before leaving that night, White told Rust she was going to call someone to give her a ride from Rust’s house so she could go to work in the morning, and Rust testified that White left with McKinney about 9 p.m., about an hour before the shooting.
Holloway woke up 15 to 20 minutes later, Rust said, and asked where White had gone.
Rust replied that White had told her she was going to Stacy’s farm, Rust testified.
Holloway tried calling White a couple of times before asking Rust to come with him to try to find White. Rust declined, saying it was too late and she had planned to go to bed.
Holloway did not appear upset at the time, Rust said, and she allowed him to borrow her car.
Medical examiner testifies
Jeffrey Springer, a doctor with the Kentucky Medical Examiner’s Office, testified Tuesday about the autopsy he performed on Holloway.
Springer said one of the bullets that struck Holloway caused a wound on his right hand and a flesh wound on his scalp, while another bullet struck Holloway in the right cheek.
The shot that Springer considered lethal entered Holloway’s right torso and passed through the liver and diaphragm, resulting in a significant amount of blood loss.
This bullet was recovered from Holloway’s sternum, Springer said.
After completing the autopsy report, Springer had a chance to review the home surveillance video footage of the shooting, and gained some perspective on how Holloway was positioned relative to Claytor when he was shot.
“(Holloway’s) head and body would have been turned leftward from the shooter,” Springer said.
Springer determined the cause of death to be multiple gunshot wounds to the head, right upper extremity and torso.
Springer said he was unable to determine the order in which Holloway suffered his wounds.
Although the shooting took place about 19 miles outside Russellville, Holloway’s chances of survival would have been low even if emergency personnel had a shorter distance to travel.
“That’s a wound that would normally require surgical intervention in order to ensure any sort of survival,” Springer said.
George Behonick, a toxicologist with the American Institute of Toxicology Laboratories, said Holloway had a blood alcohol concentration of 0.214 percent at the time of his death, more than twice the legal limit for drivers.
The trial resumes this afternoon. Wheeler is expected to make his opening statement and present evidence and testimony.
— Follow courts reporter Justin Story on Twitter at twitter.com/jstorydailynews or visit bgdailynews.com.