NASHUA — With one day left in the 2019 Pelham church shooting trial, the jury heard from several witnesses who discussed the mental state of the defendant, including experts, a parole officer, and the defendant himself.
Three forensic psychology experts were called at separate times to the stand on Wednesday. They all came to the same conclusion, that it was unlikely Dale Holloway was suffering from hallucinations or a state of psychosis during the time of the crime.
Holloway has been convicted of six charges from the Oct. 12, 2019, shooting of a wedding at New England Pentecostal Ministries. His charges included attempted murder on the officiant, Bishop Stanley Choate, first degree assault on Choate and the bride Claire McMullen, and felony possession of a firearm.
This week’s part of the trial was to determine if Holloway can be held criminally responsible due to his mental capacity. Holloway had entered a plea of not guilty by reason of mental disease or defect.
An hour into the morning court session, Judge Charles Temple asked Holloway to call his next witness. Holloway said firmly he wished to call Luis Garcia, but couldn’t because he had been murdered. He also attempted to call famed 1990s rapper Tupac Shakur, who was murdered in 1996.
“I’m going to excuse you for your morning break,” Temple said to the jury as soon as Holloway finished speaking. Once the jurors were cleared out, he returned to Holloway.
“Mr. Holloway, why don’t you now educate me into what you’re going to introduce, which I believe are exhibits involving Mr. Garcia?” Temple asked.
Holloway ended up playing segments of a tribute video he had created about Garcia that was supposed to be played at his funeral on the day of the shooting. Part of the video included music by Shakur.
The video was introduced in this phase of the trial to go to Holloway’s mental state. Holloway said the video, which featured segments of sermons by Garcia commanding the congregation to fight against evil and Satan, showed his fear of evil and desire to protect the world.
The parole officer, Jason Myers, testified Holloway had seemed mentally sound and even happy, discussing Holloway’s various jobs, his desire to become a musician and the music he was writing. Myers was Holloway’s parole officer from December 2018 to October 2019.
The three experts who testified all said more or less the same thing. All three examined Holloway before the trial began, and all three had done their own research into Holloway’s past mental health experiences.
Holloway had self-reported to the three that he was diagnosed with bipolar personality disorder and schizophrenia, and that he was taking a series of medications for depression, mood stabilization, and hallucinations.
The state’s expert, Shannon Bader, who is the current president of the American Academy of Forensic Psychology and one of the only board certified forensic psychologist in the region, said she examined Holloway only a few months before the trial, but still felt confident enough to say he was not suffering a mental illness during the time of the crime.
Through her research, Bader said she was unable to confirm Holloway’s claims of bipolar personality disorder and schizophrenia diagnoses.
Through her testing, Bader said she saw signs of Holloway trying to manipulate the test in ways that made his symptoms of mental illness more pronounced or made him look like a better person.
“He tried to make himself look really really virtuous but also really really mentally ill,” Bader said.
Ultimately, Bader said she would diagnose Holloway with antisocial personality disorder, narcissistic personality disorder, and other specified trauma and stress related disorder, which she described as a less extreme form of post traumatic stress disorder.
The last day of Holloway’s trial is on Thursday, Nov. 9 beginning at 9:30 a.m.
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