DULUTH — A jury last fall convicted Anthony Alton Holloway of a particularly heinous offense: the stabbing of his pregnant girlfriend more than a dozen times while she slept in their Kenwood neighborhood apartment in March.
But as Holloway appeared for sentencing Wednesday, the victim had a clear message for Judge Dale Harris: “Whatever time he does, his kids and I do that time, too.”
“I watched as the monster called addiction ripped away the man that I had fallen in love with,” the woman told the court. “Anthony doesn’t need to stay for many years to have the system fail him again. He needs extended treatment for substance use and therapy for childhood trauma. He doesn’t need to be locked away for a long time, not dealing with the root of the problems. He has kids who need him.”
Harris, nonetheless, said he could not get past the “brutal and repeated nature of the assault,” which happened in the presence of two children, and easily could have resulted in the deaths of the woman and her unborn child.
He sentenced Holloway, an offender with a lengthy criminal history, to the statutory maximum term of 20 years for attempted intentional second-degree murder.
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“I am hard pressed to envision a crime more deserving of the maximum sentence than this one,” the judge said.
It was a case, St. Louis County prosecutor Jon Holets said, that underscores the complexities of addiction and domestic violence.
The 32-year-old victim told police at the time that “it felt like I was just some pin cushion” as Holloway lunged at her with a knife and told her that she was going to die on the morning of March 2. The couple’s 1-year-old child was curled up next to the victim when she awoke to Holloway stabbing her in the back, according to court documents.
Holloway himself was among the 911 callers who reported the stabbing at 1701 Kenwood Ave. at approximately 5:15 a.m. Officers arrived on the scene and found the victim “bleeding profusely.” The 1-year-old was physically uninjured, as was an 8-year-old in another bedroom.
The woman, who was two months pregnant, said Holloway would pause at times and look over some of her injuries before resuming stabbing. She was eventually able to get out of the apartment and seek help, at which point Holloway locked the apartment door with the two children still inside.
The victim was treated for 13-15 stab wounds to her chest, neck and back, including one that pierced her heart. She went on to tell investigators that she had seen Holloway with a knife earlier, and domestic abuse had been a regular part of their relationship over the previous two years.
The woman did later give birth to the child, though concerns about her health prompted a delay of Halloway’s trial to November. The 12-member panel unanimously found him guilty of attempted murder and child endangerment.
In court Wednesday, the woman said her feelings have been “disregarded” while the focus has been placed on casting Holloway as a “monster.” She acknowledged the trauma of the incident, and having to relive it in court, but she described the defendant as a loving father whose life was uprooted by addiction.
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She described Holloway as “100% capable” of change, saying she believes “this major incident has opened his eyes to what he really needs.”
“I know that sober Anthony would do what he needs to be a good father and provide any help needed,” she said. “If he is locked up he will not be financially responsible, or responsible at all. I will continue to be the victim, and I don’t want that. I want to move on with my life and put this past me.”
Holets, the prosecutor, called the statement “poignant.” But he said the severity of the crime, combined with Holloway’s history, led him to believe that the statutory maximum was “the only logical conclusion.”
“A bed. That’s where (the victim) was when Mr. Holloway struck. That’s the epitome of zone of privacy,” he said. “Particular cruelty. That is what happened here. Not one stab. Multiple, repeated stabs. And, if that’s not enough, when she leaves the residence, trying to find somebody else to save her life, he comes and closes the door. He doesn’t offer her assistance. He leaves her on the floor to bleed out.”
Defense attorney Laura Zimm argued for the minimum guideline term of just over 15 years.
“Clearly, he was suffering some psychosis and intoxication of drugs at the time of this offense,” she said.
Holloway’s history includes four previous cases involving domestic assault or stalking, and has several other convictions on his record including drug sales, first-degree burglary, fleeing a peace officer and impaired driving. But Zimm noted he did not appear to have any violent incidents in the decade prior to last March’s assault.
Holloway, who appeared via Zoom after declining transport from the Minnesota Correctional Facility in St. Cloud, chose not to address the court.
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Judge Harris acknowledged the victim’s feelings but noted that Holloway was “very fortunate” to only face 20 years in prison. If the woman had died, Holloway would’ve been looking at 40 years.
Holloway will need to spend at least two thirds of the 240-month sentence — a little over 13 years — in prison before he is eligible for supervised release.
“You will still have a lot of time left on this earth, probably,” Harris said. “I don’t know what it is necessarily that that drove you to do the things that happened back on March 2, 2022, but I hope you spend some time and some energy trying to come to terms with that, as well as gain some insight into that, because I certainly don’t want anything like this to happen ever again — for your sake as well as for the public’s sake.
“For (the victim) and her family, I hear what you’re saying loud and clear,” Harris said. “The criminal justice system can be an imposing and intimidating situation. But, at the same time, the state also has a burden of trying to preserve and protect public safety.”