MANCHESTER, NH — Dale Holloway, the man charged with shooting a Pentecostal bishop during a wedding last October and later assaulting a public defender at the Valley Street jail, again pleaded with a judge to release him on bail because of the COVID-19 pandemic, and the answer once again was no.
“I know this is a life or death situation,” Holloway, who suffers from asthma, told the judge. “I am vulnerable to the disease.”
He said his family has already lost one relative to COVID-19.
Defense attorney Donna Brown said the COVID-19 situation is difficult for everyone but particularly for Holloway, 37, of Manchester who suffers from PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder). Holloway’s address is now listed as the Valley Street jail but previously resided at 549 Lake Ave. in Manchester.
Wednesday’s hearing in Hillsborough County Superior Court Northern District was to see if Holloway still wanted to represent himself at trial or if he wanted his attorneys, Brown and Brian T. Lee, to continue to represent him. He told the judge he wanted the lawyers to represent him.
Brown explained that communication had been difficult between them because the jail had limited conversations to a 15-minute telephone call. She said it has improved in the last couple of weeks because the jail is allowing in-person meetings of longer durations.
Judge Diane Nicolosi said she understood Holloway’s frustration but told him she was not going to change the bail order which was issued by Judge Amy Messer. Nicolosi said he was ordered detained on no bail because of the violent nature of the offenses alleged, his numerous convictions on violent crimes and his assaultive behavior.
Holloway is charged with attempted murder in the Oct. 12, 2019 shooting of New England Pentecostal Ministries Bishop Stanley Choate, 75; first-degree assault for injuring the bishop with a deadly weapon; being a felon in possession of a .380 caliber pistol; second-degree assault for injuring the bride Claire McMullen, 60, who was shot in the arm, and simple assault for striking the groom, Mark Castiglione, 60, in the head with the gun.
The wedding was the same day – at the same church – as the funeral for Luis Garcia, 60, of Londonderry, Holloway’s step-father, who was killed Oct. 1,2019 when he was shot in the neck in his home. Brandon Castiglione, 24, of Londonderry, Mark Castiglione’s son, was arrested on a second-degree murder charge in Garcia’s death.
Holloway also is being detained in the Valley Street jail on charges he beat public defender Michael Davidow, 52, of the New Hampshire Public Defender Program, causing him to suffer a brain bleed and a broken nose.
Holloway is charged with the Oct. 12, 2019, attempted murder of Bishop Stanley Choate, 75, who was shot in the chest; first-degree assault for knowingly causing injury to the bishop by means of a deadly weapon; being a felon in possession of a .380 caliber pistol; second-degree assault for recklessly causing injury to the bride Claire McMullen, 60, who was shot in the arm, and simple assault for striking the groom, Mark Castiglione, 60, in the head with a firearm.
The wedding was the same day as the funeral of Luis Garcia, 60, of Londonderry, Holloway’s step-father, who died Oct. 1 at his home after being shot in the neck. Brandon Castiglione, 24, of Londonderry is accused of second-degree murder in Garcia’s death. Castiglione is Mark Castiglione’s son.
