14 DAY TRIAL // A 21-year-old man from Saginaw, Michigan has been convicted for brutally murdering and torturing his 28-year-old neighbor.
According to a report by Mlive.com, Lashon T. Hollman attacked 28-year-old Cassandra Nelson by dropping a TV set on her head and stabbing her 54 times on February 1, 2012.
Nelson lost consciousness after receiving the debilitating blow to the head. She started having problems breathing and eventually drowned by swallowing her own blood, County Medical Examiner Kanu Virani explains.
The knife used to stab her was recovered under her bed in the 923 N. Harrison street apartment, with Hollman's DNA on it. Police also found traces of the defendant's DNA on a beer can recovered at the scene of the crime, next to the victim's body.
Hollman originally told detectives that the assailant was a second man who was in the house with Nelson at the time.
The suspect's best friend, Quamay Henne noted that Hollman confessed to stabbing the woman in his preliminary hearing testimony.
“I don’t understand how he could have done it. [...] He said he was at some chick’s house and he stabbed her or something. […] I didn’t believe him,” Henne said on the stand.
Hollman pleaded not guilty to the charges and turned down an agreement with the State Attorney's Office that would have locked down a 30-year sentence for second-degree murder, torture and carrying a weapon with unlawful intent.
However, after hearing evidence it has only taken the jurors 15 minutes to convict him after commencing deliberations at 9 a.m. on Wednesday, March 27.
He was found guilty of felony murder, premeditated murder in the first degree and has also been convicted on the torture and gun possession charges.
He stands to get life in prison without the possibility of parole during his May 9 sentencing hearing, a penalty associated with both murder counts.