GASTON COUNTY, N.C. — A man who told police he shot and killed his wife with Alzheimer’s Disease is now changing his story, telling a judge that his wife shot herself.
Channel 9 Gaston County Reporter Ken Lemon was in court as Rickey Holdsclaw took the stand and made a stunning reversal of his original story.
On Monday, prosecutors played an interview between Holdsclaw and police in 2021, after Holdsclaw’s wife was shot and killed in their Gaston County home. In that interview, Holdsclaw explained that his wife, Judy Helms, didn’t want to be in a nursing home and so he shot her instead.
PREVIOUS COVERAGE:
- Gastonia man, 71, charged with first-degree murder after wife shot to death
- Trial begins for man who says he killed wife because she asked him to
On Tuesday, Holdsclaw said he was in the bathroom when he heard a gunshot.
Holdsclaw, 75, cried during much of his testimony, then he calmly explained that his wife knew he kept a gun hanging on a holster in their bedroom closer.
“The safety is off, if you need it, all you have to do is pull the trigger. She knew that,” Holdsclaw testified in court on Tuesday.
He said when he went to the bathroom on the morning of March 4, 2021, he heard a pop. Then he went to the bedroom to ask his wife, who had been living with Alzheimer’s, if she heard it.
“I could see the gun,” Holdsclaw said while crying.
He said his wife’s memory lapses were so intense that she became uncontrollable, got the gun, got into bed, and shot herself.
Holdsclaw told the judge he didn’t want her to be known as someone who took her own life, so he told a 911 dispatcher he shot her and confessed during a police interview.
“I made up the quickest and best story I could when I talked to detectives,” Holdsclaw testified.
He told the judge his health was already failing.
“Hell, I’m going to die anyway, I might as well take the blame. No one will ever know. I was the only one there,” Holdsclaw said.
He said after spending weeks in jail on the initial murder charge, a life-saving surgery, and two days in a coma, he woke up feeling the best he’s felt in a long time. He said that changed his perspective.
“And your honor, I knew right then and there I wanted to be a free man again, and I wanted to live,” Holdsclaw said. “But I also knew I made my own coffin and I went in too deep over my head.”
So he decided to speak out publicly on the stand despite previous concerns for his wife’s image.
“Nobody would hold her responsible for having Alzheimer’s and shooting herself,” Holdsclaw said.
He said he later decided no one would blame his wife for how she died. His decision to speak publicly came after prosecutors decided to seek a charge of voluntary manslaughter instead of murder.
The trial is on recess so the judge could speak with attorneys in the case. If convicted, Holdsclaw faces a minimum of three years in prison.
(VIDEO: Unborn baby killed in shooting at Gaston County hotel, police say)
©2025 Cox Media Group
