GASTONIA, N.C. — Prosecutors played 911 calls in court on Monday from the moment a man admitted he shot and killed his wife in Gaston County nearly four years ago.
Channel 9′s Ken Lemon was the only reporter at the courthouse, but despite the verdict, the ordeal may never end for Rickey Holdsclaw based on what he told police and dispatchers.
Holdsclaw, 75, was nearly moved to tears in court watching his interview with police after he admitted to killing his wife at their home on Willow Pond Road in 2021.
“You did what?” an officer asks him in the recording.
“I shot her,” Holdsclaw said.
Holdsclaw was arrested and charged with first-degree murder for the death of his wife, Judy Helms.
However, prosecutors are seeking a voluntary manslaughter conviction.
He told investigators his wife was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s, and he cared for her at their remote home near the South Carolina state line. He said her spells were getting bad, and he could barely take care of them.
During an interview, Holdsclaw told police that Judy was a nurse who often told him she never wanted to go to a nursing home.
“Don’t you ever let me wind up like that, you kill me first. Who would have think it would end up like that?” Holdsclaw told investigators in a recorded interview.
He said the situation was stressful, and he couldn’t have predicted what happened next. He grabbed a gun and went into the bedroom as she slept.
“I think I put the gun up here,” Holdsclaw said in the interview while pointing at his stomach.
“Just was my one and only family how could anybody do anything that bad?” he said.
Holdsclaw called 911 after the shooting and reported himself. Once police arrived, he gave them permission to shoot him. He later told investigators he tried to do it himself, but couldn’t.
“I deserve to die, but I didn’t have the balls to shoot myself,” Holdsclaw said.
Prosecutors have three witnesses left to testify, and we will soon hear from Holdsclaw’s defense attorneys.
A judge will determine the verdict in this trial after testimony is finished.
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