Man charged in church shooting is accused of severely beating his public defender
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A New Hampshire public defender was in intensive care after an alleged attack by a client during a jailhouse meeting.
The alleged attacker is 37-year-old Dale Holloway, who was accused of beating public defender Michael Davidow during a meeting Monday at the Hillsborough County Jail.
The New Hampshire Union Leader, the Associated Press, the Boston Herald, WMUR and Boston 25 News have stories; a press release is here.
Davidow suffered a serious head injury in the attack, according to the press release. Court documents say he suffered bleeding around the brain, a broken nose and other injuries.
Davidow was meeting with Holloway after the client was charged in an Oct. 12 church shooting that injured a pastor and bride.
A corrections officer told police that Davidow was left alone in the interview room with Holloway for about 20 minutes, according to an affidavit cited by Boston 25 News and WMUR. The officer told police that he was facing away from the room and focusing on the cell block area during the meeting. He said he expected Davidow to signal that the meeting was over by flickering the lights or tapping the glass.
The officer said he turned his attention to the room when he heard a knock on the glass and saw Holloway walking away from it. Davidow was sitting at the table covered in blood.
Davidow told detectives that he put his phone and car keys in a jail locker before the meeting, according to the Boston 25 News story. His next memory is waking up in the ambulance on the way to the hospital.
Holloway is charged with first-degree assault in the alleged beating. Holloway told a judge Tuesday that he didn’t beat his lawyer, WMUR reported. He said he noticed Davidow’s nose was bleeding and tapped on the glass to get help.
In the church shooting, Holloway is facing charges of attempted murder, first- and second-degree assault, simple assault, and having possession and control of a firearm as a convicted felon, according to the New Hampshire Union Leader.
Holloway is charged with entering the New England Pentecostal Ministries in Pelham on Oct. 12, shooting the pastor and a bride during a wedding, and pistol-whipping the groom. The groom is the father of a man charged with killing a church pastor in Londonderry on Oct. 1; Holloway is that late church pastor’s stepson.
The public defender’s office has withdrawn from Holloway’s case.
