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It's No. 7 for Oscar Ray Bolin - three times for a 1986 murder alone. The first six were overturned.
By CARY DAVIS, Times Staff Writer
© St. Petersburg Times, published December 29, 2001
NEW PORT RICHEY -- As Oscar Ray Bolin proclaimed his innocence in court Friday, Kathleen Reeves glared at him. As Bolin accused the prosecution of fabricating the case against him, Reeves said she "had to contain my hands . . . I wanted to get physical with him."
And as the judge prepared to sentence Bolin for the 1986 murder of her daughter, Teri Lynn Matthews, Reeves wished that she "could take justice into (her) own hands."
But justice, in this case, was in the hands of Pasco-Pinellas Circuit Judge Craig C. Villanti. He listened impassively to Bolin's six-minute attack on the prosecution and then took four times as long to recount the evidence against him.
Then he sentenced Bolin, 39, to death.
"It always feels good," Reeves said afterward.
She said "always" because Reeves has been through many hearings like Friday's.
Friday marked the third time the death penalty has been imposed on Bolin for Matthews' murder. He has now been sentenced to death seven times for the murders of Matthews and two Hillsborough County women. The first six convictions and death sentences were overturned by the Florida Supreme Court.
Reeves, who has attended all seven trials, thinks this one will stick.
"I'm pretty confident with this one," she said.
Matthews, 26, was abducted in December 1986 from the Land O'Lakes post office, beaten and stabbed to death. Her body, wrapped in a wet sheet, was found the next day about a mile from Bolin's mobile home.
After an eight-day trial in October, Bolin waived his right to have the jury recommend his sentence, deciding instead to leave his fate in Villanti's hands. Then, at a hearing earlier this month, Bolin announced he did not want to put on a case for mercy, even though his lawyers were prepared to offer testimony about why his life should be spared.
It was apparent Friday, though, that Bolin is not ready to throw in the towel.
Bolin, shackled at the wrists and ankles and wearing a red jail jumpsuit, leaned forward in his chair at the defense table and read from a prepared statement that contained plenty of accusations and no hint of remorse. Prosecutors, he charged, had allowed witnesses, including Bolin's younger stepbrother, to offer false and conflicting testimony.
"I've been tried three times in Pasco County," he said, "and not once have I received a fair trial . . . I will continue to fight to prove my innocence."
His wife, Rosalie Bolin, who worked on the case as an investigator, also remained defiant. As she listened to Villanti summarize in painstaking detail the evidence against her husband, an incredulous Rosalie Bolin shook her head and laughed. "Was he at the same trial as everybody else?" she mumbled.
She wiped a tear from her eye as Villanti imposed what he called "the only penalty that is appropriate."
"Oscar Ray Bolin," the judge said, "not only have you forfeited your right to live in society, you have forfeited your right to live at all."
Under Florida law, Friday's sentence will automatically be appealed.
Bolin also faces retrials next year in Hillsborough for the 1986 murders of Natalie Blanche Holley and Stephanie Collins.
Holley's mother, who attended Friday's hearing, said she won't rest easy until Bolin is executed.
"It's not over until it's over," Natalie Holley said. "This is just another chapter. I don't know how many chapters are in this book."