LilMtnCbn
06-27-2004, 08:10 AM
http://www.hattiesburgamerican.com/news/stories/20040627/localnews/726686.html
Murder trial starts Monday
Man charged in death of son-in-law
By Nikki Davis Maute
American Staff Writer nmaute@hattiesb.gannett.com
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PURVIS - The man charged with shooting his son-in-law to death two years ago
goes on trial for his life in a Lamar County courtroom Monday.
Jury selection begins at 9 a.m. in the capital murder trial of Maurice Brett,
56, who is accused of lying in wait for his daughter's husband and shooting him
several times with a .380-caliber automatic pistol.
Curtis Holliday, 36, was shot as he entered his Somerset Drive home, located
off Sandy Run Road.
Holliday's brother, Brett Holliday of McComb, said family members will be at
the trial.
"We will be there to see what happens," he said.
District Attorney Buddy McDonald said if convicted Brett faces either the death
penalty or life in prison.
The death of Holliday was elevated to capital murder status because law
enforcement officers said Holliday was shot in the commission of a robbery.
McDonald expects to select a jury Monday with opening arguments to begin
probably Tuesday morning.
Holliday's wife, Allisa Holliday, had undergone surgery and was at Forrest
General Hospital and was not at home when her husband was killed.
Brett and his daughter had only been reunited for two years when the man
allegedly killed Holliday.
They had been separated for 30 years before finding each other in 2000 over the
Internet.
In a news story in the Hattiesburg American in June 2000, Allisa Holliday, 32,
said her mother gave her up for adoption when she was a year old. Her father
was stationed in the South Seas at that time. She had said when she turned 18,
her adoptive mother gave Holliday her father's name and hometown of Pascagoula.
She tried to find him there, but Brett had moved to Louisiana.
It was Curtis Holliday, according to the story, who went online to try and find
Brett for his wife.
He also called on her behalf and found Brett ready to greet the child he'd
never met. The father and daughter scheduled a meeting five days later in
Chalmette, La.
John Cole remembers the weekend he traded weekends with Holliday so he could
take his wife to meet her father.
Cole, now retired, and Holliday were pharmacists at Fred's Pharmacy in
Hattiesburg.
"Curtis' death is such a loss," Cole said. "He was such a nice guy who never
lost his cool no matter how irate a customer got."
Cole said Holliday was also a loving father.
"He told me that if he was not at work, he was with his children," he said. "I
know when the little boy came to visit he would lock his arms around his
daddy's leg and not want to leave," Cole said. "This was such a tragedy for
those two children."
The couple's two children, a daughter, 8, and a son, 5, were not at home at the
time of the shooting.
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A good friend will come and bail you out of jail . . . but, a true friend will
be sitting next to you saying, "Damn . . . that was fun!"
-----Unknown
Murder trial starts Monday
Man charged in death of son-in-law
By Nikki Davis Maute
American Staff Writer nmaute@hattiesb.gannett.com
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
------
PURVIS - The man charged with shooting his son-in-law to death two years ago
goes on trial for his life in a Lamar County courtroom Monday.
Jury selection begins at 9 a.m. in the capital murder trial of Maurice Brett,
56, who is accused of lying in wait for his daughter's husband and shooting him
several times with a .380-caliber automatic pistol.
Curtis Holliday, 36, was shot as he entered his Somerset Drive home, located
off Sandy Run Road.
Holliday's brother, Brett Holliday of McComb, said family members will be at
the trial.
"We will be there to see what happens," he said.
District Attorney Buddy McDonald said if convicted Brett faces either the death
penalty or life in prison.
The death of Holliday was elevated to capital murder status because law
enforcement officers said Holliday was shot in the commission of a robbery.
McDonald expects to select a jury Monday with opening arguments to begin
probably Tuesday morning.
Holliday's wife, Allisa Holliday, had undergone surgery and was at Forrest
General Hospital and was not at home when her husband was killed.
Brett and his daughter had only been reunited for two years when the man
allegedly killed Holliday.
They had been separated for 30 years before finding each other in 2000 over the
Internet.
In a news story in the Hattiesburg American in June 2000, Allisa Holliday, 32,
said her mother gave her up for adoption when she was a year old. Her father
was stationed in the South Seas at that time. She had said when she turned 18,
her adoptive mother gave Holliday her father's name and hometown of Pascagoula.
She tried to find him there, but Brett had moved to Louisiana.
It was Curtis Holliday, according to the story, who went online to try and find
Brett for his wife.
He also called on her behalf and found Brett ready to greet the child he'd
never met. The father and daughter scheduled a meeting five days later in
Chalmette, La.
John Cole remembers the weekend he traded weekends with Holliday so he could
take his wife to meet her father.
Cole, now retired, and Holliday were pharmacists at Fred's Pharmacy in
Hattiesburg.
"Curtis' death is such a loss," Cole said. "He was such a nice guy who never
lost his cool no matter how irate a customer got."
Cole said Holliday was also a loving father.
"He told me that if he was not at work, he was with his children," he said. "I
know when the little boy came to visit he would lock his arms around his
daddy's leg and not want to leave," Cole said. "This was such a tragedy for
those two children."
The couple's two children, a daughter, 8, and a son, 5, were not at home at the
time of the shooting.
-------------------------
A good friend will come and bail you out of jail . . . but, a true friend will
be sitting next to you saying, "Damn . . . that was fun!"
-----Unknown
