Convicted Murderer Returned to Connecticut To Serve 45-Year Sentence

William Holmes Jr., originally from New London, returned to Connecticut on August 28 after serving a 15 year sentence for murder in New York to begin serving a 45-year sentence at Corrigan Correctional Center in Connecticut for a second murder that took place just hours earlier in New London on September 2, 1995.

Not only did the two murders occur on the same night, they happened under very similar—if rather unusual—circumstances. According to court documents, Holmes shot both men with a 9 mm handgun after they failed to follow the correct protocol for smoking a blunt. 

Here's the account of what Connecticut Appellate Court Chief Judge Edward Y. O'Connell said a jury could reasonably conclude happened that night, as stated in O'Connell's 2000 ruling upholding Holmes' Connecticut conviction. 

On September 2, 1995, Linda Alexander lived at 30 Chapel Street in New London. On that day, Joseph Thompson was found dead on her bathroom floor, having been killed by a single gunshot wound to the head. The police seized two cigar blunts and a nine millimeter spent shell casing in the bathtub.

That evening, the defendant [William Holmes Jr.] was involved in the shooting death of Wade Denson in Brooklyn, New York. The following day, September 3, 1995, Brooklyn detectives went to a Brooklyn apartment in an attempt to apprehend the defendant for Denson’s murder.

As the detectives were attempting to enter the apartment, the defendant and his brother fled out the back window and, after a short chase, were apprehended. While being pursued by the detectives, a nine millimeter handgun fell from the defendant’s pants. The detectives seized the weapon.

Soon after his arrest, the defendant provided the Brooklyn detectives with two statements. The first statement pertained to the shooting death of Wade Denson in Brooklyn. In that statement, the defendant states that he, Denson and a third person were smoking a blunt. When the blunt was passed to Denson, he dropped it on the floor. The defendant told Denson that he must pick it up and pass it without taking his turn. Denson refused to comply and took his turn anyway. The defendant then pointed the nine millimeter handgun at him. Although the defendant did not recall firing the gun, he fled the apartment immediately after the incident, and Denson was found dead from a gunshot wound a few hours later.

The second statement concerned the shooting death of Thompson, which had occurred in New London just a few hours before Denson was killed in Brooklyn. In his statement, the defendant mentioned that he remembered pointing his gun at Thompson but did not remember it going off. The jury could have found from the testimony of one of the detectives, that the defendant, Ronald Gadsen and Thompson were smoking a blunt in Alexander’s bathroom when Thompson dropped it. 

Although blunt smoking protocol required that he pass it without taking his turn, Thompson disregarded the custom and took his turn anyway. This angered the defendant and caused him to point the handgun at Thompson. The defendant did not remember firing the gun, but after the incident he and Gadsen immediately left for New York.

The defendant’s version of the events is that the shooting was completely accidental. He claims that he wanted to show his friends his gun and as he pulled it out of his pants to show it to them, it discharged, killing Thompson. Not knowing what to do, he and Gadsen ran out of the house and made their way to New York.