Holley’s preliminary hearing reveals evidence in murder case for first time

Testimony resumed Friday in Orange County Court in Goshen for a preliminary hearing for suspected murderer Edward Holley.

The hearing, which began Thursday, is examining several statements Holley made to police about the killing to see if they can be used at his trial.

State police investigator Samantha Gau testifies about a recorded interview with Holley in 2019, when he voluntarily agreed to go to the Middletown barracks to discuss a separate case involving the alleged harassment of a woman during a basketball game. Gau says that after reading Holley his Miranda rights and questioning him about the allegations, another investigator said he wanted to question him about the McDonald murder case.

The lengthy video was released publicly for the first time Friday. Holley is heard initially calmly discussing the separate harassment allegation that occurred while he was a coach. Gau, who was a police officer at the time, is heard on the recording saying that Holley was accused of telling a woman after her daughter was allegedly called a b****: “I’m going to get my sidekick from Middletown and show you what I’m made of.” Gau then asks Holley, who is in a wheelchair, what his “character” is. Holley responded that he has “character” but that his outlook on life “changed after his accident.”

“I’m an angry man, too,” said Paul Weber, Holley’s attorney. “That doesn’t mean he’s a killer or I’m a killer. We’re all angry.”

A state police investigator is later seen in the video entering the interrogation room and asking to speak to Holley about the McDonald case. Holley agrees and says he will cry. The investigator shows Holley a photo of McDonald and Holley turns the photo face down on the table. He is then heard talking about their group of friends at the time of the murder and says he thinks a man named “Paulie”, whom McDonald dated before him, may have killed her.

“We had a fight, and for a long time I thought it was my fault,” Holley says in the recording. “I started seeing a therapist. I thought I pushed her back into the arms of the person who I thought did it.”

Holley said Paulie had a history of domestic violence against McDonald and had previously gotten into a physical altercation with Paulie when he allegedly hit McDonald in the head with a crutch.

In the recording, Holley is heard repeatedly saying how much he loved McDonald and showing police a tattoo he got in her memory. He says they had an argument about money a few days before she died, that they were both at a house party the night she was killed but that she stayed outside and he didn’t see her. Holley says in the recording that a friend contacted him the next day and told him McDonald had been killed.

Holley’s attorney says his client “had nothing to do with the crime” and that state police are refusing to examine up to 10 other suspects in the case.

“For whatever reason, they’re focused on Ed Holley and no matter what happens in this case, they’re not going to let go, even though the evidence shows he had nothing to do with it,” Weber said.

A special prosecutor assigned to the case and the McDonald family’s attorney did not respond to requests for comment on the hearing.

Weber said additional police testimony and other recordings of police interviews with Holley will be released when the preliminary hearing resumes Oct. 2.

Holley’s defense said the trial is expected to begin in January.