Holder was arrested by Springfield police one day after two Springfield men — 36-year-old Titus Lee Ford and 33-year-old Bryant Michael Lawson — were found shot and killed inside of an SUV that crashed on Pumphouse Road on Oct. 28.
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The two men were both shot in the head and money was discovered missing from one of the victims, according to court documents.
On Monday, the jury was selected and prosecutors and the defense delivered opening statements.
“This defendant had the motive — robbery,” Clark County Assistant Prosecutor Brian Driscoll told the jury, adding that forensic evidence would back up his claims.
Holder’s lawyer, James Marshall, said his client wasn’t at the scene of the murders.
“Troy did not go with those two individuals to Pumphouse Road,” he told the jury.
Multiple witnesses were called to the stand on Monday, including the girlfriends of Ford and Lawson. Both women saw the men before the murders, according to their testimony. Lawson’s girlfriend said she saw the pair in the car with Holder shortly before the shootings.
Lawson’s family said the trial is overwhelming for them.
“It’s just a whole bunch of mixed emotions coming from everywhere,” his sister Christy Williams said.
It’s still a shock that her brother is gone, she said. The family would like to see the suspect convicted and receive the maximum sentence.
“He didn’t just kill Bryant Michael,” she said, “he killed all of us. A piece of all of us.”
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Holder was involved in a standoff with police a day after the shootings that ended with his arrest, the Springfield News-Sun previously reported.
Holder was staying at the Super 8 Motel on West Leffel Lane in Springfield when police came to talk with him. Several police cruisers responded to the scene when family and friends of Lawson and Ford rushed the hotel door. Officers were able to push back the crowd, and Holder was taken out of a side entrance to avoid it.
The trial will continue this week.
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