Self-styled Vegas hit man convicted of murder

By Chris O'Connell
Court TV

Jim Holden faces life in prison for the February 2004 slaying of 19-year-old Michael Panek.

• Killer's split personality

• Case background

• Criminals' diaries

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LAS VEGAS, Nevada (Court TV) -- Jurors found a self-proclaimed Las Vegas hit man guilty of murder Tuesday, citing a taped 911 call, not the man's cryptic jailhouse journal, as the most incriminating piece of evidence.

After deliberating for about an hour, the panel of eight women and four men convicted Jim Holden of first-degree murder and four other counts stemming from the shooting death of 19-year-old Michael Panek.

Holden, 25, now faces life in prison without parole. Panek's mother wept when the verdict was read, and was comforted by relatives and supporters.

Holden's adoptive parents remained stoic. After the verdict was announced, Holden, visibly shaken, looked back into the gallery and said, "I love you, Mom."

The fatal shooting occurred on February 6, 2004, at what prosecutors characterized as a "drug flophouse" on Whitecap Street where teenagers and young adults went to take crystal meth.

Holden also shot Gary Sutton, Panek's friend, in the leg. Defense attorney Brett Whipple said his client fired in self-defense when Panek lunged at him with a knife. But prosecutors argued that Holden tried to trick police into thinking he fired in self-defense, which Holden himself claimed in a bizarre jailhouse diary.

Police did not initially arrest Holden for the shooting. But detectives reopened the case after reviewing a 911 call that Sutton secretly made while Holden was pointing a gun at him and Panek.

Another break in the case came about a month later, when Holden confessed to the execution-style slaying of another man, Gerardo Ojeda-Garcia. While in jail, Holden kept a diary in which he admitted killing Panek for money.

A jailhouse snitch turned over Holden's 29-page journal to police for a lighter sentence. With a written confession, prosecutors charged Holden with murdering Panek. During closing arguments, Whipple pleaded with jurors not to react emotionally and convict Holden on the basis of his journal.

But several jurors who spoke with reporters after the verdict said they didn't even look at the diary during their brief deliberations. "[The journal] didn't weigh in at all," said one female juror who asked not to be identified. "It was the 911 call."

In an enhanced recording of the call, several voices are heard threatening to kill Sutton and Panek and "beat the f--- out of them." Another female juror also said a different portion of Sutton's testimony swayed the panel to convict Holden on all counts.

She said Sutton's testimony about how Kourtney Niemeyer, the daughter of the owner of the house, locked the front door and said "Nobody's leaving," convinced jurors that there was a plan amongst the people at that house to kill Panek and Sutton that night.

Judge Jennifer Togliatti scheduled Holden's sentencing hearing on September 21. Holden will also go to trial for the murder of Ojeda-Garcia later this year.

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