Ricky Holland's Adoptive Parents Charged with his Murder

February 7, 2006

Mason, Ingham County - Murder charges in the death of 7 year old Ricky Holland... his adoptive parents are accused of the crime.

After months of searches and investigation, police found the boy's body in rural Ingham County on January 27, 2006, after Tim Holland pointed the way. He and his wife Lisa are now both charged with his murder.

Tim and Lisa Holland were to appear in court Tuesday to face obstruction of justice charges relating to their son's disappearance and death. Instead, prosecutors upped the charges.

Judge Thomas Boyd heard the evidence against Tim and Lisa Holland in a closed courtroom, and agreed to charge both with open murder.

Lisa Holland's attorney, Michael Nichols, says the charges are not a surprise, but he hopes prosecutors are not rushing to judgment. He says, “You know, it took seven months to find out the fate of Ricky Holland, and five days to decide to charge both of his parents with open murder."

Tim Holland is also charged with open murder. His attorney, Frank Reynolds says, “He's devastated with the entire situation. If you had an opportunity to see him in there today, you could see from his expression how he's reacting to this." Now, the work begins to build their defense. Reynolds says, “We had probably a thousand pages given to us late yesterday. And there's a great deal more that's out there that we haven't seen yet."

Although investigators previously said the two pointed the finger at each other, Ingham County Prosecutor Stuart Dunnings III says if the case proceeds against both adoptive parents, Tim and Lisa Holland could be tried together. He says, "I would anticipate, if they were tried together, that we would have two juries. One jury to consider his case and one jury to consider her case."

For now, both Tim and Lisa Holland are being held without bond.

The judge did give two orders today to keep the facts of the case private, to avoid tainting the potential jury pool. Evidence presented Tuesday will not be made public. Also, the lawyers and investigators were told not to talk about the details of the case.