A Henrico man convicted last year of murdering his girlfriend will get a new trial.
Henrico Circuit Judge Gary A. Hicks ruled at 1:40 p.m. today that Wyatt Ward Hollar, a VMI graduate who grew up in Richmond's West End, was wrongly convicted because material the judge had ordered removed from a videotape was available to the jury during its deliberations.
Hicks set a new jury trial for May 4 and ordered Hollar to be freed on a $250,000 bond. Hollar has been in the county jail since Oct. 31, the day he was convicted.
Hollar, 29, was convicted of second-degree murder after a week-long trial in October. A jury rejected his defense that his girlfriend, Danielle Wilson, 25, had purposely shot herself during an argument at Hollar's Glenside Drive apartment in February 2007.
Wilson, from Fredericksburg and a James Madison University graduate, was an aspiring businesswoman ready to begin graduate school. Prosecutors argued that ballistics tests and other evidence proved that Wilson could not have fired a pistol that had been kept under a seat cushion where Hollar had been sitting.
Hollar had been convicted of second-degree murder and use of a firearm in commission of a felony. He was sentenced to 15 years in prison.
During the trial, the jury did not see portions of a videotape that showed Hollar chatting with a jail guard prior to being questioned by police.
But testimony yesterday from jurors showed they had access to the redacted portions and may have viewed them during deliberations.
Lead defense lawyer Cary Bowen has argued that jurors may have been affected by Hollar's apparent casual attitude, even though the shooting had occurred earlier that morning and Wilson had taken her last breath as Hollar tried to revive her.
Contact Bill McKelway at (804) 649-6601 or bmckelway@timesdispatch.com.
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