3 arrested for Auburn muder
Ben Dover
odd that their baby drowned right after they killed the guy.
Ben
From Auburn Citizen
Scoville hit repeatedly
By Joey West / Staff Writer
AURELIUS - Jason G. Holmquist has admitted to state police that he chased
down and clubbed Roland "Bud" Scoville "until he stayed down and was
unconscious" so he could rob the 48-year-old shop owner.
Holmquist, 24, in a written statement made to police Thursday, recounted his
actions and motives in the June 25 attack that left Scoville with injuries
he would die from July 10 at University Hospital in Syracuse.
Holmquist said Scoville, owner and manager of Bud's Bait and Tackle, and a
26-year-employee of Hy-Way, Inc. gasoline station, both on West Genesee
Street, tried to run from him, but was too late and suffered the
consequences - being struck in the head with a baseball bat so hard and so
many times that doctors had to remove splinters from his skull.
"I came around the corner and he saw me and he started to run," Homquist
wrote in his statement to police. "I swung my bat, hitting him in the
shoulder. He was still standing, so I hit him in the head with my bat at
least three times. I hit him every time he tried to get back up. I hit him
until he stayed down and was unconscious. I saw blood on the ground."
Holmquist has been charged with two counts of second-degree murder.
Leonard H. "JR" Cox, 34, who worked for Scoville at the gas station a decade
ago, is charged with two counts of first-degree robbery, one count of
second-degree robbery, and two counts of first-degree assault. Kelly J.
Holmquist, 29, Jason's wife of five years and Cox's cousin, is charged with
fourth-degree conspiracy for assisting the two men in leaving the scene of
the assault.
All three defendants gave police detailed, but sometimes conflicting,
statements about why they planned to rob Scoville; who was involved; and how
the deadly scheme unfolded.
According to the three statements, a fourth person - Francis "Frank" Cox,
Leonard's brother - had planned to participate in the robbery, but
apparently went to work instead of joining
Cox and Holmquist.
"Frank was supposed to be in on it, but for some reason he wasn't there,"
Holmquist said in his statement.
Planning the attack
"This all started with my wife, Kelly, pressuring me about needing money,"
Homquist said in the opening sentence of his statement. "JR said we should
go rob somebody."
In her statement, Kelly Holmquist said her husband and two cousins "started
making plans to rob the Hy-Way Oil. JR said he used to work there and he
knew they always made the deposit in the morning. They made all the plans
and told me what to do.
Jason said the group cased the gas station several times. "Sometimes Frank
was with us, and one time Kelly was," the accused killer said.
Wife made masks
In his statement, Leonard Cox not only implicated his brother as a
co-conspirator, but elaborated on Kelly Holmquist's involvement. "Frank rode
around checking the place out and Kelly cut the masks," he wrote.
Kelly Holmquist does not deny creating masks for her husband and cousin out
of black T-shirts by cutting the sleeves and making eye holes so they could
hide their faces, or purchasing yellow plastic $1.99 dish-washing gloves
from Wegmans for the robbery. "I assumed they needed the gloves to do the
robbery because they were talking about robbing someone before (Leonard Cox)
brought me to Wegmans," she said.
However, Kelly Holmquist claims, she tried talking the men out of committing
the crime. "I would tell them they were stupid, and I never thought they
would do it," she said. "If I actually thought they would do something like
they did, I would have said something to somebody."
Kelly Holmquist later in her statement directly contradicts this by writing
that on the morning of the robbery, "I was in bed and Jason came in and told
me they were going to the gas station."
Cox said in his statement that his cousin was fully cognizant of all the
planned robbery's details. "Yeah, she knew we were going there to do it," he
wrote.
The attack
Leonard Cox said in his statement that on the morning of the robbery, he and
Holmquist drove Francis Cox's red Oldsmobile Cutlass to Hy-Way Oil.
According to Holmquist's statement, "Me and JR left my house on Washington
Street at about 4:30 a.m. I took a bat with me. JR didn't need anything
because he was going to stay in the car."
The plan was for Cox to drop Holmquist off up the street from Hy-Way. Jason
was then to walk down behind the building and wait for Scoville to walk to
his truck carrying money he planned to deposit in a bank.
"I was supposed to hit him with the bat to knock him out and then take the
deposit," Jason said.
Leonard said he drove around on a side streets while the robbery took place.
"He came out and was walking between the building and his truck," Jason said
of Scoville. That's when Holmquist hit him repeatedly with a souvenir bat
distributed at a Syracuse Chiefs game in the early 1970s.
After beating Scoville with the baseball bat, "I didn't see any deposit so I
took his wallet out of his pocket," Holmquist said. "There were no words
exchanged between us and he did not fight back. He only tried to run."
After the clubbing, Holmquist ran down Bluefield Road and met up with
Leonard. "As I ran, I tossed the bat over toward the city garage," he said.
"We drove a couple back roads until I went through the wallet."
Cox said once Holmquist got into the car, the accused killer told him to get
out of the area and that he got nothing. Cox said Holmquist was still
wearing the yellow gloves as both of them looked through the wallet and
found Scoville's driver's license and some credit cards. They threw the
wallet out on Route 5 near Half Acre Road.
They then drove back to the Holmquist's 28 Washington St. apartment and
talked with Kelly about the incident.
"About 6 or 6:30 in the morning, Jason and JR came back," Kelly Holmquist
writes. "Jason was hot and sweaty, looking like he just ran. Jason climbed
into bed and JR said he was leaving, which he did."
Cox said he burned the gloves and mask in a bonfire at his mother's house a
few days after the incident.
God gets revenge?
On Aug. 18, the Holmquist's 16-month-old toddler, Dakota, drowned in their
bathtub while his parents slept. An Auburn Police Department investigation
ruled the drowning was accidental and no charges were pressed against the
Holmquists, who also have 2- and 4-year-old boys.
"We never talked about the robbery again until after the baby died," Kelly
Holmquist said. "I told Jason that God took our baby from us because of what
he did to the man at the gas station."
Following Dakota's death, Kelly Holmquist said she issued her husband an
ultimatum: stop using their monthly Social Security check to buy marijuana
or leave. He "wouldn't stop smoking marijuana, so I told him to move out,"
she said.
Holmquist has been living in his father, Richard's, Mattydale home since
late August.
The arrests were the result of a joint effort between state troopers, Auburn
City Police, the Cayuga County Sheriff's Department, the Cayuga County
District Attorney's Office and the New York State Division of Parole.
Police said there are no other suspects.
Holmquist was jailed without bail, while Cox is being held on $100,000 bail.
Kelly Holmquist was given $35,000 bail. All three are now at Cayuga County
Jail.
Police also have recovered the wallet, but declined to comment on what
exactly led them to the suspects. Reward money totaling about $2,000 had
been posted, but will likely remain unclaimed as it appears the cooperating
police agencies cracked the case without a tipster.
lyon_wonder
Ben Dover
"lyon_wonder" <lyon_...@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:86linusme7d79ll8m...@4ax.com...You top posted just to point out my typo? As soon as I hit send I noticed it
but too late then.
sparky
that shocked auburn. I to live there and this I one of two sad cases that
happened here this year
sparky
"Ben Dover" <dad...@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:albu3...@enews3.newsguy.com...
Ben Dover
"sparky" <xran...@xadelphia.xnet (remove X)> wrote in message
news:LZze9.27260$w51.7...@news2.news.adelphia.net...
> This was a brutal and senseless crime
> that shocked auburn. I to live there and this I one of two sad cases that
> happened here this year
> sparky
Your the 1st person I've heard off on the the net that lives here to. I
imagine the other case your refering to is where the man killed his wife a
few months ago. That was shocking also.
Ben
sparky
playhouse. He was beaten into unconscious
state. a Local Hood was picked up his name was Nathan carter
and is current awaiting trial.
The actor from Missouri was here working in auburn for the summer. The
fellow was in a coma for a long time and since he is out (of the coma) he
will need extensive rehabilitation. All over a few words in a bar and few
dollars in a wallet.
Somehow this case upset me also.
sparky
"Ben Dover" <dad...@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:alemb...@enews2.newsguy.com...
Ben Dover
around here. Auburn is getting bad it seems.
Ben
"sparky" <xran...@xadelphia.xnet (remove X)> wrote in message
sparky
Benny Sorrentino, who was a fellow who I knew (hello and small talk) but
that di not surprise me as muchnews:alh6t...@enews4.newsguy.com...