Inset: Shaun Holiday (Brockton Police Dept.). Background: The apartment building where Holiday shot his pregnant girlfriend in the head (Google Maps).
A 30-year-old Massachusetts man has been sentenced to multiple decades in prison for shooting his pregnant girlfriend — and the mother of his children — in the head at close range while three children were present in the home. On Tuesday, a superior court judge sentenced Shaun Holiday to 30 to 40 years in a state correctional facility for the brutal attack on Amanda Holyoke, who astonishingly survived but was left permanently blind, as authorities reported.
The sentencing followed a jury’s conviction of Holiday on numerous serious charges, including armed assault in a dwelling, armed home invasion, assault and battery on a pregnant person, armed assault with intent to murder, and assault and battery with a dangerous weapon.
Specifically, Holiday was given one sentence of 25 to 30 years and an additional sentence of five to 10 years, to be served consecutively, meaning one after the other.
According to a news release from the Plymouth County District Attorney”s Office, the attack took place on Sept. 8, 2020, in the victim’s apartment on the third floor of a building in the 600 block of North Main Street. The residence is about 20 miles south of Boston.
That afternoon, officers with the Brockton Police Department responded to a 911 call regarding an adult female suffering from a gunshot wound to the head. Upon arriving at the scene, first responders located Holyoke, who was 27 weeks pregnant with Holiday’s child, just inside the door of the building. She appeared to have suffered a “single gunshot wound to the temple.”
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Holiday was not at the scene when authorities first arrived at the address.
Emergency medical personnel transported Holyoke to Good Samaritan Hospital for treatment. Due to the severity of her injury, she was med-flighted to Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston for more specialized treatment.
Police on the scene said they followed a “blood trail up the stairs” to Holyoke’s apartment. Inside, they located three young children. As the kids were being escorted out of the building by officers, one of them pointed out Holiday, who was “sitting on the sidewalk being treated by emergency medical personnel for a gunshot wound to his left forearm.” The child identified Holiday as their father.
“Through witness interviews, use of city camera video surveillance and location points from Holiday’s GPS monitoring bracelet, investigators were able to determine that Holiday arrived at the apartment earlier that day and then gained access to the apartment,” prosecutors wrote in the release. “Holiday approached the victim from behind, wrapped his left arm around her neck and shot her in the right temple with a .40 caliber firearm, with their three small children in the apartment. The bullet exited the victim’s left temple and lodged in the defendant’s forearm. The injury to the victim rendered her permanently blind.”
After the shooting, authorities said Holiday fled the scene on foot, only to return a short while later to find police already there.
District Attorney Tim Cruz previously described Holiday’s attack on Holyoke as “despicable” and “cowardly.”
In addition to the aforementioned charges, Holiday was also convicted on counts of unlawful possession of a firearm while in the commission of a felony, aggravated assault and battery, unlawful possession of ammunition without a firearm identification card, reckless endangerment of a child, and intimidation of a witness.
The final charge stems from Holiday allegedly making multiple attempts to prevent Holyoke from testifying against him at trial, Boston NBC affiliate WBTS reported.
Following his term of incarceration, Holiday will remain on probation and will be prohibited from having any contact with the victims without explicit authorization from the court. He will also be required to wear a GPS tracking device, undergo a mental health evaluation, and follow any subsequent treatment recommendations.
