Shoppers Testify in Fatal Mall Lot Shooting

A Ventura shopper heard 65-year-old Mildred Wilson cry for help as a man authorities have identified as Alan Brett Holland sped away in her car, leaving the Oxnard woman collapsed from a single gunshot wound, according to grand jury transcripts obtained Thursday.

The Ventura County Grand Jury handed down an indictment last month against Holland, accusing the 29-year-old Hollywood man of killing Wilson in the parking lot of Ventura’s Poinsettia Mall on July 20.

The charges contained in the indictment include special circumstances for carjacking and robbery, which means Holland could face the death penalty if convicted.

Thirteen witnesses testified before the grand jury Aug. 19, according to transcripts of the proceedings made public this week.

They include shoppers who saw Wilson’s abandoned car and found her purse, minus four credit cards, on the side of the road a few miles from the shopping center where her body was found slumped over a parking lot planter.

Rayna Bochum told the grand jury that she was shopping at the mall about 2 p.m. the day of the shooting when she heard a woman’s voice cry, “Help. Help me.”

“I looked over to my left where I heard the voice coming from and I saw a woman flailing her arms and then drop out of sight falling down,” Bochum testified. She ran toward the woman and heard a door shut.

“I thought at that time that the car was being stolen or something,” she told the grand jury.

Wilson’s car, a white 1986 Ford Crown Victoria, was backed out of a parking spot and driven northbound in the parking lot, she said. The man at the wheel appeared to be dark-haired, young, possibly Hispanic and wearing a blank expression, she told the grand jury.

When Bochum reached the stall where the Ford had been parked, she said, she found the retired registered nurse fallen in a planter. Bochum yelled to her 18-year-old nephew to call 911.

In other testimony, an employee at the Barnes & Noble Bookstore in the shopping center told authorities that she saw the white Ford parked in the bike lane on Telephone Road about 2:20 p.m.

A Ventura police officer who dusted the car for fingerprints told the grand jury that he lifted a distinct fingerprint later identified as Holland’s from the gear shift.

Another witness testified that he found Wilson’s purse on a side street not far from the mall. Investigators said four credit cards were missing, one of which was later used by Holland to buy car parts.

Holland left his driver’s license number at the auto parts store when he made the purchase, Ventura Police Det. Matthew Harvill testified.

The transcripts also include the testimony of two Newport Beach police officers who pursued Holland in a wild car chase through Newport Beach and Huntington Beach a week after the shooting.

Their 8 1/2-mile pursuit up one-way streets, through red lights, and over sidewalks ended when one officer tackled Holland as he fled on foot with a gun in his pocket, according to the transcripts.

Holland had sped away from a parking lot near the beach in a gold Datsun 288 ZX after police stopped him for failing to wear his seat belt and for a broken taillight, a police officer testified.

After the chase, a .25-caliber Phoenix Arms handgun was found in Holland’s pocket. It was the same weapon used to shoot Wilson, authorities said.

James L. Roberts, a Ventura County crime lab criminalist, was one of the last people to testify before the grand jury. Roberts compared the bullet recovered from Wilson’s body during an autopsy to test bullets fired from the gun recovered by Newport Beach police.

“I reached a final opinion that the bullet that had been identified to me as coming from Mrs. Wilson was fired from this Phoenix Arms pistol,” he testified.

Holland, who is being held at the Ventura County Jail without bail, was arraigned last week and pleaded not guilty. His trial is expected to begin next spring.