ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, April 4, 1997 TAG: 9704040050
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: LAURENCE HAMMACK THE ROANOKE TIMES
A Roanoke man who got into a shootout as a teen-ager was sentenced Thursday to 26 years.
First he wounded a little girl in the cross fire of a shootout on a Roanoke street in 1991.
Then, three months after serving five years of an eight-year prison stint, he violated probation by driving to Radford, where his car was riddled with bullets in what authorities suspected was a drug-related shooting.
Several months later, he was in Covington, where he is charged with wounding a woman in a drive-by shooting.
Clifton W. Holland came full circle Thursday - appearing in the same Roanoke courtroom where as a 17-year-old he received an eight-year sentence for the shootout at Hurt Park that wounded a 4-year-old girl in 1991.
This time, he got 26 years.
After finding that Holland, who is now 23, had violated his probation, Circuit Judge Clifford Weckstein sent him back to prison for the 26 years that were suspended for the 1991 shootout.
"He obviously hadn't learned anything ... and he's a big danger to the community," Deputy Commonwealth's Attorney Betty Jo Anthony said.
On Feb. 4, 1991, Holland exchanged heated words with an admitted crack addict while on 18th Street near Hurt Park housing development in Southwest Roanoke. As he and the man shot at each other from opposite sides of the street, one of the bullets grazed the head of 4-year-old Moneka Small, who was walking with her mother on the sidewalk.
Holland was tried as an adult and convicted of malicious wounding, attempted malicious wounding and firearm charges.
He was paroled Feb. 5, 1996. In May of the same year, Holland, a Roanoke woman and her 2-year-old son all suffered minor injuries when as many as 10 shots were fired into their car while they were stopped at Rock Road and Wadsworth Street in Radford.
No charges were filed, but police have said they suspect the shooting was drug-related.
Several months later, Holland was charged with a drive-by shooting in Covington that left a woman wounded, Anthony said. Details on that shooting were unavailable; Alleghany County authorities could not be reached Thursday afternoon.
Holland faces more time in Alleghany County, where he is awaiting sentencing after pleading guilty to malicious wounding, shooting from a car and firearm charges.
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