Associated Press
NEW ORLEANS ā The man convicted of killing of a New Orleans police officer with a gun smuggled into a police car was formally ordered to spend life in prison Thursday, confronted at sentencing by the victim’s grieving, angry mother.
Travis Boys was convicted of first-degree murder in March for the 2015 slaying of Officer Daryle Holloway. Prosecutors opted not to seek the death penalty, leaving Boys with a mandatory life sentence that was imposed by state Judge Karen Herman.
New Orleans news outlets reported that Holloway’s mother, Olander Holloway, accused Boys at Thursday’s sentencing hearing of feigning mental illness in an attempt to escape punishment.
Boys had pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity. And his courtroom antics included smuggling feces into the courtroom and smearing them on his face at one hearing last year, leading to a delay in proceedings so he could undergo mental evaluations.
“If I could, I would ask Judge Herman to have your cell lined with pictures of Daryle, so first thing in the morning and last thing at night you would see Daryle’s picture,” she said, according to an account by NOLA.com|The Times-Picayune . “I will ask her to make sure you never leave (the state prison) Angola, that you will even be buried there.”
Holloway was taking Boys to jail following an arrest in a domestic violence case when he was shot. The SUV with a fatally wounded Holloway at the wheel crashed into a utility pole. Boys escaped and was captured a day later.
One of Holloway’s fellow officers, Wardell Johnson, was sentenced to five years in prison last month in connection with the case. He had pleaded guilty to malfeasance and obstruction of justice in connection with sloppy police work connected to Boys’ arrest. That sloppy work included failure to properly search Boys in the hours before he shot Holloway.
