Crime & Safety

October Trial Date Set for Apple Valley Man Accused of Murdering Pregnant Wife

Roger Earl Holland is scheduled to appear before a jury on Oct. 7, according to Minnesota court records.

An Apple Valley man jailed since March 8 on accusations that he killed his pregnant wife and staged the scene to make it appear that her death was accidental will head to trial on Oct. 7.

At a hearing held Tuesday at the Dakota County District Court in Hastings, court officers scheduled a July 1 omnibus hearing for Holland, followed by the jury trial on October. Holland is currently being held at the Dakota County Jail on a $1.5 million bail.

Police found Holland's wife, 37-year-old Marjorie Holland at the bottom of the stairs in Holland's Apple Valley townhome on March 7, after Holland called 911. Marjorie, 15-weeks pregnant at the time, was transported to Fairview Ridges Hospital, where she was declared dead. Her unborn fetus died with her.

Holland initially told officers he was out picking up breakfast and had returned home to find his wife unresponsive at the bottom of the stairs, according to a criminal complaint filed by the Dakota County Attorney's Office. But medical personnel found bruising and hemorrhaging in her neck muscles, broken thyroid cartilage and broken blood vessels in her eyes consistent with strangulation—and the medical examiner eventually concluded that she died from strangulation, not a fall down the stairs.

Investigators also found a large number of argumentative text messages between the two sent in the weeks leading up to March 7. Phone records show the couple routinely fought over financial matters, according to the criminal complaint.

In one exchange dated March 1, Holland allegedly asked how she felt. She texted back: "Like I hate my life, I hate the man I married, and I wish I could erase the past three years." In another message, sent on March 6, the victim allegedly told her husband that she wanted a divorce.

Police also found a suspicious data entry on Holland's phone, dated March 6, which may have been related to an Internet search: "if you pass out and fall down a flight of stairs can you breakyour neckcan your neck be broken if you are."

Holland, 36, was originally charged in March with two counts of second-degree murder. But a grand jury upgraded the charges to two counts of premeditated first-degree murder and two counts of second-degree murder in April.

Judge Timonthy J. McManus will preside over Holland's trial.


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