Holzer’s Public Defender weighs in on mental health issues following sentencing
A convicted quadruple murderer will now begin serving a life sentence
A judge sentenced Nicolas Holzer Friday for the brutal slayings of his parents and his two young sons.
Attorney Christine Voss is speaking out about the gaping holes and vicious cycle she see day-to-day, when addressing mental health not only in the community but the court system.
49-year old Nicolas Holzer sat stone faced in court as he learned his fate. Life behind bars.
His Public Defender, Christine Voss, argued that Holzer was insane at the time of the killings, After Friday’s sentence she believes his escalated delusional beliefs overtook his ability to be rational.
“Some of the cases I’ve tried wouldn’t have been cases if we had better fixes on the front end,” said Voss.
Voss says many of her clients enter the criminal justice system because of their struggles with mental illness.
“It’s extremely frustrating because everyday we see people who we know need a different kind of help than what we can provide them,” said Voss.
Voss says Holzer wasn’t evil or heartless, just very sick. She says his parents, who clearly loved him, struggled to provide care for him.
“If many of my clients had been treated early on they would not have engaged in the behavior that they engaged in because it was their mental illness that caused them to behave the way they did,” said Voss.
The Senior Deputy Public Defender says this case is a tragic reminder of the importance of accessible mental health treatment.
“We are servicing people in the jail on the back end. If we had lower level services easily accessible in the community, then we would treat people when we initially see that they have problems instead of paying for them to be in the jail, paying to stabilize them,” said Voss.
In a statement released Friday, Voss went onto say that she is confident that Holzer’s parents would be devastated to know that their son will spend the rest of his life in a small prison cell with minimal psychiatric care.
You can read her full statement here.
