Tonight, Coye's funeral home's coffin maker, Alexander Holder is once again a free man after a Magistrate granted the 27-year-old an execution of stay to appeal his sentence.
Holder was sentenced to 5 years in jail after pleading guilty to burglarizing his former place of work, Coye's Funeral Parlor.
And late this evening after careful consideration and successful arguments by Holder's attorney, Samira Musa-Pott he was, after a number of contentions and discrepancies, told by the Magistrate that quote: "The just thing to do in this case is to allow the application and stay."
This after the submission of two affidavits, one from Holder which attested to his learning disabilities, as well as his claim that during the burglary he did not know he was committing a crime, and another from his employer David Coye attesting to the fact that he believes that Holder was encouraged by others to commit the crime. In his affidavit Coye said quote: " He did not and could not have acted alone because he would not have understood what he was doing. " End quote.
Coye also said that he never intended to press charges as he did not want the young man to go to jail.
Since there are no documents as yet before the court to prove Holder's mental state or disability status but he has been granted bail in the sum of $5000 plus two sureties that secured his release. And so for now, Holder is a free man. Free to go back to his family and perhaps to his job as a coffin maker at Coye's funeral Parlor or elsewhere.
And while no date has been set he will be scheduled to make an appeal in the Supreme court but he could be waiting for a while as an appeal could take as little as 6 months but as much time as several years.
