Wanda Webb Holloway was set up by her former husband and brother-in-law and never seriously plotted a hired killing to ensure her daughter would become a cheerleader, Hol-lo-way's attorney said.
Holloway, 37, is on trial for solicitation of capital murder and attempted kidnapping. She is accused of trying to hire a hitman to kill Verna Heath, believing Heath's daughter would be so distraught she would drop out of cheerleader competition at Alice Johnson Middle School in Channelview, east of Houston.In his opening statement Monday, Holloway's attorney, Troy McKinney, told jurors Holloway was the victim of an elaborate plot concocted by her former husband, Tony Harper, and his brother, Terry, to help Tony Harper gain custody of the couple's two children.
"There's a whole lot more to this than the relationship of two mothers who have daughters running for cheerleader," McKinney said.
Holloway is accused of turning to Terry Harper to help find a killer for hire. But McKinney claimed Terry Harper, with a string of drug- and alcohol-related arrests, used the situation to improve relations with his brother.
"For a long time, he's been an outcast and a black sheep, and this was a way to get back in good with the family. . . . Nobody thought she was serious until Tony and Terry got together," the attorney said.
But prosecutor Mike Anderson told jurors they would learn from secretly recorded conversations that Holloway harbored a festering hatred for Heath fed by what she saw as a rivalry between their 13-year-old daughters.
The resentment apparently began when Holloway's daughter, Shanna Harper, and Heath's daughter, Amber, competed for a spot on the seventh-grade cheerleading squad. Amber was elected, Shanna was not. The next year, Shanna was disqualified from cheerleader competition after her mother went against the orders of school officials and continued to hand out rulers bearing the motto, "Vote for Shanna Harper for Cheer-leader."
Heath said her friendship with Holloway deteriorated because Holloway seemed to be jealous of Amber's success in getting selected cheerleader and also because she could do more gymnastic moves used in cheerleading than Shanna.
Anderson told jurors they would hear Holloway discuss on the tapes how she wanted Heath killed.
But McKinney claims jurors also will hear Holloway questioning the path events were taking and trying to back out of the deal made with an undercover officer posing as a hitman.