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Bolin Sentenced To Die In Teen's Slaying - Again

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By THOMAS W.  KRAUSE | The Tampa Tribune

Published: November 30, 2007

TAMPA - Oscar Ray Bolin, again, has been sentenced to death.

This morning, Circuit Judge Barbara Fleischer sentenced Bolin to die by lethal injection for the 1986 murder of 17-year-old Stephanie Anne Collins. He was convicted one year ago.

He was sentenced to death in 2001 for the murder of 26-year-old Teri Lynn Matthews. He also is serving a life sentence for the second-degree murder conviction in the death of 25-year-old Natalie "Blanche" Holley.

All three murders occurred in 1986.

Bolin has a long history of successful appeals. In 1991 and 1992, was tried, convicted and sentenced to death in the slayings of Collins, Matthews and Holley. All three were overturned on appeal. At three new trials, Bolin again was convicted and sentenced to death. Again, all three were reversed on appeal.

After the three most recent trials, Bolin was found guilty of first-degree murder in the deaths of Collins and Matthews. A jury convicted him of second-degree murder for Holley's death.

The appeals process has begun again in the Holley case. The Florida Supreme Court has reviewed and upheld Bolin's death sentence in Matthews' case.

In January 1986, Holley was abducted after she left work at Church's Chicken in North Tampa. Her stabbed body was found the next day in a Lutz orange grove.

Ten months later, Collins disappeared from a shopping center parking lot in Carrollwood. Her body was found on Dec. 5, 1986, with blunt injuries to the head.

On the same day authorities found Collins' body, they recovered Matthews' body beside railroad tracks in Pasco County. The previous night, Matthews was abducted from Land O' Lakes Post Office. She had been beaten, raped and stabbed, authorities said.

At the time of Bolin's arrest in Florida, he was serving a 75-year prison sentence in Ohio for the abduction and rape of a truck-stop waitress.

Reporter Thomas W. Krause can be reached at (813) 259-7698 or tkrause@tampatrib.com.

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