Snapped: Women Who Murder - BONUS: Brenda Dixon & Elbert Holder (Snapped: Killer Couples)

Episode Date: December 17, 2025

Just one month before her wedding, a nurse is shot to death in a reported roadside robbery in rural Arkansas. As investigators work to find the suspects, odd details of the attack are uncovered and a confession paints an entirely different story.Season 17 Episode 17Originally aired: April 14, 2024Watch full episodes of Snapped for FREE on the Oxygen app: https://oxygentv.app.link/WatchSnappedPodSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Hi, Snap listeners. We are bringing you a special bonus episode today from Oxygen's hit series, Killer Couples. You can also watch full episodes live or on demand on the free oxygen app or on Peacock by clicking the link in our description. Enjoy. I remember the last time I saw my sister. She came to my house. She was very happy that day that I saw him. He bought her ring. They were going to get married. I remember when they got ready to leave, and we just waved and waved until we couldn't see her. I think that will forever be in my mind. The next morning, the phone rang, and it was my mom. She said, they found Carla.

I said, what do you mean? They found her. And she said, they shot her. I said, they shot her. Who shot? What do you mean? What are you talking about? It looked like a roadside robbery.

He basically said it all happened so fast he couldn't give them many details. I can't remember all of the policemen and the community reacted kind of like we did. Everybody was very angry. Sometimes people can mislead you, misguide you. Sometimes you can be sleeping with a snake and don't even know it. Surrounded by rich Delta farmland, the historic port town of Helena, Arkansas is a quaint and tight-knit community. Helena, Arkansas, he has a population of 8,900, so it's a small area.

It's a nice area. We're in Mississippi Rivertown, south of Memphis. If you didn't consider Helena, the heartbeat of the blues, it certainly was a major artery. A lot of people go there for the history of it. There are great museums there, and the King Biscuit Blues Festival is still there, and it's an interesting town. Late in the evening on June 23rd, 2001, emergency dispatchers from the Phillips County Sheriff's Office receive a distraught phone call from local resident, 46-year-old Albert Holder. Albert Holder called 911, saying that he had been robbed in the south part of Phillips County, Arkansas,

on a highway in the middle of nowhere. He said they shot him, and then they shot his girlfriend. He was frantic and pleading for help. It was very clear that his fiance was much more badly injured than he was. Paramedics and law enforcement are immediately dispatched to the scene. The medics are first to arrive.

Albert actually flagged them down and they could tell that he was bleeding from one arm, but he quickly let them know that his fiance, Carlin Nolton, was in the front passenger seat and she was much worse off than he was and in desperate need of medical attention. The first thing they did was check Carlin's vitals

and quickly realized that she was deceased at the scene. He was very upset, very distraught, and you'd expect that of any man who just had his fiancé shot to death. Albert was beside himself. He could not understand who would want to do something like this. Growing up in Helena, Arkansas, Carla Knowlton was the eldest of six siblings. Carla, she was kind of like a mother hen to the rest of us.

When my mom and dad would go to work and stuff, of course, she would be in charge. A big sister was like mama. She was the enforcer. I mean, and she was a disciplinary. She wasn't soft. She had to jack you up. She would jack you up. She was a happy, playful, loving kid.

In school, she was a good. good student. She made good grades, made the honor roll. She was the president of her senior class. All the teachers were like, Carla's going to do this, Carla's going to do that. I mean, so, yeah, she was an excellent student. After graduating high school in 1980, Carla set her sights on college. But an unexpected pregnancy put those plans on pause. Carla, when she got pregnant, it was a shocker for all of us. like, what's going to happen now, so she didn't go off to college. Later that year, Carla gave birth to her daughter, Kanika.

We were real close. We was not really like mother-daughter. She was just like my sister, my friend, versus my mom. Canica's father went into the Marines, so he was gone. I mean, he financially supported and took care of things, but he went there. As a young single mother, Carla was dedicated to providing for her daughter. She went to nursing school, and she graduated class of 1983 from Phillips College of Young. She always wanted to help people.

I was her calling. I don't think she would have wanted to do anything else. She started working in the hospital. And then after he helped in hospital, she started working different jobs. I get the nursing home and home health. I was sorry, like, going to vacations and stuff like that, but she worked a lot. She'd come home, she could sleep.

She loved going to work. She loved helping people, especially the children. She was just sit there with them and talk to them. She loved her profession, what she was doing. If you want a nurse, Carla would be the one that you want. Once her career had taken off, Carla set her sights on finding. She got married and she had two more kids. Her husband was just my stepdad.

It was married like 17 years. Unfortunately, the marriage came to an end in 1998. She's kind of private and something she just didn't share with the family. We just knew that they were getting divorced. She was sad about it because she was married a long time. She was married a long time. She tried to make it work. It didn't work.

She didn't want to see it affect the kids. She kept her chin up and said, okay, let me move on and continue to do what I've got to do. Because it's about these kids. Now she's kind of trying to do everything on her own as always working. And I think she always longed for happiness. She wanted to be happy. She wanted to help a husband and a family. She just wanted to be loved.

A year after her divorce, Carla finally met the man who would change her life Forever. My mom met Albert Holder in 1999. She met him at the Westall in the fish market, and he moved in with us. Albert was seven years older than Carla. He grew up in Helena as well, and he had a teenage son,

and he was a single parent, much like Carla. Albert was known to do quite a few odd jobs and a little bit of everything here and there. He was very focused on making money and was a bit of a hustler. I think what she liked about him or what drew her to him was the fact that, you know, he would jump up in a minute and they would go shopping. She loved that. They would take a trip overnight.

He took her to Chicago on different trips. They say doing something fun, going to the casino, swimming. He was pretty much fun, you know. He kept us laughing. He showed a lot of attention, a lot of affection. He did a lot of things for her that she'd never have. He was a nice-looking guy. He was kind of fancy dresser, you know,

and him and her could go out and go places, you know. He could be dressed nice and they could do things when she hadn't had anyone to really do these things with her. So she was excited. She was a social brother. She liked to go places. Well, he came along and he did those things. So we started.

to see a different side of her. And she was happy. She was actually happy. In May 2001, two years into their relationship, Albert proposed. My mom and the effort had planned on doing a cruise and last weekend of July, and they was going to get married to the violence.

And she was so excited. But just a month before their destination wedding, their future together. is upended. When they robbed Carla and him, they shot Carla and killed her, and they shot at him. The sheriff's office contacted the criminal

investigation division with Arkansas State Police, so the Sheriff's Department and the State Police worked this case again. Before Elbert is rushed to a local hospital, he gives investigators a brief statement. Elbert's story was that he took Carla to work that day. Carla, she was a home health care nurse, and she had to go see a patient down near E-lane, which is about 30 miles south of Helena, that they drove down to E-lane. He

waited for her to go in and see the patient. Then they were driving back towards Helena. And there was car trouble. He pulled over to check the engine. He got out of the car, opened the hood, and two men pulled over. He thought they were pulling over to help, but they pulled a gun on him. Albert Holder reported that he had his wallet with $900 stolen from him. For investigators there,

it looked like the roadside robbery with Carla being killed and Elbert being injured. Albert says that the men were armed with a shotgun. When they opened fire, he instinctively ducked out of the way. He had a hat on a cap, on his head, and there was a bullet hole through the cap that he showed the police. Albert was extremely lucky that he wasn't killed to.

It was a very close call from Mr. Albert. After the shooting, the two guys got back in their car, and then they just sped off. Albert told investigators that it was two black men in a black Cadillac with Tennessee plates on. Police put out of all points bulletin to the sheriff's departments to be on the lookout for a car meeting the description of a black Cadillac with Tennessee tags. We're 60 miles south of Memphis. They're probably 300 black Cadillacs in Memphis with Tennessee tags. So if that car gets back to Tennessee, it's over.

Coming up, crime scene details send investigators back to Square One. They would have left the scene in a hurry. So they looked for tire tracks, but there were no tire tracks that indicated that. her red flags all over the place and a tip comes in pointing to a long con and a twisted romance I think she got caught on to that bad boy deal you know oh I got a bad boy

was this a case of if I can't have him nobody can't hours after a roadside robbery claimed the life of Carlin Knowlton and injured her fiancée, Albert Holder. Authorities in Arkansas are on the lookout for a black Cadillac with Tennessee plates.

The police start contacting law enforcement agencies over in Mississippi to see if anybody noticed a vehicle with Tennessee tags passing from Arkansas in the Mississippi and then in Tennessee. While investigators wait for an alert to come in, they consider the possibility that the perpetrators might have roots

in their own community. Helen Arctaw, to me, is a nice area, but we are a declining area, declining in population. Since the 1970s, our factories moved and went overseas. The population has declined over the years, but criminals hadn't gone anywhere. A lot of the homicides appear to be drug-related homicides. some gang-related retaliation type stuff.

You did get some robberies. We don't have descriptions of the shooters other than two black males. That could be anybody. Arkansas State Police investigators begin processing the crime scene. There were three shotgun shells found at the scene. So they were submitted for analysis.

You would assume that if somebody committed a robbery and shot two people, people in killing one that they would have left the scene in a hurry. So they looked for tire tracks that indicated that anybody would pull off quickly. But there were no tire tracks that indicated that. There wasn't a whole lot of the crime scene other than the shell casings that were identified. There was an abandoned house not too far from the crime scene and outside they did find Elbert's empty wallet.

Elbert told them that there was a wallet stolen, so maybe they ditched it. Without much to go on, investigators search for potential witnesses. Although Highway 85 is very rural, there were also some residential homes not too far away. The police canvassed the area to interview any witnesses that may have potentially saw or heard something. There was a witness that said that she saw a car parked out there near the scene, but not a black Cadillac. That person told them that they believe they saw a lighter-colored sedan. And so the police set out to trace the whereabouts that car. Obviously, they wanted to know where these people were.

Meanwhile, investigators learned that Elbert is in stable condition. The wound on Mr. Holder's arm was enough to draw blood, but it was not a significant wound. It was like a graze wound. By the following morning, news of Carla's death reaches her family. My grandma came, and they told me, you know, we're sorry. Your mom, you know, it's been killed. And right now, we don't know what happened. At that point, I just broke down.

It was, it was horrible. I mean, I was devastated. I couldn't eat, sleep, or anything. They kept saying she gone, you know, but I never accepted it. I was just in, like, dismayed, just shocked, like, what do you mean? What do you mean? I screamed, and some neighbors had to come and comfort me. It was really bad.

After being discharged from the hospital, investigators visit Albert at his home for a second interview. His story was he had never seen this car. He didn't know who was in it. People were wearing masks. and he basically said it all happened so fast he couldn't give them many details. Investigators thought his demeanor was very calm and different than what they would expect him to be acting like.

They know the cues they're expecting to see from victims when they're recounting what happened to a loved one, and emotion, sobbing, and crying is usually part of it. Investigators left that meeting with, Belberg, and this is when they started to realize that things just weren't adding up. Investigators shift their focus to Carla's autopsy. The medical examiner found that Carla was hit three times with a 12-gauge shotgun, twice to the head, and once to the chest.

The evidence that was recovered from the actual autopsy itself were shotgun pellets, and those were submitted to the firearm section in the laboratory. along with clothing from the victim's body. The 12-gauge shotgun is going to cause massive damage. I'm sure she died instantly. The crime lab can match shell casings based upon ejection scratches or patterns, and they determined that all three of those shell casings came from the same shotgun. If they find a weapon, they can match it.

When experts analyzed the hat Elbert was wearing when the shooting occurred, the report raises several questions. Elbert said he was able to dive out of the way, but his hat was grazed by the spray of the shotgun. The hat was examined, and it appeared to be a bigger caliber weapon than just simple shotgun pellets that are penetrating through it. And that would have been based on the soot analysis surrounding the diameter of the hole itself. They can determine by the residue on the hat how close of range the shot was. And they determined fairly quickly that the shot came from very close by.

It didn't make sense that Elbert was shot in the hat, but the bullet missed his head. There were red flags all over the place. His gray's wound to his arm was pretty much superficial, so he's relatively unharmed, but yet Ms. Knowlton was shot in the head and killed. The fact that he was grazed in the arm, although he was the one outside who confronted the two men

when they came to rob him, and why they walked around to the car and shot Carla with a shotgun. That didn't make a lot of sense. It just seemed like that was not a true story. Albert McCain, a suspect, fairly quickly. Less than a day after the roadside ambush that killed Carla Knowlton. Investigators are becoming increasingly suspicious of her fiancé, Albert Holder's account of the shooting.

The loved one of the victim, the spouse, or boy, or girlfriend is always a suspect. When a murder occurs, every good police officer will tell you this. Everybody's a suspect. And then you start eliminating people that couldn't have possibly done it. So Holder was the suspect immediately. When investigators pull Elbert's criminal record, they discover he's no stranger to the law. I don't recall Mr. Holder having any violent acts in his history.

he didn't have some insurance fraud claims that went back a few years. Holder pretty much made a career on running scams and insurance scams. And I'm not sure what he did for a living, what his honest job was, so to speak. But my understanding is, every so often he would run an insurance scam,

and that's how he made money. There was a lawyer down there in Louisiana. I remember talking to him on the phone. Came to find out that there was a, case that was filed in Louisiana over some insurance fraud that he was alleged to have committed down there. He allegedly reported some properties stolen that he still had. It was a big enough of an issue that the insurance company filed suit against him. Elbert had also reportedly suffered an injury on a Mississippi Riverboat job. Elbert claimed that the boat he was working on

was hit by a barge and that he was injured his back or his spine, but to the point where he could hardly walk and he couldn't even work. And that's when he filed the workman's comp claim for about $140,000. Investigators reach out to Carla's grieving family to see if they can provide any additional information on Elbert. I knew that he was into this workman's comp scam. He was a street guy and any way to make money in the streets, that's what he did. He was selling sex toys and videotapes out his trunk

and doing things that the average person wouldn't do. Nothing legit. And I'm like, what is Carla doing with him? Why is she with him? He grew up for him. He started hustling and getting money through scamming and figuring how to get money. That was the lifestyle he knew.

Carla went through a divorce. And so I think Herbert came in. I think he came in saying nice things. uh buying her things and i think she kind of like got caught on to that bad boy deal you know oh i got a bad boy they were like oil and water but she was so happy and so we're like you know what maybe it's not so bad after all carla's family tells investigators that she accidentally tipped off elbert's scamming activities to his lawyers he had used her phone and had called and talked with his lawyers.

So they had this number, they called back to the house. One day, and asked her, where was he? When she told him he was gone riding his motorcycle, they said, riding a motorcycle, he can ride a motorcycle. Albert is supposed to have been disabled, couldn't work because of his bag. Her family says a few months earlier, Albert and Carla had driven to New Orleans for Albert's deposition hearing. There, attorneys representing the insurance companies had approached Carla.

The attorneys had a conversation with her, something to the fact that, hey, we know that this guy's a fraud. They had been watching him. They had asked her about testifying against him, and that way, the insurance they wouldn't have to pay all of this money. That could be a huge motive to get rid of her. Still, investigators have doubts that Albert was the trigger man, since he was also injured in the attack. You don't get tunnel vision. You don't focus on one person.

There was some idea that Holder was a scam artist and Carla got caught in crossfire. Investigators start to wonder if Carla's murder could have been connected to Elber. connected to Albert because of some of the circles that he's been known to run in, and it could have potentially been aimed at him. According to Carla's family, there was a recent incident where Carla and Albert may have been targeted. One of her cars was set on fire. I'm like, Carlo, how did your car catch a fire?

They were reporting the fireman said it was set. And I'm like, Carla, what in the hell is going on? Carla felt that the fire in the car was a technical issue or a malfunction of some sort, but her family had a suspicion that it could have been something that was meant for Albert. Elbert Holder had enemies, people that he maybe ripped off or wronged in some way.

The alarming thing is that Elbert didn't say anything about this, so maybe he didn't want detectives snooping into his case. But his fiancé's dead, so they know he's got to be hiding something. The four investigators can confront Albert about these claims. They receive a pivotal tip. The woman called the police and said that she had loaned her car to somebody the night before. The local woman tells police that her friend who had borrowed the car, the night of the murder, came back the next day in her own car and told her that they would have to go pick the car up.

The woman rode with her friend to get her car, which was parked at a rest stop along Highway 85, the same highway carload was killed on. When they get to the car, it's got dirt on it, grass on it, so when she eventually does get it home, she naturally starts to clean it up. She tells police, when she's in the process of cleaning her car up, she makes a very startling discovery.

She had discovered a shotgun in the trunk. She said the person she loaned the car to was Brenda Dixon. It so happens that Brenda Dixon was the ex-girlfriend of Albert Holder and the mother of his son. The sheriff's department immediately sent an officer out who recovered the gun from the trunk. It turns out this woman's vehicle matches the description of the vehicle a witness saw out on the highway when authorities were initially canvassing the area. which was a lighter-colored sedan. It was shocking. A potential murder weapon had just fallen into their hands.

Was Brenda Dixon the shooter? 24 hours into the investigation of Carla Knowlton's murder. Arkansas police have recovered a shotgun from a car allegedly loaned to Brenda Dixon, the ex-girlfriend. of Carla's fiance, Albert Holder. While police have sent the shotgun off to the crime lab for testing, and they're trying to locate Brenda Dixon, because naturally they'd like to talk to her.

Brenda wasn't at home, so police started talking to friends and family trying to locate anybody who could help them find her. When investigators speak with Brenda's friends, they learned that Brenda and Albert's relationship hadn't necessarily ended. Mr. Holder, was dating more than one lady.

Mr. Holder was in a relationship with Carla Nolton. He was also in a relationship with Brenda Dixon at the time. They just never stopped dating, even though he was living with. Carla. Carla found out he never broke up with him. He ain't never broke up with him.

He was going from her house to Carla's house. So it was like, he was living a double life, but he did it so well. We were very angry. He was not the guy for our sister. Investigators theorize that Brenda may have enacted a plot to get rid of her romantic rival. Jealousy is a powerful, motivating factor in a lot of murders. Brendan Elver's relationship was the relationship of the woman on the side.

And maybe she thought that was going to come to an end if he married Carl. And you see this quite frequently where the woman on the side wants to eliminate the woman who is occupying the attention of who she would consider her man. Was this a case of, if I can't have him, nobody can't? If Brenda was involved, the question is, what did Albert know? Initially, it was said there were two men at the scene. The first thought was, could Albert be protecting Brenda? The following day, investigators search for their main suspects, Elbert and Brenda. Shortly after, police receive a call from the woman who had previously loaned Brenda her vehicle.

The lady called the sheriff's office again, basically in a panic, saying that Mr. Holder, Ms. Dixon, were over there. They wanted to get in the trunk of the car, and she had told them that she lost the keys. She had actually tossed the keys to the trunk behind her couch. As soon as Brenda Dixon and Albert got out of earshot, she called the police. She was really panicking about the whole situation, fearful for her life. Investigators raced to the scene where they find their two primary suspects, Albert and Brenda, standing at the woman's car with the trunk popped. Holder had actually brought.

He was not either a mechanic or a locksmith or somebody to try to open the trunk. He was totally surprised that the gun was no longer in the trunk. Why is he out there retrieving the shotgun if he had no knowledge? Elbert Holder and Brenda Dixon were arrested on the spot by law enforcement.

Brenda and Albert are transported to the sheriff's office for questioning. Albert refused to talk to police and immediately asked for a lawyer. Brenda Dixon, she started talking pretty quickly. She said that this was all Mr. Holder's idea and all his plan. She told them about her involvement, but that Elbert was really behind it all. Miss Dixon said that Mr. Holder, he had approached her about killing the victim because Mr. Holder thought she was going to

to testify against him in an insurance fraud case. According to Brenda, Carla had set conditions on her silence. Carla wanted Albert to really clean up his act and stop any scamming that he was doing, stop seeing Brenda and settle down to marry her. Brenda said Carlin was forcing Albert to marry her. Albert agreed to Carla's conditions, and then Carla was excited about moving forward with their life. And she was so excited. Oh, I'm getting married.

I'm getting married. Well, he'll get him here. But she was playing on a wedding, and he was playing the friend. Brenda said that she was approached by Albert, who said he wanted her to help. Brenda doesn't want her man to marry another woman and agrees with him to murder Carla to get her out of the wedding. Originally, Elbert attempted to plant some sort of a bomb in Carla's car, but she dodged that attempt. Brenda explained she refused to commit the murder herself, so Albert enlisted the help of his friend,

43-year-old Greg Jenkins. Brenda told us, Holder came to him and asked him to do it and that he would pay him great. And so he willingly agreed to do it. I don't know if he got paid $2,000. I don't know if he got paid $10,000, but apparently he got paid money to do this. According to Brenda, they met several times to talk about how they were going to do it.

It was Friday, June the 22nd of 2001 that Jenkins, Dixon, and Holder finalized their plan to kill Carl. Albert's plan was to drive Carla to work the next night. And when he turned on to the desolate part of Highway 85, he was supposed to act as though there was car trouble, and that's when Greg Jenkins. was supposed to be waiting. When Elbert pulls over and then pops the hood, that's the signal that Greg Jenkins waiting nearby to come out and then shoot Carlin. The plan was to make this appear like it was a robbery that had gone wrong.

Brenda claims that Albert was never supposed to be injured, but he had taken steps to make his story more believable. Brenda tells police that Elbert actually put a bullet in his own hat the day before the murder. He took his cap off and shot it with a handgun. He would then just claim that he was another victim and he just got lucky and hadn't been killed himself. On the night of the murder, Brenda says she borrowed her friend's car and picked up Greg Jenkins, who was armed with a 12-gauge shotgun.

Brenda told us, Greg said he could not do it unless he got drunk. Brenda's story was that they drove out to the Razorback Liquor store. Greg got something to drink. They then drove down to Howe 85, and she dropped off Greg at the spot where Albert told them they would meet. She then pulled up to the vacant house and stayed there and waited. As Brenda was waiting, she saw the headlights coming down the road and then stop at that location where they had chosen to shoot carpet. She said that she did not see Greg actually pulled the trigger and kill Carl, but that she heard four shots.

There was a grazed shot on Elbertsar, and so that would have accounted for the four blasts she heard. But nobody ever said he stood there and Jenkins shot him or whether he shot himself. According to Brenda Dixon, Greg Jenkins ran over to the vehicle that Ms. Dixon was in, threw the gun in the truck, jumped in the car with her, and they fled to snake. The next day when Brenda realizes she had left the shotgun in the trunk of the car, she gets a hold of Elbert and says, we've got to get this shotgun. By that time, though, it was too late. And I think Dixon didn't know what to do with the firearm afterwards.

The plan was how do we make this. murder happened, but there was no plan for what happens after the murder. On August 14th, 2001, authorities charge Brenda Dixon and Albert Holder with capital murder. Capital murder is a murder that's premeditated where there are aggravating factors. Capital murder means that you face the death penalty. At this point, the police, they go and pick up the alleged trigger man Greg Jenkins. as well. Once Greg is in custody, he doesn't speak to police,

and he immediately asked for a lawyer. Mr. Jenkins was charged with the capital murder of Carla Milton. Coming up, as the trials get underway, several issues threaten to upend the case and leave Carla's family and authorities baffled at its outcome. She's got every motive to lie to try to get herself a sweep. deal. And I watched them walk out of court. That was just angry. I don't know that you could find a case more tragic than this.

In Helena, Arkansas, Brenda Dixon has confessed to conspiring with her lover, Albert Holder, to murder Albert's fiancé, Carlin Knowlton. According to Brenda, Mr. Holder, patched the whole plot. Planned it, a location, and a whole nine yards. I personally know Brenda. How could you even let him convince you to even do this? The anger definitely kicked in with everybody and then we kind of beat ourselves up

because we knew he was no good. While Carla's loved ones grapple with the tragedy, authorities continue building their case. The key piece of evidence was Brenda Dix's testimony, but she was a co-defendant. For that testimony to be given any weight or credibility at all, it has to be corroborated or substantiated by independent evidence. The vehicle that Carlo was killed and was examined.

There was no evidence that the car had any kind of engine trouble. So the story that Elbert gave that they pulled over for car trouble, clearly fabricated. Police were also able to confirm that Elbert did own a 38 caliber revolver and they found that revolver not too far from the crime scene. His hat's got a bullet hole. The crime lab determined that the hole in the hat was consistent with a 38 caliber revolver. The crime lab confirms that the shotgun found in the trunk is in fact the murder weapon. There was no DNA or any other kind of physical evidence that,

linked Greg Jenkins or anybody else to the weapon. Greg Jenkins never confessed to a crime, and the only thing investigators actually had against him was Brenda Stewart. As news of the arrest sweeps across Helena, a witness comes forward alleging Greg Jenkins had confessed to shooting Carla Knowlton. He told me flat out that Jenkins had come to him afterwards.

sad, and said, I should not have let Holder get me to kill Carl. I should not have done it. So we had that. The trial of Albert Holder started the morning, May the 20th of 2002, in the Phillips County Courthouse in Helena, Arkansas. We were very confident going on his trial. Prosecutors assert that Albert had a clear motive for wanting Carla dead. Carla Nolton was scheduled to be a witness against Elwood.

Albert Holder down in Louisiana. It turned out that was a big part of the motive. Albert Holder had asked several people to get rid of Ms. Knowlton, and he needed her gone by a certain date, which was just prior to when he was scheduled to go to trial on the insurance fraud case down in Louisiana. The state's star witness is Brenda Dixon, who directly implicates her lover in the plot to kill her

in the plot to kill Carla. Albert's defense, however, attempts to pin the murder entirely on Brenda. Brenda Dixon couldn't be believed, according to the defense, because she's a co-defendant and she's charged herself. So she's got every motive to lie to try to get herself a sweet deal. You could look at the motive as being jealousy and that Brenda had a larger role than she let on. Or you could look at as a man selfishly trying to protect himself. Or maybe it was a combination of the two.

After hearing the testimony, the jurors retired to deliberate. The jury returned a verdict of guilty to capital murder. I think he narrowly escaped receiving the death penalty from the jury that. He received a sentence of life in prison without parole. He did appeal it, and then they went back and escaped escape him for him. years. And I said either way, he'll die in prison. So we're okay with the judgment. Greg Jenkins' trial gets underway four months later. Miss Dixon's testimony was a big part of the evidence against Mr. Jenkins. But there was

other evidence against him as well. One of the proprietors of the Razorback Liquor Store verified that Greg came into the liquor store that night and bought liquor. And And there was a person who lived at the South Beach Apartments, who testified that he saw Brenda drop off Greg that night at some time after the murder occurred. Another key witness for prosecutors is the man who claimed Greg Jenkins had confessed that he regretted killing Carla. I was the person who examined him. Put him on the witness stand. He said, no, that's not true. That didn't happen. And so I asked him five different ways. You know, isn't it true that you told me this?

Isn't it true that he came to you? No. No, that's not what happened. That was disappointing for me. The witness's testimony, along with the lack of physical evidence tying Greg to the murder, result in a frustrating outcome for prosecutors. He was found not guilty.

Mr. Jenkins was acquitted. He's a free man as we sit here today. The investigators were very thorough, very solid case on Mr. Jenkins, but the jury just didn't see it that way. When they said not guilty and how he cheered, his mother cheered, and I watched him walk out of court, I was just angry. I don't think justice was served in his being found not guilty. For her role in Carla's murder, Brenda Dixon is sentenced to 10 years. in prison. Albert definitely needed help to execute this plan.

He couldn't necessarily have done it alone. So Brenda was a very important part of the plan. Mr. Holder got her involved in this scheme that he hatched in his head. I personally talked to Ms. Dixon several times over the course of these two trials. I appeared to feel a lot of remorse that she'd made a horrible mistake and she wished it hadn't happened. I don't know that you could find a case more tragic than this, because everybody lost.

Nobody should have to lose their life. But for simple greed, it's even worse. Sometimes you can be sleeping with a snake and don't even know it. So just be careful. And if you see any red flags, don't ignore them because they're there for a reason. Brenda Dixon served half of her 10-year sentence and was released. on parole in 2007. Albert Holder died in prison in March

2023, just weeks before his parole hearing.