Roger Lynn Holliman, Sr.
From Staff Reports
A former Greene County resident convicted of sexual battery of his granddaughter in 2019 has died in a Mississippi prison.
Roger Lynn Holliman, Sr., 64, died Tuesday at Central Mississippi Correctional Facility in Rankin County. Corrections officers attempted to revive Holliman after he was found unresponsive in his single cell during a security check, but were unsuccessful.
Holliman was serving 40 years and had been in prison since March 2019, shortly after pleading guilty to two counts of sexual battery in Greene County. He also pleaded guilty to statutory rape in September last year in Wayne County.
A spokesperson for MDOC said an autopsy will be performed to determine the cause and manner of Holliman’s death.
The crimes in Greene County to which Holliman pleaded guilty occurred on or between Aug. 1, 2014 and April 30, 2015 near Leakesville when Holliman was living in Greene County. The victim was eight years old when the abuse began. Greene County authorities got involved when the victim and her 6-year-old sister confided with their mother about the abuse. During the investigation, another granddaughter of similar age was also discovered to have been abused by Holliman, who was arrested in February 2017 after a 3-month investigation.
At the time of his sentencing, District Attorney Angel Myers-McIlrath said she believed the depravity of the abuse in the cases warranted what was effectively a life sentence for Holliman.
“The sexual abuse of these children at the hands of their grandfather is unimaginable and these children should be commended for bravely coming forward,” Myers-McIlrath said at the time. “One cannot fathom the courage it takes for a child to tell about being abused.”
