Tory Nocho
A Criminal Court jury Thursday sentence Tory Nocho to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
The jury deliberated just over two hours in the courtroom of Judge Steve Bevil.
The only other choice for the panel was life, which would have meant he would be held for at least 51 years.
Nocho, who is now 23, had told detectives he killed two co-workers at the Lee Highway Burger King in 1999 after his shift manager hollered at him.
Nocho said he became angry when LaVonda Kay Holderby shouted at him while they were trying to locate her mentally retarded niece, Donna Holderby.
Nocho said he grabbed a hammer and hit 41-year-old Kay Holderby in the head, then ran after 16-year-old Donna Holderby.
The Nocho confession was read to a jury in the courtroom of Judge Bevil. Nocho earlier pled guilty, and the panel is to decide whether he gets life without possibility of parole or life.
Nocho gave the taped confession, then he allowed officers to videotape him as he went back to the scene of the grisly murders that happened the day after Christmas.
Nocho said a customer helped in the search for the niece, and he finally found her back in a break room eating.
He said Kay Holderby "kept hollering and hollering. I asked her I said Kay please, but she kept on, kept on."
Nocho said he became angry and hit her with the hammer three or four times until the hammer broke.
He said Donna Holderby ran toward the cooler and he caught her and pulled her by the hair into the cooler. He said, "I strangled her and bashed her head against the side of the wall. Then I stomped her and kicked her."
He said he used a black electrical cord to strangle the young girl.
Asked if she was saying anything during the attack, he said, "It's like she was saying please stop, but the words actually didn't come out. I quit for a minute cause she was laying there jerking around on the floor. I panicked and cut her throat."
Nocho said he went back out to Kay Holderby and told her to lie down after finding her sitting up on the floor. He said he got her a Coke, while she was saying he was "going to pay for this. You're not going to get away. You know, I don't know why Paula called you back."
Nocho said he then kicked her, then went back and slit Donna Holderby's throat with a small knife he found.
Nocho told detectives he went back to Kay Holderby and told her to get money out of the cash register. He said she got him money from the register and the safe and put it in night deposit bags.
He said he ordered her to come to the stockroom, then he threw a jug of pickles at her, striking her in the head.
Nocho said Kay Holderby told him she "couldn't lay in this puddle of blood" so he went in the office and got some towels for her. He said she sat up, then customers began coming in. He directed her to tell them they were closed. Nocho said he also told a man who was in the bathroom that they would be closed due to a power failure.
Nocho said Kay Holderby asked where Donna was, and he told her she was in the cooler. He said Kay Holderby then pushed him, and he "grabbed her by the hair and slung her down and I started strangling her and I kicked her." He said he also used the black cord on her.
Nocho said he "paused for a moment, just standing there not knowing what to do." He said he then "picked up scissors. I put the towel over her face and I stabbed her in the neck, then I stabbed her in the breast area four or five times. I'm not even sure how many.
"After I did that I sat there for a while. I started crying.
"I put the money in a tomato case, took it out, put it in her car." He said he drove to his house, washed his hands and changed clothes.
Nocho said he drove to the MLK Boulevard area and put the clothes he had worn at work into a bucket and burned them near Memo's. He said he then met his girlfriend downtown for a movie at the Bijou.
By the time he got home, police were waiting for him.
Police later found the bag of money at his mother's house. They searched his bedroom there at first and did not find it. But the mother, Polly Nocho, called about 15 minutes later and said it was in a hallway. They returned for the cash.
Medical Examiner Dr. Frank King said Donna Holderby was asphixiated by a blow to her windpipe and also by some device that had been placed around her neck. He said she had numerous blunt trauma injuries and her throat was slashed.
He said Kay Holderby also was strangled and had multiple stab wounds and blunt trauma injuries.
Det. Mike Mathis said when he interviewed Nocho he was very calm. "He kept going to sleep and we had to keep waking him up."
A state social worker said she supervised Nocho in 1994-1996 when he was at the Tennessee Baptist Children's Home. She said he was one of her favorites, and others referred to him as "my big baby."
Jamey Nocho, brother of the defendant, told of their being abused when they were growing up. He said they were made to go out in the middle of the night and pick up cans for hours.
Jamey Nocho, who is also behind bars, said he can't believe his brother committed the murders. He denied he had told his attorney and two prosecutors that Tory Nocho admitted to him carrying out the crimes.