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Christina's Story - Newspaper Articles

The following links take you to various articles in Christina's story as it appeared in the South Florida media.

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In Loving Memory Of
Christina Diane Holt

May 23, 1987 - September 16, 1994

"Beautiful Child who has found love from the angels...RIP..."


(Not her actual headstone)
These pages contain all of the articles from the Palm Beach Post and The Sun-Sentinel throughout the years.

Attorney Says He's Worried Zile Won't Get Fair Trial (3/30/95)
Judge Hopes To Seat Jurors In P. Zile Trial Today (3/30/95)
Pauline Zile's Defense: She Didn't Mean To Aid Girl's Death (3/31/95)
Zile Defense Loses Fight Over Evidence (4/1/95)
Jury Seated For Pauline Zile's Trial (4/1/95)
9 Men, 3 Women Selected To Try Pauline Zile (4/1/95)
Kidnap Hoax Focus of Trial Opening (4/4/95)
Prosecutor: Doing Nothing Makes Zile Guilty In Death (4/4/95)
A Mother Faces The Prosecution (4/4/95)
State: Pauline Zile Watched Beating (4/4/95)


ATTORNEY SAYS HE'S WORRIED ZILE CAN'T GET FAIR TRIAL
The Palm Beach Post
March 30, 1995

Jury selection will continue today in the first-degree murder case of Pauline Zile.

The pool of 190 jurors was narrowed to 40 Wednesday.
After three days of questioning prospective jurors, Zile's attorney, Ellis Rubin, said ``there is a lot of hatred for the circumstances of the case'' and he is worried she cannot get a fair trial in Palm Beach County.

Zile is charged with murder in the death of her 7-year-old daughter, Christina Holt.

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JUDGE HOPES TO SEAT JURORS IN P. ZILE TRIAL TODAY
Sun-Sentinel
March 30, 1995
Author: STEPHANIE SMITH

On the third day of jury selection in Pauline Zile's murder trial, 40 people out of 190 remained in the jury pool.

Circuit Judge Stephen Rapp told lawyers in the case that he hopes to seat 12 jurors and two alternates today for the trial, which is expected to last a month.
On Friday, Rapp will decide on pending motions such as whether investigators illegally used Zile's statement to gather evidence against her after she was given immunity, and whether testimony about the kidnapping hoax contrived to cover up the death of Zile's daughter should be allowed. Zile is charged with first-degree murder and aggravated child abuse in the death of her daughter, Christina Holt, 7. Police say the child died after a beating by her stepfather, John Zile.

Pauline Zile is charged with murder under the legal theory that an accomplice is just as guilty as the killer. Police say Pauline Zile did nothing while her daughter was beaten to the point that the child collapsed and died.

Her husband's separate trial is scheduled for Aug. 14.

Both Ziles face the death penalty if they are convicted of first-degree murder.

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PAULINE ZILE'S DEFENSE: SHE DIDN'T MEAN TO AID GIRL'S DEATH
Miami Herald, The (FL)
March 31, 1995
Author: KAREN TESTA Associated Press

An attorney for Pauline Zile laid out her defense strategy Thursday, telling potential jurors in the West Palm Beach murder trial that she had no intention of participating in her daughter's death.
Zile, 24, is charged with first-degree murder and aggravated child abuse in the death of 7-year-old Christina Holt.

Zile concocted a story of her daughter's abduction from a public restroom of a Broward County flea market last fall to cover up the girl's death a month earlier at the hands of her stepfather John Zile. The couple kept the body in a closet four days before burying it. He is awaiting a separate trial.

"The defense is that the defendant didn't know what was about to happen," Ellis Rubin told 41 potential jurors on the fourth day of jury selection. "She had no intent to participate actively in anything that happened to this little girl. And she didn't do anything by which she intended to help in the death of her own child."

One count of abuse accuses her of torturing Christina by preventing her from attending school. Rubin said her defense was that it's impossible to prevent a child already dead from attending school.

Assistant State Attorney Mary Ann Duggan told the jurors that prosecutors would seek a conviction for first-degree felony murder, a charge imposed when a death occurs as a result of another felony. In this case, the other alleged felony is aggravated child abuse. The state is seeking the death penalty against both Ziles.

Rubin spent most of the day interviewing the prospective jurors on everything from their education and family to their hobbies and bumper stickers.

"Irritate a liberal: work hard, make money," said one gray- haired retired insurance agent who said he was a Rush Limbaugh fan.

Rubin probed the jurors' personal histories, asking if any had known people who had been battered spouses or had domineering husbands or if they had been victims of crime. Most had their houses or cars burglarized. One woman said she had been abused by her husband.

The pool of 16 women and 25 men was asked about the case of Susan Smith, the mother accused of drowning her two boys in South Carolina. Most said they had little knowledge of the case.

Rubin also asked if they had seen a dead body or would become hysterical at the sight of gory photographs, which he said would be introduced as evidence. Most said they had seen a corpse and could handle the photos.

At one point in the individual questioning of the jurors, Rubin read a list of more than 270 potential defense witnesses. Many were law enforcement officers, family members or school officials. However, there were several television news people and one "known psychic."

Hearings on several pretrial motions, including one to exclude some evidence, were set for Friday before Circuit Judge Stephen Rapp in the Palm Beach County Courthouse.

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ZILE DEFENSE LOSES FIGHT OVER EVIDENCE
The Palm Beach Post
April 1, 1995
Author: VAL ELLICOTT
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer

Pauline Zile's attorneys lost their fight Friday to bar prosecutors from presenting key evidence against Zile, who could receive the death penalty if convicted of murdering her daughter.

Earlier in the day, attorneys in the case selected nine men and three women to sit as jurors during the two-week trial, which is to begin Monday.
Circuit Judge Stephen Rapp ruled prosecutors may present evidence that Pauline Zile actively participated with her husband, John Zile, in covering up the death of 7-year-old Christina Holt, a source who asked not to be identified said Friday. Rapp refused to reveal his rulings on that and other issues.

John Zile, Christina's stepfather, told police Christina died Sept. 16 while he gave her a disciplinary beating. He also is charged with first-degree murder but will be tried separately.

After Christina died, the Ziles pretended she was still alive and fabricated a convincing hoax that she had been kidnapped from a Broward County swap shop.

Rapp also ruled prosecutors may use other crucial evidence that Pauline Zile's attorneys, Ellis Rubin and his son, Guy, had argued should be thrown out, according to the source. The Rubins had said the evidence should be thrown out because police obtained it, directly or indirectly, as the result of a statement Pauline Zile gave after receiving a promise of immunity.

Friday's rulings were important victories for prosecutors Scott Cupp and Mary Ann Duggan. They had faced the prospect of trying Pauline Zile without being able to reveal, for instance, that her daughter's body had been found where John Zile confessed to burying it, behind a shopping center in Tequesta.

In what appears to be a less significant win for the two defense attorneys, Rapp barred admission of a suicide letter Pauline Zile wrote on Oct. 26, after the couple's kidnapping hoax had unraveled.

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JURY SEATED FOR PAULINE ZILE'S TRIAL
Sun-Sentinel
April 1, 1995
Author: STEPHANIE SMITH Staff Writer

A 12-member jury was seated on Friday for Pauline Zile's murder trial, but a decision on major pending motions will not be made public until just before opening statements on Monday.

Circuit Judge Stephen Rapp said he did not want to publicly issue his rulings on pending motions until Monday because the jury has not been sworn in. He did not want jurors to learn about his rulings during the weekend.
Among the issues Rapp is considering is whether investigators illegally used Pauline Zile's statement to find evidence against her after she was given immunity to talk to police.

Zile is accused of first-degree murder and aggravated child abuse in the death of her daughter, Christina Holt, 7. Zile is accused of doing nothing while her husband, John Zile, beat her daughter to the point that the child suffered a seizure and died. Under child abuse laws, a parent or guardian has a duty to intervene to protect their child.

Prosecutors put Detective Sgt. Edward Brochu of the Riviera Beach Police Department on the witness stand on Friday to show that investigators had grounds for a murder case prior to Zile's statement.

Brochu said police already had circumstantial evidence, such as blood splatters found at the Ziles' Singer Island apartment, the child's bloody clothing, and statements from the Ziles' friends and neighbors who said they saw bruises on Christina or heard the child getting beaten.

Also, Christina had not been seen by neighbors or her teachers for about a month before Pauline Zile reported her missing, Brochu said. The woman went on television to plead for the return of her daughter, whom she claimed had been kidnapped from a flea market restroom in Fort Lauderdale.

But Brochu was unable to give an independent source for some of the evidence that prosecutors want to use in the trial, such as the suicide notes found in the Ziles' car.

The notes, written after police discovered blood at the apartment and began questioning the missing child story, maintained the lie that Christina was still alive.

On Friday, lawyers in the case finished jury selection, seating nine men and three women, and two alternates, after interviewing 190 people.

"I'm surprised we got a jury," said one of Zile's attorneys, Ellis Rubin of Miami, who had requested the trial be moved. The motion was denied.

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9 MEN, 3 WOMEN SELECTED TO TRY PAULINE ZILE
Miami Herald, The (FL)
April 1, 1995
Author: KAREN TESTA Associated Press

A jury of nine men and three women was selected Friday in West Palm Beach, then sent home for the weekend while attorneys argued the admissibility of key evidence in the murder trial of Pauline Zile.
She is charged with the first-degree murder and aggravated child abuse of her 7-year-old daughter Christina Holt. Opening arguments are scheduled for Monday.

Prosecutors say Zile, 24, concocted a story of her daughter's abduction from the public restroom of The Swap Shop flea market in Fort Lauderdale last fall to cover up the girl's death a month earlier at the hands of her stepfather, John Zile. The couple kept the body in a closet at least two days before burying it.

John Zile is awaiting a separate trial.

Defense attorneys for Pauline Zile filed at least 20 pretrial motions, including several to suppress key evidence against her. Attorney Ellis Rubin claimed the state would have no grounds for an indictment against her were it not for her statement, which she gave with immunity.

At a daylong hearing Friday, Palm Beach County Circuit Judge Stephen Rapp heard evidence on many of those motions. He said he would not make his decisions public until Monday because he didn't want the jury to see news reports of evidence that would not be allowed during the trial.

However, two sources close to the case told The Associated Press late Friday that the judge had denied nearly all of the defense motions. Rapp did agree, though, that suicide notes written by both Ziles would not be admitted.

Prosecutors plan to use statements made by the Ziles before John Zile's confession Oct. 27 -- including the fake abduction story -- as co-conspirator statements. Prosecutors said Pauline Zile's failure to stop repeated abuse constituted a conspiracy.

"There is an on-going agreement by actions to hurt Christina," said Assistant State Attorney Mary Ann Duggan.

However, the defense had argued that Pauline Zile, who was then nine months pregnant, attempted to intervene in the beating that apparently caused her daughter's death by saying, "John, that's enough. John, stop it."

Attorney Guy Rubin argued the pregnant Zile was powerless to stop her husband. "(Prosecutors) haven't shown she had the ability to act."

The defense wanted to suppress any statements of actions taken by the Ziles after Christina's death, especially the tearful, televised lie from the flea market.

"The probative value is not needed. It's prejudicial," Ellis Rubin argued.

Defense motions had called for all evidence that came as a direct or indirect result of Pauline Zile's statement, including her husband's confession, to be suppressed. Ellis Rubin also asked the judge to examine grand jury testimony to see if any information gained from the immune statement was used to bring about her indictment, and if so, to throw out the indictment.

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KIDNAP HOAX FOCUS OF TRIAL OPENING
The Palm Beach Post
April 4, 1995
Author: CHRISTINE STAPLETON
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer

The first-degree murder trial of Paul-ine Zile began on Monday with little mention of her 7-year-old daughter's death and focused instead on a crime that Zile has not been charged with - the kidnapping hoax to cover Christina Holt's death.

``They're setting the sympathy stage early,'' David Olsen, a West Palm Beach criminal defense attorney, said of the prosecutors' strategy of beginning with the kidnapping.
The strategy enables prosecutors to portray Zile, 24, as a liar from the start, legal experts said.

``Without a doubt they're hitting the jury with something that will make the jury want to doubt anything that comes out of the defense attorneys' mouths,'' said Craig Boudreau, a West Palm Beach criminal defense attorney.

The hoax in which the Ziles claimed Christina had been abducted at a Broward County swap shop focused national attention on Zile and her husband, John, who will be tried later on similar charges of first-degree murder and four counts of aggravated child abuse. The couple could have been charged with filing a false police report.

Ellis Rubin, Mrs. Zile's attorney, said he expected prosecutors to highlight the swap shop incident and admitted to jurors that it was a horrible scheme to cover the girl's death. But Rubin denied that Mrs. Zile participated in her daughter's death and asked jurors not to focus on Mrs. Zile's tearful, televised plea for information about her daughter, who had been dead for a month.

``You're being asked to send her to the electric chair because she lied on TV,'' Rubin said. ``That's why she was indicted, because the public was humiliated and deceived.''

The state's first witness, Broward County sheriff's Detective David Robshaw, described the frantic search for Christina Holt at the Thunderbird Swap Shop on Oct. 22. Mrs. Zile seemed ``appropriately distraught,'' and provided detectives with photographs of her smiling, pig-tailed daughter. The photographs were immediately made into missing-child fliers and distributed throughout Broward and Palm Beach counties.

Prosecutors then showed jurors the photos and fliers of the smiling girl, giving the jury a rare look at a murder victim before her death. At most murder trials jurors never see such photographs. Instead, jurors view only the impersonal and often gruesome crime scene or autopsy photos of the victim.

In this case, jurors now have a mental image of the grinning girl before they see the autopsy photos.

``It has to be very emotional for the jury to see these photos and not identify with a daughter, a niece or a granddaughter,'' Boudreau said. ``They're bringing in victim-impact testimony that they normally wouldn't be able to get into evidence.''

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PROSECUTOR: DOING NOTHING MAKES ZILE GUILTY IN DEATH
RUBIN SAYS PAULINE PROSECUTED ONLY FOR LYING TO PUBLIC ON TV
Sun-Sentinel
April 4, 1995
Author: STEPHANIE SMITH Staff Writer

Pauline Zile chose her husband over her daughter and did nothing as her first-born child suffered a final beating, a prosecutor told jurors during opening arguments on Monday.

Assistant State Attorney Scott Cupp said Zile is guilty of murder because, as the mother, she had a duty to protect her daughter Christina Holt on the night the child died.
Cupp slapped his hands together over and over in front of jurors to demonstrate how that night might have sounded as Christina, 7, was beaten, collapsed and suffocated. "She did not lift as much as a finger to protect Christina," Cupp told jurors.

Opening statements in Zile's first-degree murder case on Monday outlined each side's position in the trial, which is expected to last two to three weeks.

Cupp said Zile, 24, was in cahoots with her husband, John Zile, to first cover up his beatings of the child and then finally the child's death.

Christina was pulled out of school about a month before her death because the Ziles did not want to risk the child's teachers finding the bruises on her body, Cupp said.

Then, when Christina died after the Sept. 16 beating, it was the child's mother who went before cameras and to police to pull a hoax that her daughter was abducted in a busy Broward County flea market, Cupp said.

"How this case got started, how the outside world got involved was the Swap Shop [west of) Fort Lauderdale," Cupp said. "There, they tried to convince all of us Christina disappeared. While they were doing that, Christina Holt was 57 inches into the ground."

Zile's attorney Ellis Rubin said in his opening statement that the only thing his client is guilty of is lying, and that is not punishable by the death penalty.

"She's being prosecuted today because she lied on television," Rubin said. "Does that act - going on television and deceiving the public - is that worthy of capital punishment?" Before the prosecution can prove Zile was part of a murder conspiracy with her husband, the state must first show John Zile committed the murder, Rubin said.

"You must presume Pauline did not know what was going to happen to Christina," Rubin said.

The state put three witnesses on the stand Monday, all police detectives. Circuit Judge Stephan Rapp denied defense motions to exclude evidence about the abduction hoax. And, with the first witnesses, prosecutors seized the opportunity to show jurors a videotape of Pauline Zile's televised appeal for the return of her daughter.

In the videotape, Zile told her daughter to not be frightened and to try to find a way to call home. "Mommy's going to find you," Zile tearfully said to the camera. Then she appealed to her child's abductor: "I love her. Her little brothers miss her so much. We want her to come home."

Rapp also denied defense motions asking to throw out all evidence against Zile because police used Zile's statement after she was given immunity. Rubin contended his client's immunized statement was used to get a confession from her husband, who then took police to the child's body.

But the judge did agree to exclude suicide notes the Ziles wrote as their abduction hoax unraveled. The notes maintained the lie that Christina was alive.

Rapp said police couldn't have found out about the notes from John Zile because he had not confessed when police got a search warrant to retrieve them.

Also excluded from the trial are John Zile's confession because as a defendant, he cannot be cross-examined. He will be tried separately.

The trial continues today, and the jury is expected to view the bloodstained mattress and box springs from Christina's bed.

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A MOTHER FACES THE PROSECUTION
MURDER TRIAL BEGINS IN BEATING DEATH OF 7-YEAR-OLD GIRL
Miami Herald, The (FL)
April 4, 1995
Author: LORI ROZSA Herald Staff Writer

Pauline Zile may not have beaten her daughter, but she watched and didn't get help while the girl was thrashed until she passed out and died, prosecutors said during opening testimony of Zile's trial Monday.
That makes her as guilty as if she'd done the beating herself, assistant state attorney Scott Cupp told jurors.

Zile is charged with first-degree murder and aggravated child abuse in the death last September of her 7-year-old daughter, Christina Holt. Police say she watched while her husband beat Christina because she had soiled her pants. She made no attempt to stop him or seek help for the girl, they said. They say she helped plan and then carry out a hoax to cover up the death, claiming she had disappeared from the Swap Shop in Fort Lauderdale.

Zile's attorneys, Ellis and Guy Rubin, said the state can't prove she had anything to do with Christina's death. They said Zile may testify to tell her side of the story.

They may also offer a battered spouse defense, Guy Rubin said, saying Pauline was too afraid of her husband to defend Christina from him.

John Zile, Christina's stepfather, is facing the same charges and will be tried separately. Both face the death penalty if convicted.

Pauline Zile, wearing a pink sweater dress with a blue bow in her hair, was calm and attentive while she listened to police testimony Monday. She took notes and asked her attorneys questions and reviewed some evidence with them.

It wasn't until prosecutor Mary Ann Duggan played a tape of her pleading for the return of her daughter that she showed any emotion.

On the tape, a tearful Pauline Zile, talking into a TV camera in October, said "I love her. Her little brothers miss her so much. We want her to come home."

In the courtroom, Zile wiped tears from her eyes.

Broward County sheriff's detective David Robshaw, who helped lead the missing person search for Christina, was the first witness. He said Pauline Zile was upset the day she reported Christina missing, but she kept referring to the girl in the past tense.

He said 45 officers, including FBI agents, searched the Swap Shop. They used sniffing dogs, airplanes, even a dive team to search a nearby canal.

John Zile told him he had scoped out the Swap Shop a few days earlier, to make sure it was a safe place for a child, Robshaw said. He said Pauline and Christina had planned to spend a day there together away from John and the couple's other children, Dan, who was 5 at the time, and Chad, age 3.

"They said it was a chance for Pauline and Christina to be together, it allowed them some private time together," Robshaw said.

But by that time, Christina had been dead for five weeks.

Five days after touching off a nationwide search for Christina, Pauline Zile failed a lie detector test and told police her version of events. Her husband then led them to a lot behind a Kmart in Tequesta, where he buried Christina.

In a jailhouse interview with The Herald, John Zile said both he and his wife hit Christina. But Palm Beach County Circuit Court Judge Stephen Rapp ruled that statements Zile made after his wife's arrest can't be used in her trial.

Broward County crime scene officer Robert Foley told the jury Monday that he found several blood stains in the Zile apartment, including on Christina's bed and pillows.

Duggan showed the jury one of the pillows, and the box spring from the girl's bed. She also showed them a photo of the smiling, pig-tailed little girl.

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STATE: PAULINE ZILE WATCHED BEATING
Miami Herald, The (FL)
April 4, 1995
Author: LORI ROZSA Herald Staff Writer

Pauline Zile may not have beaten her daughter, but she watched and didn't get help while the girl was thrashed until she passed out and died, prosecutors said during opening testimony of Zile's trial Monday in West Palm Beach. That makes her as guilty as if she'd done the beating herself, Assistant State Attorney Scott Cupp told jurors. Zile is charged with first-degree murder and aggravated child abuse in the death last September of her 7-year-old daughter, Christina Holt. Police say she watched while her husband beat Christina because she had soiled her pants. She made no attempt to stop him or seek help for the girl, they said. They say she helped plan and then carry out a hoax to cover up the death, claiming she had disappeared from the Swap Shop in Fort Lauderdale.

Zile's attorneys, Ellis and Guy Rubin, said the state can't prove she had anything to do with Christina's death. They said Zile may testify to tell her side of the story. They may also offer a battered spouse defense, Guy Rubin said, saying Pauline was too afraid of her husband to defend Christina from him. John Zile, Christina's stepfather, is facing the same charges and will be tried separately. Both face the death penalty if convicted. Pauline Zile, wearing a pink sweater dress with a blue bow in her hair, was calm and attentive while she listened to police testimony Monday.

She took notes and asked her attorneys questions and reviewed some evidence with them. It wasn't until prosecutor Mary Ann Duggan played a tape of her pleading for the return of her daughter that she showed any emotion. On the tape, a tearful Pauline Zile, talking into a TV camera in October, said "I love her. Her little brothers miss her so much. We want her to come home." In the courtroom, Zile wiped tears from her eyes. Broward County sheriff's detective David Robshaw, who helped lead the missing person search for Christina, was the first witness. He said Pauline Zile was upset the day she reported Christina missing, but she kept referring to the girl in the past tense. He said 45 officers, including FBI agents, searched the Swap Shop.

They used sniffing dogs, airplanes, even a dive team to search a nearby canal. John Zile told him he had scoped out the Swap Shop a few days earlier, to make sure it was a safe place for a child, Robshaw said. He said Pauline and Christina had planned to spend a day there together away from John and the couple's other children, Dan, who was 5 at the time, and Chad, age 3. "They said it was a chance for Pauline and Christina to be together, it allowed them some private time together," Robshaw said. But by that time, Christina had been dead for five weeks.

Five days after touching off a nationwide search for Christina, Pauline Zile failed a lie detector test and told police her version of events. Her husband then led them to a lot behind a Kmart in Tequesta, where he buried Christina. In a jail house interview with The Herald, John Zile said both he and his wife hit Christina. But Palm Beach County Circuit Court Judge Stephen Rapp ruled that statements Zile made after his wife's arrest can't be used in her trial. Broward County crime scene officer Robert Foley told the jury Monday that he found several blood stains in the Zile apartment, including on Christina's bed and pillows. Duggan showed the jury one of the pillows, and the box spring from the girl's bed. She also showed them a photo of the smiling, pig-tailed little girl.

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