Duluth News Tribune
DULUTH, Minn. — William James Holisky II has a criminal record replete with assaultive and threatening behavior toward women.
He served a three-year prison sentence after firing several shots into an ex-girlfriend’s Duluth home in 2006. A few years before that, he burglarized another former lover’s residence.
In 2007, he pleaded guilty to threatening an 83-year-old neighbor in Two Harbors. More recently, he was convicted of assaulting a female corrections officer en route to a court appearance in Virginia.
That was all on his record when he was found to have intentionally violated the conditions of his probation in a domestic assault case in early 2015. Holisky, who was under court supervision after being convicted of repeatedly hitting and kicking his girlfriend during a dispute, failed to report to a court-ordered domestic abuse program.
But the violation did not result in additional prison time or increased supervision. With Holisky having already served more than two-thirds of a 21-month sentence, 6th Judicial District Judge Mark Munger took a different approach.
He removed Holisky from supervised probation, eliminating a number of the conditions that the defendant was to follow — including enrollment in the domestic abuse program — and placed him on unsupervised probation, where he would no longer be subject to frequent contact with a probation officer.
That was in January 2015. Less than four months later, authorities say, Holisky fatally stabbed Lisa Jean Isham inside her Lincoln Park home.
It was a series of events that raised eyebrows within the local legal community. Several officials in the criminal justice system, who spoke to the News Tribune under the condition of anonymity because they appear before Munger, said the outcome underscores flaws in the judicial system that allow violent criminals to reoffend.
“I’ve never seen anything like this,” said one attorney with knowledge of Holisky’s criminal record. “With his history of violence, it seems like the message was not sent.”
Holisky, 63, again has business before Munger. The judge is presiding over his second-degree intentional murder case, which is set to go to trial in July.
Munger declined to be interviewed for this story, citing a judicial code that precludes judges from commenting on pending matters before the court.
Holisky was charged with felony domestic assault after his then-girlfriend reported to police that she was repeatedly struck and kicked during a January 2013 verbal dispute.
The Duluth woman told police that Holisky, who had lived with her for about two months, “backhanded” her across the face three or four times, according to court documents.
When another man in the apartment intervened, Holisky forcibly shoved him out of the apartment and locked the door. The victim reported that he then knocked her to the ground and began kicking her and stomping on her foot, according to police, who said her injuries were consistent with the account.
Holisky pleaded not guilty to the charge. He was convicted by a St. Louis County jury on Sept. 19, 2014.
It was not Holisky’s first run-in with the law.
In August 2006, he fired two shots at the Congdon Park home of a woman he had met online and dated for a few months. One bullet went through a living room window, while the other hit a bedroom window. The woman and her son were both in the house, but were not struck. Holisky served a three-year prison sentence after pleading guilty to second-degree assault in 2008.
In 2003, he was charged with breaking into the home of an ex-girlfriend, trashing her residence and stealing several objects. The victim in that case said she had broken up with Holisky “because of his violent temper, alcoholism and bipolar (disorder).”
Court records indicate that Holisky has been subject to at least three restraining orders from former girlfriends. And, in 2007, he pleaded guilty to a felony charge after his elderly neighbor reported to police that he made a series of threats through written notes and phone calls.
Munger, who sent Holisky to prison in the shooting incident, presided over the 2014 trial stemming from the January 2013 domestic assault. He sentenced Holisky to 21 months in prison, but stayed the time in favor of two years of supervised probation.
Among other conditions, Holisky was required to undergo a mental health evaluation and complete a 27-week class through the Duluth-based Domestic Abuse Intervention Programs, which has been internationally recognized and boasts a 70 percent success rate in preventing recidivism.
A felony domestic assault conviction carries a maximum of five years in prison. Despite Holisky’s history, the probationary sentence he received was within state guidelines.
On Jan. 7, 2015, Arrowhead Regional Corrections probation officer Tom Florestano filed a violation report against Holisky, alleging that he failed to adhere to four of his court-imposed conditions.
Florestano reported that Holisky had not entered the DAIP program on his scheduled date, did not obtain a mental health diagnostic assessment, dropped out of contact in the months of December and January, and failed to provide notice of his living arrangements.
Florestano testified at a Jan. 21 evidentiary hearing that Holisky, who was to report once a month, had not been in contact with him since November after he missed his DAIP date, according to a transcript obtained by the News Tribune. He added that he could not reach Holisky because his last known address was at CHUM, where he was no longer living, and the phone number he provided was out of service.
The probation officer testified that he was concerned about not being able to contact Holisky, in part, because it hindered the officer’s ability to protect the victim of Holisky’s assault.
“Being able to go and see the victim out in the community is an integral part of the domestic unit, and I have not been able to do that,” Florestano said at the hearing.
Holisky denied the allegations and chose to represent himself at the hearing, discharging his public defender.
Posing questions to Florestano under cross-examination, Holisky claimed that he had provided proof of completing a mental health diagnostic, had informed the probation officer that he was living with a girlfriend in Superior and had even bumped into Florestano at a grocery store two weeks prior.
Florestano denied recalling any of those events happening, according to the transcript. When Florestano indicated that he could verify portions of his testimony by taking a brief recess to retrieve files from his office in the courthouse, the judge denied the request.
“This is the hearing,” Munger told the probation officer. “That’s a problem for the court.”
At the conclusion of the 50-minute hearing, the judge told Holisky that he would wait a day to make his decision.
“I don’t want to make a knee-jerk reaction in this case, because obviously there are some significant issues with respect to incarceration here,” Munger said, “but I also want Mr. Holisky to know within a day what my decision is as to the violations.”
The next day, Munger delivered his decision with criticism for Florestano’s handling of the case.
“I agree that Mr. Holisky is a very difficult parishioner,” he said. “I get that from Mr. Florestano’s testimony, but I also believe that the state has woefully not proven all of the allegations that have been brought here.”
Munger concluded that the probation officer had “essentially left Mr. Holisky to live wherever he wants to live” and failed to prove that Holisky did not complete his mental health diagnostic.
The judge found only one of the four alleged violations to be substantiated: Holisky’s failure to report for the domestic abuse program.
“He has not even begun the Domestic Abuse Intervention Program,” Munger said. “He was given a specific date to report. He had no explanation as to why he did not report.”
Given the task of amending Holisky’s sentence in light of the violation, Munger seemed to grapple with the fact that the defendant had credit for 457 days served out of a 21-month stayed sentence. Holisky had spent a significant amount of time in the St. Louis County Jail awaiting trial on the domestic assault charge, and also had earned credit while in custody awaiting trial in the 2014 assault on the corrections officer.
If Munger executed the prison sentence, Holisky would have been sent to and immediately discharged from the Department of Corrections, according to attorneys who reviewed the case for the News Tribune. Minnesota law requires that two-thirds of a sentence be spent in prison, with the remaining portion served as supervised release.
Without further elaboration, Munger vacated all the terms and conditions of Holisky’s original sentence, which had him on supervised probation through October 2016. The judge placed him on unsupervised status, and shortened the probationary term to January 2016.
Holisky was released from custody after the hearing. Under the new terms of his probation, he would only have to remain law-abiding and avoid the use of drugs and alcohol.
He would no longer be subject to regular check-ins with his probation officer and was relieved of his requirement to complete the domestic abuse program — the very condition that he was found to have violated.
On May 30, Lisa Isham was found dead in her home.
The 52-year-old had suffered numerous stab wounds, and a knife remained in her upper torso. Authorities estimated that she had been killed about two weeks before her body was discovered.
Duluth police identified Holisky as a suspect based on personal belongings found in the residence at 116 Fir Ave. Holisky was interviewed multiple times in the following weeks, offering varying stories but acknowledging that he was in a romantic relationship with Isham, according to court documents.
In late June, police were contacted by a Superior car salesman who reported that he was approached by Holisky, who “said he needed to leave town for a while and that the police had found his blood on the floor at Lisa Isham’s home,” a criminal complaint alleges.
An arrest warrant was issued in July after police said DNA testing of the murder weapon pointed to Holisky. At the time, he was once again in custody — this time in Douglas County on unrelated charges of stalking, battery, damage to property and disorderly conduct.
In an interview hours after the murder charge was announced, Vicki Holisky-Crets, the defendant’s sister, called the news of her brother’s arrest in Isham’s death “sickening.”
“I’m very disturbed,” she told the News Tribune. “It should not have happened. My brother should’ve been in jail. The system in Minnesota failed.”
Holisky recently rejected a plea offer from prosecutors. He is scheduled to go to trial on the murder charge on July 25.
The handling of Holisky’s probation violation might remain a hot topic in legal circles, but those involved in the case had little to say publicly.
Assistant St. Louis County Attorneys Kristen Swanson, who handled the probation violation hearing, and Jessica Fralich, the lead prosecutor in the murder case, declined to comment on the situation, citing Holisky’s ongoing case. Defense attorney Jeremy Downs, who has long represented Holisky, did not respond to a request for comment on Holisky’s behalf.
Florestano said he was not authorized to speak on the matter, directing questions to his supervisors. Wally Kostich, chief probation officer for Arrowhead Regional Corrections, simply said that the final decision on Holisky’s probation conditions rested with Munger.
“All I can say is we outlined our recommendations to the court, and the court did what they did,” he told the News Tribune. “That’s completely under the power and the privilege of the court to decide.”
Melissa Scaia, executive director of DAIP, said she did not know the details of Holisky’s case or why he would have been excused from completing the domestic abuse program.
One local attorney interviewed for this story pointed to flaws in the system that prevented a harsher sentence for a defendant with a troubling history.
“This guy, with his record, is still not a prison commit,” said the attorney, who practices before Munger and requested anonymity to speak candidly. “Why are so many drug dealers and users in prison, and this guy is not? How many times do you have to shoot at people and attack people before you do hard time?”
Holisky-Crets, who could not be reached for comment in recent days, expressed similar feelings last summer.
“I’m mad at every judge and every person who has come in contact with him and let him go,” she said. “I’m just really mad. I hope that, if nothing else, it will make some changes in our legal system.”
Copyright 2016 the Duluth News Tribune