Nicholas Holbert of Fayetteville was sentenced to life in prison without benefit of parole Friday afternoon for the murder of 23-year-old Army Spc. Kelli Bordeaux in 2012.
Holbert pleaded guilty to first-degree murder and first-degree kidnapping, admitting that he beat Bordeaux to death after they left together from the former Froggy Bottoms bar on Ramsey Street in the early morning of April 12, 2012. Bordeaux's body was found two years later in woods off River Road, near Eastover and the Outer Loop.
"The only way he needs to leave the Department of Correction is in a pine box," District Attorney Billy West said during the emotionally-charged sentencing hearing in Cumberland County Superior Court.
Holbert, 28, apologized to Bordeaux's mother and her two surviving children, saying he was "truly sorry" and that "hopefully one day you can find it in your heart to forgive me."
That's never likely to happen.
Bordeaux's mother, Johnna Henson, angrily spoke to Holbert from the witness stand, at one point demanding that he look at her.
Henson, who lives in Florida, described Bordeaux as "my shooting star."
"She was a determined, beautiful, young lady who had everything going for her in her life," Henson said.
She said her daughter didn't judge people but she wishes she had so she would have known "what kind of demon you are, Mr. Holbert." Looking straight at the man who killed her daughter, Henson said he beat her with "your fists, with rocks, and then buried her in the woods like a dog."
"You took my baby girl for nothing and you want to say sorry?" Henson said. "Twenty-five months went by to say sorry.
"...I don't have anything else to say except you can go to hell."
Before Judge Jim Ammons sentenced Holbert, West summed up the details of the case:
Bordeaux had become estranged from her husband on April 7, 2012, and began seeing another man.
At some point, she met Holbert, who did odd jobs for the Froggy Bottoms bar and lived in the woods behind it in a makeshift camp.
About 8 p.m. on the night she disappeared, Holbert picked up Bordeaux at her home in Meadowbrook at King's Grant Apartments and took her to the bar, a short drive away.
They played pool together and she sang karaoke. At some point, Bordeaux learned that Holbert was a registered sex offender.
At 12:46 p.m., she sent what seemed like an anxious text message to the man she had recently been dating saying Holbert was going to take her home. While walking to the car, Bordeaux made a derogatory comment about Holbert's sex offense and he struck her in the face, knocking her out.
Holbert put Bordeaux in his car and drove to his campsite, where Bordeaux awoke screaming. Holbert hit her until she died, drove to a convenience store for gas and then buried her body in a shallow grave in woods off River Road.
Several organized searches never found her.
Not having enough evidence to charge him with murder, police arrested Holbert for violating the sex offender registry. He was convicted and put in prison until May 2013.
Sometime that year, David Marshburn, a private investigator from Smithfield, had befriended Holbert and given him odd jobs while secretly working with police to get Holbert to confess.
Months later, Holbert broke down and led Marshburn to the area where he had buried Bordeaux. Her body was exhumed in May 2014.
During the hearing, Ammons asked Holbert when he had last drunk alcohol or used illegal drugs. Holbert replied he used cocaine on May 13, the day before Bordeaux's body was found.
No family members appeared in the courtroom on behalf of Holbert, who dropped out of Pine Forest High School in the ninth grade, after being charged with indecent liberties with a minor at age 16. His mother lives near Spring Lake, and he has never had a connection to his father, Smith said.
At one point during the hearing, Bordeaux's brother, Matt Henson, shouted at Holbert. Henson left the courtroom in tears after Ammons ordered him out. He returned later, saying he was glad he was ordered to leave because he was so sickened by Holbert that he may have assaulted him.
Bordeaux, an Army health service specialist, was assigned to the 601st Area Support Medical Company, 261st Multifunctional Medical Battalion, 44th Medical Brigade.
Blonde and petite, Bordeaux joined the Army in April 2011 and was assigned to Fort Bragg in November of that year. Bordeaux grew up in St. Cloud, Florida, the youngest of Johnna Henson's three children.
An estimated 300 people attended her memorial service in May of last year.
Among them sat Marshburn, the private investigator who cajoled a confession out of Holbert, led investigators to Bordeaux's body and helped bring the case to a close.
But closure may never come for Bordeaux's family.
"Everybody thinks it's closure, but it's not," said Olivia Cox, Bordeaux's sister. "Him going to jail for the rest of his life won't bring her back."
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