Samuel Branch IV recalled how he leaned over and gave his mother’s lifeless body a kiss at her funeral, and then prayed.
“I prayed that in heaven she would hear me and know that I was trying to do my best,” Branch, 20, said in a Ramsey County courtroom Thursday in a quiet voice.
He spoke during Ivan Walker’s sentencing hearing. Walker strangled Shana Hollins in her St. Paul home last July.
Per the terms of a plea deal, Ramsey County District Judge Timothy Mulrooney sentenced Walker to 30 years in prison on two criminal counts.
After murdering Hollins, Walker raped a 16-year-old relative visiting from out of town, telling the girl he would kill her, too, if she didn’t keep quiet.
Branch described some of how his life has changed since that day.
Once known for his expressiveness, Branch said the death of his mother has left him “without words.”
“I woke up to a situation I could never be prepared for and I can never wake up from,” he said.
Hollins’ mother and sister also spoke at the hearing.
Krystal Hollins wailed as she addressed the court. Her sister was her “life partner,” and “opposite,” she said.
Krystal was tall, Shana short; Krystal was book-smart, Shana street-smart; Krystal was the planner, Shanna the doer.
“She was strong where I’m weak,” Krystal Hollins continued.
“She did her part to move us forward as a family. She made us whole. Now we’re broken.”
Police found Shana Hollins in her East Side townhome in the 1500 block of Jessamine Lane about 7 a.m. July 23 after a young man reported that his mother’s boyfriend may have killed her.
The mother of three was lying in an upstairs bedroom with a straw containing cocaine residue in her nose.
Also at the scene, officers encountered Hollins’ 16-year-old relative crying and shaking.
The teen said Walker dragged, choked and punched her before raping her twice. He told the girl he had killed Hollins, and that he planned to make it look like an overdose by placing the straw in her nose. He threatened to do the same to her if she spoke up.
“He erased a loving mother, a loving daughter, a loving sister,” Assistant Ramsey County Attorney Hassan Tahir said during the hearing.
Walker, who pleaded guilty to the crimes in February, wore an orange jumpsuit and stood next to his attorney during the remarks.
He briefly apologized when Mulrooney asked him if there was anything he wanted to say.
“I want to say I’m sorry to the family,” he said.