November 12, 2025
PRESS RELEASE
(Santa Rosa County, Florida) On November 07, 2025, Jeffrey Leon Holley was found guilty of Kidnapping and sentenced to life in state prison by Circuit Judge Edward P. Nickinson.
Throughout the night of April 26, 2024 and into the morning of April 27, 2024, Holley terrorized the victim with threats of bodily harm while binding her wrists and ankles with duct tape. The victim attempted to escape the residence and was dragged into her garage by Holley. Holley tightly wrapped her wrists, ankles, and mouth with duct tape, and tied her arms and legs together with rope, threatening to set her on fire if she screamed for help. Concerned neighbors called the Santa Rosa County Sheriff’s Office after noticing strange behavior by Holley at the victim’s residence. The victim was able to make enough noise for deputies with the Santa Rosa County Sheriff’s Office to hear her. Making entry into the residence, deputies found her in the garage. Holley had fled the scene just prior to the arrival of law enforcement and was later located by deputies hiding in the tree line on Spencer Field in Pace.
After a finding by the jury that Holley had committed this offense within three years of being released from state prison, Judge Nickinson sentenced Holley to a mandatory sentence of life in state prison.
The arrest and investigation were conducted by the Santa Rosa County Sheriff’s Office. Assistant State Attorney Hayden Hudson prosecuted the case on behalf of Ginger Bowden Madden, State Attorney for the First Judicial Circuit of Florida. For more information, please contact Mr. Hudson at (850) 981-5500.
