A former Arivaca resident was sentenced to three years probation Monday for dumping his girlfriend’s former boyfriend down a mine shaft after she shot him to death with an AK-47.
Tommie Joe Holliday, 54, pleaded guilty to attempted concealment or abandonment of a human body in the November 2005 death of Bobby Lee Gatlin, 46.
As a result of his plea agreement, Holliday could have been sentenced to a maximum of two years in prison, but Pima County Superior Court Judge Hector Campoy opted to place him on probation.
Pima County Sheriff's deputies began hearing rumors in October 2006 that Gatlin had been murdered in November 2005 and thrown down a mine shaft, according to court documents.
On June 1, 2007, detectives found Gatlin’s body 15 feet underground wrapped up in a tarp, blankets and a sleeping bag. An autopsy showed he’d been shot several times.
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Stephanie Lynn Bartlett, 41, Holliday and Stacey Leigh Sharp, were arrested when Bartlett and Sharp made incriminating statements.
Court documents indicate Bartlett was involved in an on-again, off-again relationship with Gatlin. For several years, they had been living in makeshift camps outside Arivaca with Bartlett’s three teenaged sons and other homeless people.
Bartlett told authorities she killed Gatlin after he came after her with an ax and threatened to kill her and her children.
Holliday and Sharp, who is Bartlett’s sister, helped dump Gatlin’s body in the mine shaft the following day.
Bartlett was sentenced to five years’ probation and 365 days in jail in February after pleading guilty to manslaughter. She was given 248 days credit for the time she’d already served.
On Monday, Campoy told Holliday he is not to have contact with Bartlett once she is released without first getting permission from his probation officers.
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