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WANDA Holloway is a Texan mom who tried to have a fellow school mom murdered in the early 1990s.
Her crime, which was motivated by her daughter losing out on joining the cheer squad, will be examined in the Texas Cheerleader Murder Plot series.
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Wanda’s murder scheme
In 1991, Wanda’s daughter Shanna failed to land a spot on her junior high school cheer squad.
Instead her spot went to Verna Heath’s 14-year-old daughter.
Upon learning that her daughter did not make the squad, Wanda turned to her ex-husband’s brother, Terry Harper.
According to Terry, Wanda intended to hire a hitman.
He said that she wanted to murder Verna, the mother of the girl who had beaten Shanna in the race for the spot on the cheer team.
Wanda allegedly hoped that murdering Verna would force her daughter to drop out of the squad, allowing Shanna to take her spot.
However, her plans were thwarted when Terry told the police about the sinister scheme.
Tense first trial
During the reporting of the trial, Wanda became known as the Pom-Pom Mom.
Her lawyer, Troy McKinney, argued that Wanda’s ex-husband was attempting to frame her.
He suggested that the scheme had been hatched in response to the ex-couple’s bitter custody battle, following their divorce in 1980.
Maria LaRue Harper, Terry’s estranged wife, claimed that her husband had beaten her in order to prevent her revealing that he planned to get Wanda to “say things”.
She was convicted of solicitation of capital murder and given a 15-year prison sentence.
However, the sentence was overturned when a mistrial was declared due to one of the jurors being on probation for a drug-related felony.
Holloway is put behind bars
In her second trial, her new lawyer, Jack Zimmerman, successfully secured a plea deal for Holloway.
Wanda was sentenced to ten years in prison, but ended up serving just six months behind bars.
She spent the next nine-and-a-half years on probation and was forced to complete 1,000 hours of community service.
Shanna’s mom was also forced to pay a total of $150,000 to the victims of her crime.
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The Texas Cheerleader Murder Plot
The shocking crime is examined in the documentary series The Texas Cheerleader Murder Plot.
The two-part show aired on Investigation Discovery on Wednesday December 18, 2024.
UK fans will have to wait until the series debuts on Amazon Prime at a later date.
Wanda’s daughter, Shanna, speaks out in the documentary as she reveals how she coped with her mother’s actions.
Alongside the documentary, Shanna launched a website named Smile More, Worry Less inspired by her own battle with depression.
She recalls being “humiliated” by her mother’s crime , but insists that the idea of her mother being “evil” is a “misconception”.
Instead, she says that her mom is “human” and has “good days and bad days” like any other person.
Shanna added that her mother has a “personality that draws you in” and still believes that her ex-husband framed her for the crime.
