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Testimony Gets 11 Years Shaved Off Sentence27 July 2000BILOXI, MISSISSIPPI – July 27, 2000 – As reported by the Sun Herald: "When he was released from federal prison this week, Mike Gillich Jr. returned to a Biloxi different from the city he left in 1991, when he was convicted for his role in the murder of Circuit Court Judge Vincent Sherry. "Gillich was originally sentenced to 20 years in prison for conspiring to have Sherry murdered. But a federal judge shaved 11 years off his sentence after he testified in 1997 for the prosecution in a second Sherry trial. "His testimony helped secure the convictions of former Biloxi Mayor Pete Halat and three other people. "…The terms of Gillich's release will limit the man who made a living off nightlife. For five years, Gillich will be under supervised release. The federal judge who sentenced him, Charles W. Pickering Sr., told him not to go to "girlie clubs,'' casinos and nightclubs. He's supposed to be home by 10 each night. "…Gillich implicated Halat in the 1987 murders of Vincent Sherry and his wife, Margaret, a former Biloxi city councilwoman. Gillich's testimony in the 1997 trial was a complete turnaround from his testimony in the 1991 Sherry murder conspiracy trial. "…In 1997, Halat was sentenced to 18 years in prison. Gillich's testimony also helped convict the hitman, Thomas Holcomb of Texas. Louisiana inmate Kirksey McCord Nix Jr., who hatched the murder plot, was convicted of various crimes during both trials. Nix had been a client of Halat. Both Holcomb and Nix are serving life sentences..." |