O’Fallon teen told police he killed girlfriend. Later said she stabbed herself
The O’Fallon teenager charged with murder in the stabbing death of his girlfriend told responding police officers “I killed her” but later told police that she stabbed herself.
Julian G. Holloway’s contradictory statements were revealed Thursday during a detention hearing in which the 18-year-old was remanded to the St. Clair County Jail until his trial on his charge of murder/intent to kill/injure.
Cadence Eileen Prince, 17, also of O’Fallon, was found stabbed to death Sunday night in a car in the Goshen Trailhead parking lot at 308 Kyle Road. Prince, a junior at O’Fallon Township High School, suffered stab wounds to her neck and chest and died at St. Elizabeth’s Hospital in O’Fallon.
Holloway wrote in his journal that “(Cadence) is mine forever even in death,” according to St. Clair County Assistant State’s Attorney Martin Plute. In a previous entry, he said that killing his mother would “make my life easier.”
Plute said Holloway considered Prince his “wife.”
The call to police was made by Holloway’s grandfather with whom he lived, Patrick Holloway, who reported that his grandson told him he stabbed his girlfriend, Plute said during the hearing.
“I killed her, let the old man go,” Julian Holloway told the officers, referring to his grandfather, according to Plute.
Plute told St. Clair County Associate Judge Sara L. Rice that Holloway’s comments were recorded on a police body camera.
He said the two teens had been arguing in the parking lot.
“When Cadence said she wanted to go, she (meant) she wanted to kill herself,” said Belleville attorney Cheryl R. Whitley, who is representing Holloway.
In response, Plute told Rice: “This is not a suicide. This was a calculated murder.”
Holloway told police at the scene that he killed Prince, but later said Prince stabbed herself and that he did not remember cutting her throat, Plute said. A knife with blood on it was recovered from the scene.
Whitley told Rice this was a “very unfortunate” case and the defense will show that Prince “attempted to take her own life.”
Whitley also asked Rice to allow Holloway to be released on electronic monitoring.
Members of both Prince’s family and Holloway’s family attended the hearing.
Holloway quietly sat next to Whitley.
Rice said this was one of the “most tragic” cases she has presided over since the state began conducting detention hearings nearly two years ago.
Her order notes that Holloway’s “detention is necessary to avoid the real and present threat/danger” to the public.
She remanded his case to the county grand jury.
Illinois judges have been conducting detention hearings since September 2023 for people charged with serious offenses. If a judge considers a person dangerous to the community, the person can be remanded to the county jail until their trial, according to the revamped criminal justice system that eliminated cash bail as part of the Safety, Accountability, Fairness and Equity-Today, or SAFE-T, Act.
This story was originally published May 22, 2025 at 5:39 PM.
