POSTED: 2:40 pm EDT
LINCOLN, Neb. –– Kevin Holder’s rap sheet is 43 pages long, dating back to 1980, and he just got another entry, his 226th arrest.
Police in Lincoln, Neb., said they caught Holder, 41, Sunday morning after a brief chase and found burglar tools in his possession. Police said he had been breaking into vehicles.
His list of charges includes theft, trespassing, assault, resisting arrest, violation of protection order, criminal mischief, assault on an officer, possession of drug paraphernalia and child abuse. Many of Holder’s offenses are misdemeanors for which he paid fines and was released. But he also has been sentenced to at least three prison terms for felonies. He spent 18 months in prison beginning in 1990, four years in 1996 and another year in 2002.
“He’s very well known to Lincoln police officers. He’s a prolific career criminal,” said Lincoln Police Chief Tom Casady.
He’s now charged with possession of burglar tools, and another felony conviction could send him to prison for up to 60 years.
“He had burglar tools in his possession; he had goods taken out of four different cars,” Casady said.
“Your average Nebraskan thinks after a prisoner has committed a certain number of crimes (he) will be put away for a long period of time. That doesn’t happen,” Casady said.
Even with Holder’s 226 arrests, Casady said, he doesn’t crack the top 10 habitual criminal list. Casady said there are a number of people that have over 500 arrests. A number of people in Lincoln have more than 500 arrests apiece. And that’s in a city of fewer than a quarter–million people. The record is 652 arrests, held by a man who died in 2004.
A habitual criminal law in Nebraska states that if someone spends a year in prison on each of two prior felonies and is found guilty on a third felony, a judge has to sentence him or her to 10 to 65 years if the prosecutor seeks it. It does not apply to misdemeanors.