Bolin gets death sentence for third time in 1986 murder

For the third time, Oscar Ray Bolin was sentenced to death for the 1986 murder of Stephanie Collins.

Hillsborough Circuit judge Barbara Fleischer issued Bolin's death sentence Friday morning. Bolin was convicted last year of first-degree murder. It was the third time he was convicted for killing the 17-year-old Collins.

He also has been convicted three times each for the 1986 deaths of Teri Lynn Matthews and Natalie Blanche Holley. Six of the convictions and death sentences were vacated on appeal. Three years ago, the Florida Supreme Court upheld Bolin's death sentence for murdering Matthews in Pasco County. In 2005, a judge sentenced him to life in prison after his second-degree murder conviction in Holley's case.

The cases had united the mothers of the victims, who frequently attended the trials sitting side by side.

On Friday, however, Donna Witmer, the mother of Stephanie Collins, was absent.