Houston man pleads guilty in 2020 death of wife found in freezer

A Houston man pleaded guilty Monday to the 2020 murder of his wife, Chi Le, whose body was found in a freezer, earning him a 10-year prison sentence.

Curtis Holliday, 62, was charged with murder after an autopsy attributed his wife’s death, during the time of Harris County’s pandemic-related stay-at-home orders, to homicidal violence. Le, 29, was found dead at the couple’s home in the business park after she was linked to a domestic violence case and her family members lost contact with her.

Wearing a suit, Holliday told the Chronicle as he entered the courtroom that he planned to sign a plea deal for 10 years in prison rather than begin jury selection for his trial scheduled for this week.

A visiting judge at the 178th District Court called his plea “a good decision” because a jury could have sent him to prison much longer if it had found him guilty. He gave him credit for time already served in the Harris County Jail.

“I’ve been doing this for 28 years,” Judge Jim Wallace said. “You never know what a jury is going to do.”

One of Holliday’s defense attorneys, Dick DeGuerin, said he was prepared to argue at trial that Le killed herself.

“We decided to take the certainty of an outcome over the risk of a life sentence,” DeGuerin said.

Holliday, who remains free on bond, is expected to return to court in July for sentencing.

Holliday was out on bail for a pending charge of continuous violence against a family member involving Le at the time of his death in April 2020. In that case, Le called a police officer’s deputy to get helps her and accused Holliday of beating her and kicking her out of their home, according to court records.

She quickly stopped communicating with friends and family in Houston and Vietnam. Relatives reported to police a Facebook post on Le’s page that warned that if she disappeared, her husband would likely kill her, according to search warrants. In May, a Harris County Sheriff’s Office deputy went to Holliday’s business in northwest Harris County, where he also lived with Le and their child, and discovered his body wrapped in cotton. plastic in a freezer.

He was charged with murder in July.