Authorities in Dallas County say a North Texas truck driver with a violent history stretching back to the 1980s is facing a first-degree murder charge in the death of her supervisor, a decorated U.S. Army veteran.
Texas truck driver slays boss
Patricia Ruth Holt, 57, was booked into the Dallas County Jail after investigators allege she fatally shot 47-year-old Carl Joseph Donaldson, a Purple Heart recipient, in the head late last month.
The two worked together at Hutchins Trucking Yard, where Donaldson was Holt’s manager.
The deadly confrontation allegedly unfolded just weeks after Holt started the job , and decades after she was first accused of trying to kill someone.
⚠️ WARNING: This post contains graphic descriptions of violence.
Patricia Ruth Holt, 57, has been charged with first-degree murder for allegedly shooting & killing her boss, Carl Joseph Donaldson, 47, at a trucking yard in Hutchins, Texas. Donaldson's widow told the paper that… pic.twitter.com/QplRPBeazm
— True Crime Updates (@TrueCrimeUpdat) August 10, 2025
A Teen with a ShotgunCourt and news archives reveal Holt’s first brush with notoriety came in 1986, when she was a high school senior living in Red Hook, Brooklyn.
On September 25 of that year, an 18-year-old Holt reportedly arrived at school carrying a loaded 12-gauge shotgun, The Daily Freeman reported.
At the time, she was allegedly furious over being removed from her English class for “behavioral problems” and wanted to confront the teacher who had disciplined her. That teacher, however, was absent from class that day.
According to accounts from the era, Holt then went to the faculty lounge, where two other staff members quickly restrained her, took the weapon, and held her until police arrived. No one was hurt.
She was initially charged with felonies for attempted murder, attempted assault, and criminal trespass along with a misdemeanor weapons charge.
Prosecutors ultimately accepted her plea to attempted assault, citing her youth, and she was sentenced to five years’ probation.
Texas truck driver fought with a customer ahead of killing
After recently joining the North Texas trucking firm in June, Donaldson’s widow said problems with Holt began almost immediately.
During her very first week, she claimed, Holt was warned not to exceed the speed limit in her semi. Soon after, there were more issues with her driving.
“She just went off,” the widow recalled. “He kept calm, but she just kept screaming that she’s been driving a f–ing truck for 30 years. She stormed out of the office, slammed the door and you could still hear her yelling and screaming outside. She just couldn’t stand being told what to do.”
According to the widow’s account, the trouble started hours before the shooting, in Waco, where Holt allegedly got into a heated dispute with a customer.
Donaldson reportedly told her she needed to apologize to the customer and complete the job, or unload the trailer and leave it behind. Instead, Holt is said to have returned to Hutchins with the truck.
Once back at the trucking yard, witnesses say Holt climbed into a tractor-trailer, began circling the lot, and then steered directly toward Donaldson.
The widow said her husband, tried to calm her down by jumping onto the truck and attempting to open the cab door.
“At that time, I had my back turned and I heard a pop,” she told The Daily Freeman. “I turned around and looked and I see my husband flying through the air and falling on the ground.”
Donaldson was killed instantly, but when deputies arrived, Holt allegedly refused to surrender, instead leading officers on a low-speed pursuit until spike strips forced her vehicle to stop.
Even then, she reportedly barricaded herself inside the truck for nearly four hours.
The Dallas County Sheriff’s Office said she finally surrendered at 8:55 p.m. local time.
In interviews with investigators, Holt allegedly admitted she intended to end her own life, either by suicide or by provoking police to shoot her.
Detectives also say she revealed she had been harboring resentment toward Donaldson “for months,” despite her short tenure at the company.
“[T]hey have been f—ing with her for too long,” a deputy wrote in notes summarizing Holt’s alleged statements. Holt remains behind bars on $1 million bail.
Boss shoots employee at McDonald’s
This case is not the first instance this year of a boss-employee dispute that ended in bloodshed.
In February, police in Lawrenceville, Georgia, arrested 40-year-old Michael Allen Todd after he allegedly shot 43-year-old Donald Stewart in a McDonald’s parking lot.
According to Gwinnett County Police, Todd was Stewart’s supervisor, and the two had argued over work matters before the shooting.
Neither man was employed by McDonald’s, and the altercation was unrelated to the restaurant.
Police were called just before noon on February 19 to reports of a shooting at the McDonald’s location on Sugarloaf Parkway.
Officers found Stewart suffering from a gunshot wound; he was taken to the hospital, where he died.
Todd remained at the scene and did not resist arrest. Investigators did not release specifics about the nature of their disagreement, but said the incident was isolated.
Todd was booked into the Gwinnett County Jail without bond on multiple charges, including malice murder, felony murder, aggravated assault, and possession of a firearm during the commission of a crime.
