Tennessee judge denies attempt for a new trial in Holly Bobo killing

MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) — A judge has denied a petition for a new trial in the kidnapping and killing of a Tennessee nursing student, knocking down an attempt by a key witness to recant his testimony that helped lead to a man’s conviction in 2017.

Hardin County Circuit Judge J. Brent Bradberry granted a state motion to dismiss a petition for a new trial for Zachary Adams, who was convicted of raping and killing Holly Bobo after kidnapping her from her West Tennessee home in 2011. The body of Bobo, 20, was found more than three years later, ending a massive search by authorities and her family.

Adams and two other men were charged with her kidnapping, rape and killing. But the only trial in the case was for Adams, who was convicted in 2017 on all charges and sentenced to life in prison plus 50 years.

The Tennessee Court of Appeals upheld Adams’ conviction in 2022. But a sparsely used legal filing emerged this past January, when Adams asked for a new trial based on statements made by Jason Autry, a key trial witness who said he was recanting the testimony that helped a jury convict his friend.

Bradberry ruled Sept. 10 that the witness, Jason Autry, failed to provide an alibi for Adams or evidence of guilt of another person in the case.

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“Mr. Autry’s new statements do not leave this Court without serious or substantial doubt that Mr. Adams is actually innocent,” the judge wrote in his ruling.

During the intense, emotional trial, Autry spoke in a calm, deliberative manner as an attentive trial jury listened to him describe the day Bobo was kidnapped, raped, wrapped in a blanket, placed in the back of a pickup truck, driven to a river and killed.

Autry told the jury he served as a lookout as Adams shot Bobo under a bridge near a river.

“It sounded like, boom, boom, boom, underneath that bridge. It was just one shot but it echoed,” Autry testified. “Birds went everywhere, all up under that bridge. Then just dead silence for just a second.”

Investigators found no DNA evidence connecting Adams to Bobo. Instead, they relied on testimony from friends and jail inmates, who said Adams spoke of harming Bobo after she died. The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation said the investigation was the most exhaustive and expensive in the agency’s history. Witnesses painted a disturbing picture of drug life in rural West Tennessee and the trial featured high emotions: Bobo’s mother Karen collapsed on the witness stand.

Autry also was charged with kidnapping, rape and murder, but he received leniency for his testimony, which was praised by the trial judge as highly credible. Autry pleaded guilty to lesser charges, and he was sentenced to eight years in prison. He was released in 2020, but he was arrested about two months later and charged with federal weapons violations. In June, Autry was sentenced to 19 years in federal prison in the weapons case.

Adams’ brother, John Dylan Adams, also pleaded guilty to charges in the Bobo killing and was sentenced to 35 years in prison.

The petition for a new trial filed by Zachary Adams said Autry is now taking back his testimony, claiming he made up the story to avoid spending life in prison. For the petition to be successful, Adams must prove that he is presenting new evidence.

The petition said Autry met with a forensic neuropsychologist in December and admitted that he made the story up after his lawyer told him before the 2017 trial that he was “95% certain of a conviction” of charges in the Bobo case.

Autry claimed he concocted the entire story in his jail cell before the trial while reviewing discovery evidence. Autry used extensive cellphone data to create a story, the petition says.