SAVANNAH, Tenn. (Court TV) — A Tennessee man seeking to overturn his murder conviction is expected to testify on the eighth day of a long-running evidentiary hearing.
On Wednesday, the seventh day of proceedings dug back into how Zach Adams’ 2017 trial story was built, with testimony from a retired Memphis police officer who conducted his own private investigation, a Shelby County prosecutor from the trial team and a former TBI agent who worked the investigation into Holly Bobo’s murder for years.
Zachary Adams appears in court during a post-conviction relief hearing on Nov. 19, 2025. (Court TV)
Zach is one of three men who were charged in Holly’s 2011 murder, but the only one who went to trial. His brother, Dylan Adams, and Jason Autry accepted plea agreements in the case. Zach is asking a judge to overturn his conviction and order a new trial.
Retired Memphis police officer Dennis Benjamin testified that he came onto the case in 2013 after a call from Holly’s mother, Karen Bobo, and that, at that point, his understanding of the investigation was that “it was a mess.”
The court heard a February 2014 recording when Benjamin visited trial witness Victor Dinsmore at his Indiana home. In the recording, Dinsmore initially says he doesn’t know anything that can help, denying any knowledge of Holly’s murder. Benjamin soon tells Dinsmore there are eight charges hanging over him, raising the specter of three charges carrying the chance of the death penalty. “If you can’t give me Holly’s body, you’re f***ed,” Benjamin is heard telling Dinsmore.
As the conversation continues, the same recording captures Benjamin asking Dinsmore who the “weak link” among the three is. Dinsmore called Dylan the “weak link,” a “punching bag” who is “super weak” and “fragile,” and said Zach was “laying low” because he knew people were talking about him.
Benjamin told the court he viewed his approach as “fishing” and “blowing smoke” at times, claiming he was out “thousands of dollars” on the case. When asked if he received any compensation, Benjamin initially said no, then quickly clarified that he had reimbursed some expenses, but his “wife handled all that.”
When defense attorney Douglas Bates moved into questions about how Dylan ended up living in Benjamin’s home after a federal gun case, Judge J. Brent Bradberry cleared the courtroom, citing a “prior court’s sealing order.” When the hearing reopened to the public, Benjamin’s appearance had concluded.
Shelby County Assistant District Attorney Paul Hagerman, who helped prosecute the 2017 trial under lead special prosecutor and now-Judge Jennifer Nichols, took the stand after Benjamin. When asked whether Dylan’s account can be squared with later cell-tower mapping of phones linked to the men on the morning of April 13, 2011, Hagerman said he wasn’t sure he could reconcile it, but added that he always viewed Dylan’s statements’ investigative weight as “piecemeal” and “staccato,” suspecting Dylan was providing spotty and incomplete information.
Hagerman said the prosecution relied on Autry to supply the only detailed account of the killing at trial, testifying that without his cooperation “the case against Mr. Autry himself was extremely limited” and calling his testimony “critical” to explaining the state’s theory. He agreed Autry ultimately received a substantially reduced sentence years after testifying against Adams, but firmly denied any unspoken plea agreement, insisting he only offered a standard “express understanding” that truthful cooperation would be considered at sentencing, even though the formal plea paperwork did not arrive until long after Zach and Dylan’s convictions.
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When Bates pressed Hagerman on whether the delay and the way Autry was held amounted to “gamesmanship,” Hagerman said he did not view it that way and testified that prosecutors were trying to be “fair” to Autry while also maintaining a desire to keep him in custody “for as long as, sort of, was fair.” Autry was arrested on weapons charges shortly after his release from custody in September 2020, receiving a nearly 20-year federal sentence that was upheld by a federal appeals court in August.
Bates also questioned Hagerman about a bank ATM video from Parsons, Tennessee, which is now at the center of Zach’s new evidence claims. The clip, timestamped at about 11:12 a.m. on April 13, 2011, appears to show a Chevrolet Silverado, consistent with Dylan’s truck, making a transaction; crucially, this occurred during a window Autry placed at the Tennessee River in his trial testimony. Hagerman said he reviewed a large volume of surveillance footage while preparing for trial and “probably” saw that clip at the time, but has no clear memory now of that specific video or how it was labeled in the state’s digital files.
Former TBI Special Agent Valerie Trout, who worked on the Bobo investigation until she was terminated from the bureau in 2016, closed out Wednesday’s testimony. She testified that early work included wiretaps and close monitoring of convicted sex offender Terry Britt and that there was a period when Britt was treated as a serious possible suspect.
Trout said the tone in the Jackson office changed after supervisor John Mehr left and Jack Van Hooser took over, describing Van Hooser as “hostile” and “adversarial” toward the Bobo family and recalling internal talk that some in leadership were considering dropping the case because “Jack couldn’t control Karen [Bobo] and it had gotten ugly.”
Trout said that pushed her to go back through investigative reports and refocus on Zach, Dylan and Shayne Austin, who died by suicide in 2015 before he could be tried. Trout said she believed “the case was there…it just needed to be put together.”
Holly Lynn Bobo was an American woman who disappeared on April 13, 2011, from her family home in Darden, Tennessee. Zachary Adams was convicted in 2017 of kidnapping, raping and killing Bobo and sentenced to life in prison plus 50 years. (Tennessee Bureau of Investigation)
Trout said she was surprised when she first learned Benjamin had become involved in the investigation. She recalled seeing him once in a TBI conference room as Van Hooser, with a checkbook, discussed reimbursement for Benjamin’s out-of-pocket expenses. Trout told the court she and another agent wondered why a private citizen was in that role when they had worked the case for years, and “there’s someone sitting here getting paid, and we have no idea.”
Zach’s attorney played a portion of Trout’s recorded interview with Zach’s then-girlfriend, Rebecca Earp, who later testified at trial. In the clip, Trout tells Earp, “We’re about to charge a lot that has not been charged already,” and says, “I’ve been sent here by supervisors who don’t think you’ve been entirely honest,” before pressing her on where she was the night before Holly disappeared.
Trout said she had concerns about how some colleagues handled parts of the case, including now-retired TBI Agent Brent Booth, who Trout said could be “sloppy” and did not always document interviews as carefully as he should.
Just before adjournment, Bradberry overruled an objection and allowed Zach’s attorney to ask Trout about her view of Booth’s truthfulness at this time.
“He was fearful of losing his job, and that would sway whatever he said,” Trout replied.
This story was reported by John Cowley IV and converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.
