SAVANNAH, Tenn. (Court TV) — The man convicted of kidnapping, raping and murdering Holly Bobo returned to court on Thursday to continue a post-conviction hearing that was abruptly suspended months ago.
Zach Adams sits in court ahead of a post-conviction hearing on Aug. 14, 2025. (Court TV)
Zach Adams is one of three men who were charged in Bobo’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.
Zach’s appeal focuses on co-defendant Jason Autry, who recanted his testimony and said his guilty plea was the result of discussions with his attorney about how to avoid a life sentence in prison.
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When the hearing began in May, Autry, who had since returned to prison on unrelated charges after serving his sentence for Bobo’s murder, invoked his Fifth Amendment right not to testify at Zach’s hearing. When Judge J. Brent Bradberry ruled the video of Autry recanting the testimony was not admissible for Zach’s appeal, the hearing was suspended pending Zach’s appeal of Judge Bradberry’s decision.
The Tennessee Court of Appeals declined to hear the appeal.
Zach’s attorney, Douglas T. Bates IV, spent hours questioning Assistant U.S. Attorney Beth Boswell, who served in a dual role for both federal and state jurisdictions. Bates focused much of his questioning on the investigation into another suspect in the case: Terry Britt. Britt was a convicted sex offender who lived down the road, but Boswell maintained there was no evidence tying him to the case.
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Members of Zach’s previous legal team have also been called to testify about the “adversarial” conditions in court, with one attorney recalling that the two lead attorneys were not on speaking terms. The attorney also recalled a moment when football announcers were audible in the courtroom, and the judge immediately began scrambling with an iPad in front of him, implying he was watching sports during the trial.
Former Tennessee Bureau of Investigation (TBI) Special Agent Terry Dicus, who was ousted from his lead role in the Bobo investigation, testified that there were growing rifts between investigators who couldn’t agree on which suspects were viable in the case. Another TBI agent testified as the court heard an audio recording where the Bobo family investigator pressured Victor Dinsmore to confess to her murder.
The hearing was recessed after two days of testimony. It is scheduled to resume in November 2025.
