A Tennessee judge upheld Zach Adams’ murder conviction in the death of nursing student Holly Bobo after his latest appeal for a new trial was denied. Three men were charged with the kidnapping, rape, and murder of the victim, but Zach Adams was the only one to go to trial in 2017 and was found guilty of all charges and sentenced to life without parole.
Murder of Holly Bobo
Holly Bobby was 20 years old at the time of her death. She disappeared from her family home in Darden, Tennessee, on April 13, 2011. The last person to see her alive was her brother, Clint, who said she walked into the woods outside their home just before 8 a.m. with a man in camouflage.
Bobo’s body was not found until three years later in September 2014 in a wooded area off Interstate 40, and only then were part of her remains recovered. Her death was instantly ruled a homicide due to the gunshot wound to the back of her head.
Confessions Lead to Charges
A total of six men were arrested on various charges for their involvement in Bobo’s murder. However, only three of them were prosecuted, while two of the men’s charges were dropped, and the other committed suicide before charges were filed against him.
Most of the arrests stemmed from a confession by John Dylan Adams, a man with intellectual disabilities, who accepted a plea deal in the case. He told investigators that he witnessed his brother Zach and friend Jason Autry with Bobo at his home after her kidnapping. The three of them were charged with aggravated kidnapping, first-degree murder, and rape.
Autry also pleaded guilty and testified at Zach’s trial, but years after his friend’s conviction, he recanted his testimony, saying he made the entire story up after reviewing the evidence and speaking with his attorneys “about the best way to avoid spending the rest of his life in prison,” Zach Adams’ defense claimed.
Post-Conviction Relief
Autry did not testify at Zach’s months-long post-conviction relief hearing after asserting his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination. However, Zach took the stand at his hearing, despite not testifying at his own trial, and claimed he was a heavy drug user with a bad reputation, but denied any involvement in Bobo’s death.
Zach claimed he had an alibi that investigators did not properly document. If they had, they would have found him at an ATM at the supposed time Bobo was attacked.
Motion For New Trial
In Zach Adams’ motion for a new trial, he claimed his attorney at the time, Jennifer Thompson, was ineffective. Thompson admitted in a 2025 hearing in Zach’s request for a new trial that she was overwhelmed in preparing the case. “I was the only one doing the trial,” she said.
“I was barely able to cross-examine witnesses. And it’s not because I wasn’t trying or wasn’t a good attorney; it was because of the situation that I was plopped down into, and with the judge being so rough on me and the state being so ugly to me, it just made it impossible for me to be my normal, zealous self.”
Motion Denied
Judge J. Brent Bradberry was the reviewing judge in Zach Adams’ request for a new trial, and denied it, saying he found the defendant’s claims of an alternative suspect were not supported and that the defense failed their duty of care by not citing specific deficiencies or transcripts, as required by the Tennessee statute.
“We are pleased with the Court’s decision in this matter,” Director David Rausch of the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation said in a statement.
“Over the years, our team devoted countless hours to investigate this case in the pursuit of justice for Holly and those who loved her, and this ruling affirms the jury’s verdict was just and fair under the rule of law. We continue to stand with Holly’s family and friends and hope this newest development brings a further measure of closure.”
