SAVANNAH, Tenn. — Attorneys representing Zachary Adams, the man accused in the kidnap, rape and murder of 20-year-old Holly Bobo, had the floor all morning long, trying to show their client is innocent by pointing the finger at someone else.
The defense tried to pin convicted rapist Terry Britt as the person responsible, calling up Terry Dicus, a former criminal investigator with the TBI to talk about his focus on Britt and other suspects in the case.
The defense brought up how Britt’s alibi was never fully checked out even though he had been known in the area as “Chester the molester” and had a history of stalking and raping women.
Authorities wiretapped Britt’s phone, bugged his house for the first time in the state of Tennessee, and searched his house. The investigator said cadaver dogs alerted them to smells of human decomposition near shovels, an ax and hammer at Britt’s house.
However, Dicus did admit earlier in his testimony that had a lot of dogs being sent in and he didn’t think they were all accurate.
He also stated Britt’s voice was similar to the one Holly’s brother Clint Bobo had heard the morning she disappeared, he had cut his hair around the same time, he asked for some of his tools back, his home was at the center of where Bobo’s items were recovered, and he had just purchased a cell phone before Holly was murdered.
Speaking on Adams, Dicus said his alibi made sense and he thought based on Adams’ phone records, he couldn’t have been involved in Bobo’s disappearance.
“I’m trying to put together a puzzle. If I find five pieces that don’t fit. I’m done. If I find two pieces, I’m done. It’s not this person. You may disagree with me that that wasn’t enough but all you really have to have is one fact that says this person couldn’t have kidnapped her and you need to go do something else.”
The state has pointed out that there was a reason Britt was never arrested and how there was much more suspicious activity surrounding Adams and his friends that investigators failed to look into early on.
When asked if Adams told him he was going to the river that day, that the police had came to his house and that he was looking for a gun, Dicus replied he was not aware of those details.
“That would’ve been interesting,” he stated.
They then asked if he was aware that Adams had told Karen Bobo the man who walked into the woods with Holly Bobo was Shayne, or that Holly’s brother stated there were at least two voice recordings that were close, he also replied no.
Arthur G. Viveros, the lead FBI agent on the case in 2011, took the stand after the court broke for lunch.
He said Britt told his sister on the phone that law enforcement was going to try to pin the murder on him but later said the same thing to his wife, adding, “I don’t even know who that b**** was.”
Defense pointed out how Britt had already expressed the idea that law enforcement was listening to him before he talked about this alibi, but Viveros said he doesn’t believe Britt had any idea.
Viveros also recounted Zach Adams telling him to “get the f*** out of there” when he was interviewing his brother Dylan Adams.
David Barela, a private investigator, followed with testimony about bullets, but he later was said he’s not a ballistics expert.
Dick Adams, Zach Adams’ grandfather, told the court that if he’d noticed any suspicious behavior out of Zach, he would have reported him.
He said he never knew of Zach to have owned a revolver in 2011, nor did he own one.
He then said he saw Zach driving the day Bobo disappeared — although a family friend whom he was with, Billy Bell, later testified he didn’t remember seeing him. Bell noted Dick Adams is losing his memory with age.
Dick Adams and Bell both said Zach didn’t have access that day to the white truck, which has been testified about a lot as being the one Bobo’s body was in, because Dick hid it from Zach at Bell’s parents’ house. Bell said he would’ve noticed if it was gone.
Linda Littlejohn, a TBI crime lab expert who processed some of the evidence in the case, came up to the stand and said she processed the shoeprint DNA found in the Bobos’ carport. She matched it with Clint Bobo’s shoe, but the state pointed out Clint’s was the only shoe they tested and hundreds of people had walked through there.
Another private investigator, Amber Treat, said she drove three separate routes in Decatur County to measure for time and distance:
- The route Autry said he went with Adams to dump the body (Yellow Spring Church to the Tennessee River) took her 26 minutes
- The route back took her 32 minutes
- Tracking Holly’s telephone pings that morning took her 43 minutes
However, the state brought up she probably wasn’t driving fast as if trying to escape a crime scene.
For all of WREG’s coverage of the Holly Bobo proceedings, click here.
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Part One
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