Jason Autry

·  He spent the previous night in Henderson County Jail.

·  He was, at this time charged in this case.

·  He had been to prison three times for theft and drugs.

·  He’d known Zach Adams for 15 years and knew his father and brother. 

·  He knew Shayne Austin, as they were first cousins. 

·  He worked on a cattle farm for Michael Douglas and worked construction.

·  He lived with his girlfriend in Benton County in 2011. 

·  He states his relationship with his girlfriend was “declining,” and he had to hide his vehicle from her children. 

·  He was represented by Robert Parish and Michael Scholl, who replaced two former attorneys who lost their licenses.

·  He states he is testifying, hoping for leniency.

·  He confirms no one has coached him as to what to say, just to “tell the truth.”

·  The night before Holly’s abduction, he slept at Angela’s house. 

·  On the day of Holly’s abduction, he woke up at around 6:30 am, and Angela left for work. She dropped him off where his vehicle was parked at the Quick Mart, and he went to Camden Bottom to look at wildlife and kill some time. He wanted to “establish a connection” on morphine later that day.

·  He was using morphine, methamphetamine, and hydrocodone at the time. 

·  He states he “started a volley of exchanges” between Shayne Austin and Zach Adams at about 8 am.

·  He was trying to get a morphine pill to mix with methamphetamine. 

·  He contacted Zach Adams, who told him he was busy, and would call him back “when he got to the location.” This was after 8 am, he states around 8:40 – 8:50.

·  He states it is tough to get a signal at the river. 

·  He states he made the first call to Zach and Shayne at 8 am “when [he came] out of the river.”

·  After Zach told him he would contact him later, he went to Decatur County.

·  Zach called him later, stating he was at Shayne Austin’s home. He went there, and it took him 20-30 minutes to drive there. He also stated he needed Autry’s help. 

·  Autry believed this was because a batch of methamphetamines went wrong.

·  He states there is a gate installed at Shayne’s residence.[1]

·  He exited his vehicle at Shayne’s residence and saw a burn barrel burning. [2] Dylan was standing in the doorway, and Shayne was saying, “Y’all need to hurry up and get the goddamn hell out of here,” with a firearm holstered on his right side.

·  Zach was standing in front of a white Nissan Frontier. Jason went to buy a morphine pill from Zach. He walked back to his vehicle, and broke it in half, and began “cooking it down” and “shot it” in his vehicle. 

·  He walked back to where Zach was standing, and Zach said, “I need you to help my bury this body.”

·  He said something like, “That’s sad that y’all killed little JoJo” and Zach told him, “That’s Holly Bobo.”

·  Joe owed Zach money for some pills, and they were previously discussing killing him. 

·  Both Joe and Zach had a child with the same woman, and there was bad blood there.

o  “The body was laying in a multicolored farm-style blanket. It looked like multiple colors.” He then described how there was a body in the blanket.

·  Jason agreed to help Zach bury the body, under the condition his vehicle be left somewhere other than Shayne’s residence.[8]

·  Shayne was continuing to put items into the burn barrel (he states it smelled like methamphetamine) and Dylan never exited the trailer.

·  Shayne was saying a satellite guy was coming by and he didn’t know what time he would arrive.

·  He parked his car at a church and entered Zach’s vehicle. 

·  While driving, he told Zach he didn’t have any shovels or pickaxes in the truck.

·  Jason told him about how he saw a body floating under a bridge, being held up by its intestines.

·  They headed toward the I-40 bridge. He said the plan was to gut Holly and put her in the “slew” and the turtles would eat her.

·  They scoped out the area and backed up to a pile of “riprap” or limestone under the bridge and off to the side about 20 to 30 feet.

·  He had been to this area before, and so had Zach.

·  Jason answers several questions before Jennifer Nichols is able to fully ask them.

·  He repeats “That’s correct” several times. 

·  Photos are shown in court of the area around the I-840 bridge. They are difficult to see since they are partially blocked by the projector in the YouTube footage.

·  After backing up near the pile of riprap, Jason exited the truck and grabbed the body’s upper torso [12] with his right hand.  Zach let the tailgate down, and Zach grabbed her legs. Jason set her head on the riprap pile. Jason states there was a small amount of blood in the back of the truck and an orange-sized amount on the blanket. He states he never looked inside or unwrapped the blanket.

·  He states he then saw a foot move and heard a sound of distress.

·  He then told Zach, who was digging in a fanny pack, “This fucking bitch is still alive.” He told him that she’d heard his name.

·  Zach then turns around. Jason states that Zach then picked up a pistol from the floorboards of the pickup truck. It was the same pistol Shayne had holstered on his side earlier.

·  He said, “Whoa,” because they needed to make sure no one was looking before shooting her. He runs to ensure the coast was clear and didn’t see anything. 

·  Upon telling Zach, he said the gun went off and sounded like, “Boom,” but the gun sounded like it shot three or four times, and then he said those three or four times were an echo.

·  He states a boat was then audibly heard, and he ran to the truck and told Zach they had been seen or heard. He states that Zach grabbed the feet, and he grabbed the upper torso.

·  He states that the bloodspot on the blanket was the size of a grapefruit.

·  They put the body back in the truck, shut the tailgate, and they slowed down.

·  He stated there weren’t supposed to be firearms in a Federal Refuge.

·  Jason stands up and demonstrates for the Jury the positioning of Holly’s body in relation to where Zach was standing. 

·  He states they travel back, and Jason said he needed to get back to Benton County to meet Angela for lunch. 

·  He states that, after the gun went off, he came to his senses. 

·  On the ride back, Zach explained to him that Natalie was working at a strip club for drugs, was sleeping with Zach Adams, and had “left him with the idea” that they would have a threesome with Holly Bobo. Zach said Natalie had shown him pictures of Holly and said that Holly had been to his house before.

·  Jason states he got in his vehicle, and attempted to drive back to Benton County, before he realized he didn’t have time to make it to meet Angela for lunch, so texted her through her lunch break instead.

o  “At about two fifteen, I established contact again.”

·  Jason called Zach at 2:15 and asked if he could get another pill. Zach stated Victor Dinsmore was at Doddy’s, and Jason said they would have to be quick, since he needed to be at the Quick Mart at 3:30.

·  They met up again at Zach’s house around 2:30, and Shayne, Dylan, and Zach were there in front of Zach’s pickup.

·  He states, “the air was just thick with animosity.”

·  They all piled into Zach’s truck, and drove to Doddy’s, which he states is less than two miles away. Zach and Shayne started arguing. 

·  He states Shayne told Zach, “You didn’t have to kill her,” and Zach responded, You’re just as damn guilty. You hit it.”

·  After getting out of the car, Zach hit Shayne, and Victor Dinsmore came outside and stopped the fight with an “unidentified lady” present

·  Victor said his wife spoke to Zach the other day. Zach said he moved four rims out of their shop so he could pull his car in.

·  They bought the pill from Victor Dinsmore.

·  He states he bought the morphine from Victor Dinsmore through Zach because he had never bought anything from Victor Dinsmore directly.

·  He spoke to Zach again two days later, when Zach called him, and they agreed to meet at a Marathon Station about a mile from Zach’s residence.

·  Dylan and Zach were there when he arrived, and they took a side road and met in a wooded area a quarter mile behind the station. Jason had marijuana plants there. 

·  The Jury is removed from the courtroom. 

·  Jason states Zach walked up to Jason’s car, entered the car and leaving Dylan in the other car, and Jason handed Zach a meth pack and asked what they did with Holly.

·  He says Zach replied that they threw her out near Kennedy Bridge, and asked Jason to kill Dylan since he kept talking and wouldn’t sleep. 

·  The attorneys debate whether this information is 404b evidence, and whether it can be presented to the jury or not. The Judge rules that the information is probative, and Jason testifies to the same information in front of the Jury.

·  When he repeats the information to the Jury, he states they originally agreed to meet in the thicket, not at the Marathon station. 

·  When Jason asked what Zach wanted done regarding killing Dylan, he says that Zach told him that Dick Adams would likely pass soon, and that, if Jason killed Dylan, he’d give him some of the inheritance money and let Jason live in one of the houses. He did not agree to this and said he would need to think about it. 

·  He told Jason to let him know when he decided, and Jason said that if he killed Dylan, Zach would be next.

·  Jason then told Zach he was going to visit Shayne Austin, stopped at Doddy’s to buy beer, ran into a roadblock with Jeremy Inman who searched his vehicle, and told him there were search parties past the roadblock, so he needed to be careful if he was drinking.

·  He arrived at Shayne’s trailer, where he observed Shayne “highly inebriated,”  and Jason took Shayne “away from that situation.” He also states there was a command post set up at the church, and search parties nearby. Jason states Shayne was “frantic.”

·  Jason put Shayne in his vehicle and left the location. He states Shayne was passing out on the way. They ate at Johnny’s Bar and Grill. He was not drinking while they were in the bar. They then went to another bar after Johnny’s. He then took Shayne back home and returned to Angela’s house.

·  The next time he spoke to Zach, he called him, telling him he was “looking into” killing Dylan. 

·  A few days after, Jason and Dylan went in a boat to the Tennessee River to go bass fishing, but really to try to kill Dylan.

·  After being there an hour fishing, drinking, and smoking marijuana, while Jason was looking for a good location to kill Dylan, someone who knew Dick Adams and the owner of the boat stopped them and spoke to someone.

·  They continued fishing for the rest of the day. Dylan gets drunk, and Jason starts talking to him about Holly. After talking to Dylan about the events of that day, Jason went to where the rape allegedly occurred, Jason’s grandmother’s barn.

·  Shayne Austin and Jason Autry had the same grandmother, and this was her barn. He went to the barn to “clean up any possible evidence left behind,” but did not see any. He didn’t go in the barn, but just looked from the door. It looked normal, so he left.

·  He states he went to the barn “months” after the crime occurred. 

·  He states that, later, in August of 2012, he and Zach went to Eagle Creek in his vehicle and entered his hunting club. He stole a deer stand and Jason stole a camera.

·  They sat down on a bank, did some meth, and Jason said, “It looks like we got away with this shit,” talking about Holly Bobo.

·  Zach replied, “The real reason that we were there was to show Clint how to manufacture meth. We got there early, she [came] outside screaming and raising hell, then we took her.”

·  Jason then said they should leave since his truck was still in plain sight. They took the deer stand and camera and then left. That was the last time he spoke to Zach about Holly.

·  Zach had previously told him they dumped Holly’s body near Kelly’s Ridge, a hunting club maybe, full of backwoods. He said that, given that information, he tried to go into Kelly’s Ridge one day and noticed buzzards within a week of the disappearance. He states that, even though he drove up there, he wasn’t necessarily looking for the body. 

·  After stating this, and being questioned by Nichols, he admits he drove through there due to the information Zach gave him to “see what he could see.”

·  He states there were two ponds in the property, and he saw buzzards in a dead tree near one of the ponds. 

·  He knocked on the door of the person living on this property and asked to fish at one of the ponds. They told him no, because river otters had killed all the fish, and they didn’t want anyone on the property.

·  He then states he didn’t knock on the door – in fact, the residents didn’t even let him close to the door before they met him outside.

·  Jason states that, earlier, Zach admitted to raping Holly, stating it was a “brief encounter,” and happened while someone was mowing the yard. When Jason asked him how someone prepares themselves to rape someone with three other men, Zach said “Dylan sucked him off.”

·  Zach also stated that all three of them raped her but did not give details. 

·  He states he was present when the gun Shayne had holstered on his hip was bought by Shayne. He admits Shayne had a lot of guns.

·  He identifies the gun in court. 

·  He saw that same gun when Jason and Shayne Austin traded the gun to Victor Dinsmore for morphine.

·  Jason states he was interviewed by Karen and law enforcement but lied. 

·  After being arrested, he says he continued to lie, even during media interviews.

·  He implies his former attorneys advised him to “proclaim his innocence.”

·  He says he continued to write letters to people stating he was innocent after finding out his mail was being scanned. 

·  He states he told his lawyers he had information on the case from the get-go.

·  He states that, last fall, he was taken from a Nashville State Prison to a location under the bridge with his lawyers, law enforcement, Nichols, and many others to demonstrate what he claims happened.

·  Using a picture board, Jason demonstrates the events of the day of Holly’s abduction.

·  Jason states his grandmother had died before April the 13th but does not remember when. 

·  When asked about specific texts and phone calls, such as one he had with Angela Scott, he states, “If your records reflect that, that’s true.”

·  He remembers the outfit he was wearing that day, since he generally wore the same type of clothes every day. 

·  He is cross-examined by Jennifer Thompson about the routes he supposedly drove on that day. 

·  He states he reached Shayne’s trailer after 9 am.

·  He states he remembers the gate being open. 

·  He states the burn barrel flames were three to four feet high.

·  Jennifer Thompson has him draw out what he saw at Shayne Austin’s trailer.

·  He confirms he parked behind Zach’s truck on a curved road. 

·  When Jennifer Thompson asked him if he noticed the gun on the floorboard when he entered Zach’s vehicle, he states he did, despite not mentioning noticing the gun until Zach pulled it out of the vehicle in his direct examination.

·  Jennifer Thompson asked him to create a map and asked him many questions about the route he and Zach took. 

·  He states he saw the dead body in the early 2000s, but never reported it.

·  When Jennifer Thompson questions why he would think the turtles would eat Holly’s remains when enough of the other body was still present to be identifiable, he then states there were turtles “working it over”. 

·  He admits the” slough” water he saw was still water, and there was no current through it. 

·  Jennifer Nichols claims that, when they met with Jason Autry with no law enforcement present, they did not take notes, and therefore cannot give them to Jennifer Thompson. 

·  He repeats “As I testified,” several times. 

·  Jennifer Thompson spends three hours essentially just interviewing him about maps.

·  He states he did not suggest they gut Holly’s remains to keep her from floating. 

·  He states “what he believed be a wrapped foot” moved. 

·  When asked by Jennifer Thompson why he said they needed to kill Holly, since he said she had heard his name but was in the back of the truck, and likely she hadn’t heard his name, he did not have an answer.

·  He could not say when his name was said.

·  According to Jennifer Thompson, he was with Zach Adams at the Tennessee River the morning of April the 11th.

·  According to Jennifer Thomson, he was there again on April the 14th and April the 15th, but he states there is a bar less than a mile away. 

·   He admits he is a “prolific letter-writer.”

·  He admits that he said TBI agents almost broke two of his fingers while they were questioning him regarding this case.

·  He admits Jeff Jackson had told him that both Zach Adams and Shayne Austin had signed statements against him.

·  He essentially states he was under the assumption Dylan was going to serve as the state’s witness and help their case.

·  He states he lied when he was professing his innocence. 

·  He admits he wrote letters to Lisa Autry stating he would be out of prison by Christmas.

·  He has also told Linda he would be getting out of prison soon.

·  He states he does not know if he is currently serving a certain prison term. 

·  In December, he admits he wrote a letter to find out if “the clock was running” on his federal prison time.

·  He admits he was in Solitary Confinement while in prison. 

·  He states it was not his intention that Holly died.

o  “I never got no discovery from Fletcher Long or Josh Hutcherson.”

·  He states he had discovery in his cell for about a month that was eventually seized, leaving him with a stack of letters. 

·  He admits he has an immunity agreement from the Federal Court System. 

·  He denies that, if he testifies in a helpful manner, it would potentially diminish or obliterate his standing sentence.

·  Jenifer Nichols denies the paper signed into evidence is an Immunity Agreement. 

·  It is technically a Proffer Letter stating the State could not use any information he provides them directly against him, if the information he provided was honest. 

·  He states that, on April 13, 2011, Shayne’s vehicle was behind his residence. 

·  He states Zach Adams was wearing camouflage on April 13, 2011.

[1] Inconsistent – the gate wasn’t installed until later.

[2] This  contradicts Rita Austin's testimony that Shayne did not have a burn barrel.