In what was an unusual scenario, retired Criminal Court Judge Rebecca Stern video called into court via Skype to uphold the conviction of Adolphus Hollingsworth, who was found guilty of the second-degree murder of his wife, Victoria Hollingsworth. She was killed more than 17 years ago.
Mrs. Hollingsworth disappeared in August 1997 amid ongoing domestic troubles with her husband, but her body was found in May 1999, having been stabbed to death and buried under tires and plastic on Billy Goat Hill in East Chattanooga.
Hollingsworth and his attorney, Bill Speek, came before the court to request another trial based on 20 issues they had with the original case.
Judge Stern overruled all of these, but the primary sticking point was that the prosecution had only 15 years, from the statute of limitations, after the body was found to indict the defendant for second-degree murder.
Attorney Speek said the prosecution did originally fall within that time frame since the state indicted Hollingsworth in January of 2014, but he argued that a later amendment that was approved by the court was made without the defendant’s consent and so prosecution was violating his rights under the statute of limitations.
Since the defendant was originally picked up in Alabama for the crime, the prosecution labeled his case with attempted evasion, but later changed that to account for the apparent efforts he made at concealing the body.
Judge Stern, who retired to a condo in Puerto Rico, overruled this motion and rejected the request for a second trial.
At the close of the court session, she panned over to her cat Earl on her bed and to her view of the ocean. She said of the view, "That's why I'm not in Chattanooga."
During the original trial, at which point a sequestered jury found Hollingsworth guilty, prosecutor Lance Pope said during the closing statements of the Hollingsworth murder trial, "This was not a mugging or some sort of robbery gone awry...This is not some random act of violence."
Instead, he told the jury, the person who murdered Victoria Carr Hollingsworth was her estranged husband with a history of domestic violence.
He also noted that there was no forced entry into either her home or the defendant's and that Hollingsworth bought a vehicle on the day the victim disappeared in 1997.
Her son previously testified that he once saw Hollingsworth, angry, pouring gasoline on his mother's face.
On the last day that Ms. Hollingsworth's boss saw her, Jan Prewitt said the victim told her she wanted to end her relationship with the defendant. However, she said she was still helping him out by driving him to work each morning because he did not have a vehicle.
Mr. Pope said, "She's trying to call it off and he doesn't like it. If he can't have her, no one will."
It was on that Monday morning when she left to take Hollingsworth to work that she disappeared. She drove her mustang to his house before her two children woke up.
Hollingsworth later returned her car to her home.
No blood or DNA was found inside the car, but there was a strong scent of gasoline. Part of a shrub from Hollingsworth's yard was also found on the car.