In this undated file photo provided by the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, Holly Bobo is shown.
In this 2014 file photo, a poster with pictures of missing Tennessee nursing student Holly Bobo hangs on a fence in front of her house in Parsons, Tenn.LEXINGTON, Tenn. - Sandra King said a good friend of hers, Jeffrey Pearcy, stayed with her for about six weeks this summer and that around mid-May he showed her a video of Holly Bobo tied up and crying.
Pearcy has been charged with accessory after the fact and tampering with evidence in the Bobo case. The state has alleged that Pearcy has knowledge of a video with information about the case and hasn't turned it over to investigators.
Pearcy and his attorney, Olin Baker, maintain there is no video and that Pearcy is innocent. Pearcy has said he believes the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation is just "gripping at straws" and that the investigation has ruined his life.
Baker told The Jackson Sun a couple of weeks ago that he believed the charges against Pearcy were going to be dropped due to lack of evidence.
However, after a preliminary hearing Wednesday in Henderson County General Sessions Court, which included testimony from King and a TBI special agent, the judge ruled there was enough evidence to send the case to the grand jury.
If Pearcy is indicted on the charges, he'll be arraigned in Circuit Court in October, Baker said.
The judge also ruled that a handgun taken from Pearcy when he was arrested could be returned to him because it's not connected to the charges and because Pearcy has a handgun carry permit and no prior felony convictions.
Mark Pearcy, Jeffrey Pearcy's brother, has been charged with the same offenses. He will be in court in August for his preliminary hearing. Mark Pearcy also has pleaded not guilty.
THE VIDEO
King said she's known Jeffrey Pearcy for 19 years and that they are trusting friends.
From March to the end of May, King said, Pearcy and his two sons lived with her in Henderson County so his sons could finish school.
King said that sometime in mid-May of this year Jeffrey Pearcy showed her part of the alleged video. She said Pearcy told her that Zachary Adams sexually assaulted Bobo in the recording.
Adams has been charged with the murder and kidnapping of Bobo, who disappeared from her Decatur County home in April 2011. Adams has been held without bond since he was indicted in March.
"He [Jeffrey Pearcy] told me that Mark [Pearcy] had video of Zach [Adams] having sex with Holly Bobo," King testified.
When asked if she believed Pearcy, she said, "Jeff would never lie to me."
King testified that she asked to see the video, which was on a cellphone, and that she was able to identify Bobo and Adams through photos she had seen of them in the news.
While Pearcy was showing her the video, King testified, Pearcy called Adams a "sick bastard."
The video showed a woman tied up with her hands over her head, King said.
"It looked like Holly Bobo," she said. "It was a shock to see it."
King said she watched about 30 to 45 seconds of the video and saw the front of Adams "at a glance," but never saw a sex act take place.
After she saw part of the video, King said, she asked Pearcy to turn it off. She testified that she never saw the video or phone after that.
King said she waited a couple of weeks after seeing the video before she came forward to the TBI because she initially didn't want to get involved.
"I thought about those two boys," she said, referring to Pearcy's children.
When she decided to "do the right thing," and call authorities, King said, she was asked by TBI special agents, including Brent Booth, to make a phone recording of Jeffrey Pearcy talking to her about the video.
With three TBI agents at her house, King called Pearcy, she testified.
"I said, 'That video of Holly, if it had been you, I would have watched it,'" she told Pearcy over the phone, to which she said he replied "I know."
Brent Booth, a TBI special agent, testified that he has Mark Pearcy's phone and is waiting for the access code from Apple so he can access it. Booth said the TBI has been told a video is on the phone, but he doesn't know what the video is yet.
The TBI has recovered more than 20 phones looking for the video, but they haven't found it, Booth said.
He didn't go into detail on whose phones they are, where they came from or what, if anything, was found on them.
THE DEFENSE
When Jeffrey Pearcy's attorney, Baker, questioned King, he revealed that Pearcy has an ex-wife, who also is named "Holly."
Baker argued that when King called Pearcy in the recorded call, she never said Bobo's last name, she only said "Holly," so Baker asked if she thought Pearcy may have been referring to his ex-wife when he replied.
King told Baker she's "100 percent sure it's Holly Bobo."
"His ex-wife does not have blonde hair," she said. "I never seen a video of his wife."
She said Pearcy told her his brother, Mark, had taken the video of Adams and Bobo.
After the hearing, Jeffrey Pearcy and Baker talked to reporters.
Pearcy said he believes King has made up the story because her son has been in prison for 14 years and has 24 years left on his sentence.
King said in court she was not paid to give this testimony to the TBI and that no one has promised her anything as far as her son being released early.
"I haven't seen a video. No one has seen this video that anyone is talking about," Jeffrey Pearcy said. He questioned why King hasn't been arrested since he believes she's the only person who has seen the alleged video.
Pearcy said he's not aware of a video of Bobo or of his ex-wife tied up.
"I've never seen a video," Pearcy said.
When asked what Pearcy thought King was referring to in their phone call when she said "If it had been you, I would have watched," Pearcy said he could "barely understand her."
"I was driving a car with no air conditioner, and I'm driving 60 miles per hour with four windows down and you've got people here prompting her to ask this question and prompting her to ask that question. I had no idea," he replied.
Pearcy said he didn't know he was being recorded.
As far as knowing Adams, Pearcy said he just moved back to West Tennessee and is not friends with anyone who has been involved in the Bobo investigation, which includes Adams and Jason Autry. Autry has been charged with the aggravated kidnapping and felony first-degree murder of Bobo along with Adams.
Pearcy said he doesn't believe his brother knows Adams either. Jeffrey Pearcy said that he and Mark Pearcy aren't close.