Hamilton County jurors will keep deliberating today in a 16-year-old murder case.
Adolphus Hollingsworth is on trial of murder in the Aug. 18, 1997, slaying of his 28-year-old wife, Victoria Carr Hollingsworth. The trial lasted only two days, with prosecutors resting their case a day and a half after opening arguments and the defense team calling no witnesses. Adolphus Hollingsworth did not take the stand.
Jurors got the case first thing Thursday and worked all day but hadn’t been able to come to a decision shortly after 6 p.m. They were sent home for the night and will begin deliberating again this morning.
Prosecutors say Adolphus Hollingsworth stabbed Victoria Hollingsworth in the neck as she took him to work in her car, then buried her body under some tires on Billy Goat Hill in East Chattanooga. Prosecutors say he drove the car back to her parents’ home afterward.
Victoria Hollingsworth’s body wasn’t found until May 1999 despite searches following her disappearance, and Adolphus Hollingsworth was only charged last year.
That was after the TNT television show “Cold Justice” paid for DNA testing in the revival of the case. Defense attorneys attacked the show’s involvement in the case, performing testing they said should have been done by investigators early on.
Contact staff writer Ben Benton at bbenton@timesfreepress.com or twitter.com/BenBenton or 423-757-6569.
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