Zachary Holly's wife gets no-contact order

Zachary Holly being taken back to the Benton County Jail on Thursday after <a href="http://www.nwaonline.com/news/2013/feb/14/zachary-hollys-wife-gets-no-contact-order/?latest">a judge ordered him not to have any contact with his wife.</a>
Zachary Holly being taken back to the Benton County Jail on Thursday after a judge ordered him not to have any contact with his wife.

Zachary Holly was ordered Thursday morning not to have any contact with his wife.

Circuit Judge Tom Smith issued the order after a short hearing on Holly's wife’s request for a protection order against her husband who is currently jailed and charged with kidnapping, raping and murdering 6-year-old Jersey Bridgeman.

Amanda Holly filed for the protection order last month.

She testified that her husband called her collect from the jail 33 times in a span of two days. “The phone calls were non-stop,” Amanda Holly said.

Amanda Holly said she is terrified for her and her 6-year-old son, especially if her husband is released from jail.

Zachary Holly is the boy’s stepfather.

Amanda Holly said she never accepts the collect calls, but found them especially irritating due to the nature of the charges her husband is facing.

“I never thought he was capable of anything like this,” Amanda Holly said. “I’m afraid he will come after my son and I."

Holly said she plans to divorce her husband.

She also testified that her husband had pushed passed her once after the two were arguing when she learned that he had been having an affair.

Amanda Holly said when questioned by Kent McLemore, one of her husband’s attorneys, that she has mailed her husband two letters while he has been in jail. She testified that she was being sarcastic when she used “Dearest husband” and “Loving wife” in the letters. She claimed she only wrote her husband seeking his power of attorney for tax purposes.

Zachary Holly did not testify during Thursday’s hearing but McLemore told the judge that Holly objected to the judge granting the request for a protection order.

Heather Hersh, who is with Legal Aid of Arkansas and represented Amanda Holly, asked the judge to grant the order of protection. “She is scared of Zach for her and her son,” Hersh said.

McLemore argued that there had been no evidence presented of domestic abuse against his client.

“You can’t issue a protection order because someone is charged with a serious offense,” McLemore said.

McLemore said there was no proof of domestic abuse in Amanda Holly’s petition or the testimony concerning domestic abuse.

“I personally have never been married to someone charged with capital murder,” Circuit Judge Tom Smith said. “I can’t stand in her shoes.”

The judge did not find that Holly had abused his wife and did not specifically grant the order of protection.

The judge ordered that a no-contact order be issued which would prohibit Holly from having any contact with his wife. The no-contact order will be included in the divorce proceedings once Amanda Holly seeks a divorce. The judge told Holly that the no-contact order also prohibits the use of any third parties to contact his wife.

The no-contact order is for 10 years, Smith said.

“It’s important to make note that the judge did not make any findings of domestic abuse against my client,” McLemore said.

McLemore said the no contact order was granted in anticipation of the divorce.

Benton County Prosecutor Van Stone, along with his deputy prosecutors Stephanie McLemore and David Reading attended Thursday proceedings.

Zachary Holly, 28, of Bentonville is charged in connection with capital murder, rape and kidnapping, all Class Y felonies. He also is charged in connection with residential burglary, a Class B felony.

Holly previously pleaded not guilty to all of the charges in connection with the 6-year-old’s death. The girl’s body was found in November in an abandoned house in Bentonville.

Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty.

Holly is being held without bond in the Benton County Jail.

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