Adamcik evidentiary hearing wraps up

Over the past two days, all testimony and evidence that would have come in Torey Adamcik’s original trial has been heard and seen in court.

While Tuesday’s part of the hearing focused on the fairness of the 2007 trial, Wednesday focused on plea bargains offered to the defense by the state.

Mark Heideman, who originally prosecuted the case, took the stand first and said he remembered one deal, which would have dismissed Adamcik’s conspiracy to murder charge and recommend a life sentence with 30 years fixed– if he pleaded guilty.

In another deal brought up during his cross-examination by Chief Deputy Civil Attorney Ian Service, Heideman proposed to no longer pursue three other conspiracy to murder charges that were brought up after new evidence surfaced.

Adamcik’s former defense attorney, Bron Rammell, also took the stand and said the state never made a formal deal with the defense.

Dennis Benjamin, Adamcik’s current attorney, doesn’t believe Rammell’s testimony was correct.

“I’m not saying that he’s lying, because I don’t think he is,” Benjamin said. “I think he is mistaken about what happened due to the passage of time.”

Adamcik was the last to take the stand Wednesday. He testified that if the defense did present him the plea deal that would have him serve a life sentence with 30 years fixed, he would have taken it.

Also in his testimony, he recounted the night Cassie Jo Stoddart died, saying he didn’t have a hand in her death.

Service told Adamcik he took issue with his testimony during his cross-examination. Particularly because he said he would have taken a guilty plea deal.

“In my experience of being a prosecutor, every judge requires the entry of a guilty plea requires the defendant to accept a factual basis for each charge,” Service said. “That would include meeting all the elements that are in the charge. The court isn’t just going to say, ‘Great, I take your guilty plea.’ It’s ‘tell me how it meets the factual basis for the charge itself.'”

Former Judge Peter McDermott also testified Wednesday, saying the sentence he handed Adamcik was appropriate. He also said that he likely wouldn’t have gone along with a plea deal’s recommendations.

Both sides will file briefs with their findings after receiving court transcripts. Judge Mitchell Brown will then make a ruling on this hearing.