Adamcik: post-conviction relief denied, seeks sentence to be reconsidered

A judge has denied a request for post-conviction relief in the case of Torey Adamcik, who was convicted in the murder of Cassie Jo Stoddart in 2007.

After hearing arguments regarding a motion to reconsider Adamick’s life imprisonment sentence, Judge Mitchell Brown announced his decision on Adamcik’s post-conviction relief almost eight months after an evidentiary hearing.

Brown denied Adamcik’s post-conviction relief. He agreed that Adamcik’s original counsel in 2007 was deficient in how evidence was handled, but he said he doesn’t see how that deficiency and the new character testimony and evidence would change the outcome of the case.

Brown also denied the request on the grounds of an alleged plea deal for Adamcik, saying that the court wouldn’t address it because the original judge in the case said during the evidentiary hearing that he wouldn’t have considered it at the time of the trial.

Adamcik and Brian Draper were found guilty of the 2006 murder of Cassie Jo Stoddart in Pocatello. They were friends and students at Pocatello High School. They were accused of planning her death and subsequently stabbing her 29 times.

Upon hearing Brown’s decision, Dennis Benjamin, Adamcik’s attorney, said he was disappointed.

He said the character witnesses and expert witnesses whom he presented last summer proved that Draper was responsible for Stoddart, not Adamcik.

“It seems to me illogical to say that anything, especially the significant items we have, could not have turned the tide,” Benjamin said.

Benjamin referred to a 2012 case, Miller v. Alabama, which established that life imprisonment sentences aren’t appropriate for juveniles unless they’re proven to be “irreparably corrupt.” He also cited a January case, Montgomery v. Louisiana, which he said expanded the Miller case to cases settled before 2012.

Benjamin believes that the evidence from the evidentiary hearing last summer showed that the state didn’t prove that Adamcik’s sentence was appropriate by the cases’ standards.

“All (the evidence) shows that Torey – even if we concede he committed the murder –is not beyond rehabilitation,” he said.

Bannock County deputy prosecutor Jared Johnson argued that the original judge did apply Miller v. Alabama in his decision, even though it hadn’t happened yet. Johnson said the judge took Adamcik’s and Draper’s ages and youthfulness into consideration in his decision, especially in his closing statement, in which he said: “I am convinced, beyond a reasonable doubt, you will kill again.”

Johnson believes Montgomery doesn’t affect Adamcik’s case since he thinks Miller’s standards were used.

Brown said a decision for the motion to reconsider will be made later.

Asked about the post-conviction relief decisions, Johnson declined to comment, saying that he wanted to go over Brown’s written decision first.