Teens seek reduced sentences in girl’s murder

POCATELLO, Idaho – Two eastern Idaho teens serving life prison terms for killing a 16-year-old girl have asked that their sentences be reduced.

Torey Adamcik goes before 6th District Judge Peter D. McDermott on March 10 to seek a more lenient sentence. Brian Draper has a similar hearing on March 24.

A Web-based petition has been created for both by Cari Barichello of Justice for Juveniles, which advocates for juveniles treated as adults by the courts.

“Our organization is not saying children shouldn’t be accountable,” Barichello told the Idaho State Journal. “But there has to be a way other than warehousing them in adult prisons. Children are the most rehabilitatable.”

Adamcik and Draper were convicted last year in separate trials of killing Cassie Jo Stoddart. Both received life sentences for first-degree murder and 30 years-to-life for conspiracy to commit first-degree murder.

They were arrested Sept. 27, 2006, five days after investigators say Stoddart was stabbed as many as 30 times while house sitting for relatives in northeast Bannock County.

All three were 16-year-old juniors at Pocatello High School at the time.

“I realize the sentences are pretty severe,” Bannock County Prosecutor Mark Hiedeman said. “But the crime was pretty severe in this case.”

He said he will argue at the March hearings that the sentences should stand.

In the petition, Barichello gives the history of the events and what are described as shortcomings in Adamcik’s conviction.

Hiedeman said the evidence that helped convict the two includes a videotape Adamcik and Draper made.

“On the tape they talk about going in the house to commit the murder before the murder.”