PALMER -- Two Frank Adamses showed up in a Palmer courtroom Friday to be sentenced. Both are killers.
The one present in person was the 47-year-old Adams, a balding man with glasses, convicted of beating his girlfriend Stacey Johnston to death two years ago, then burning evidence and stuffing her body in the backseat of his car.
The other was Frankie Adams, a 17-year-old, who appeared via a scratchy nine-minute tape recording of him testifying 30 years ago in an Anchorage murder trial. That Adams described in only slightly hesitant tones how he killed Air Force Colonel Robert Cassell in 1978, first beating the man with a tire iron as he slept, then stabbing him and finally slit his throat from ear to ear.
For that murder, Adams was treated as a juvenile. He was locked up for a few years and released at the age of 19.
This time, Superior Court Judge Bev Cutler opted for a harsher punishment. Describing him as a worst offender who was still more concerned with himself than what he had done, Cutler sentenced Adams to the maximum 99-years with no chance of discretionary parole.
She added three years for tampering with physical evidence, which means Adams will have to live to 115 to be eligible for release. In effect, she sentenced him to die in prison.
Adams, dressed in yellow prison garb, sat quietly handcuffed next to his attorney and showed little reaction to the sentence. As he was being led away however, he flipped a middle finger at prosecutor Rachel Gernat.
COMMUNITY CONDEMNATION
In handing down the sentence, Cutler rejected an argument from defense attorney Scott Sterling that it was an eye for an eye, not what sentencing is supposed to be. Sterling argued that Adams deserved some hope of parole while he lived.
Cutler, however, said Adams was getting better than Johnston got. She was beaten to death so savagely that she was unrecognizable to those who knew her. Adams is alive, Cutler said.
"You're fortunate that there is not a death penalty in Alaska," she told him. "Life in prison is life."
Cutler said Adams needed to be put away to show community condemnation for what he had done and out of respect for the "unfairness" and "wrongness" of how Johnston died.
Johnston and Adams had been dating for just four months when he killed her. Police found her body in the back seat of Adams' car after they stopped him while he was driving toward Anchorage. Adams at first claimed she was beaten by drug dealers and he was taking her for help.
During his trial, Gernat said Adams beat Johnston with his hands, kicked her with his steel-toed boots, and bludgeoned her with the handle of a splitting maul.
VICTIM HAD BEEN THREATENED
For family members, including Johnston's parents, the death was even more painful because they had tried to get her to leave Adams. Gernat said Johnston was afraid Adams would hurt her family. He had threatened to kill her teenage daughter and torch her parents home, she said.
"She sacrificed herself ultimately to protect them," Gernat said.
She also noted Adams' long criminal history, which includes the previous murder, two other felony convictions and testimony from an ex-girlfriend and ex-wife that he was so abusive they fled the state.
"This is a person who has bookended (30 years) of criminal behavior with murders," Gernat said.
'I'M SORRY THAT I'M A DRUNK'
Adams, for his part, maintained his innocence even after the jury verdict, and has attempted unsuccessfully to get a new trial. When offered a chance to make a statement to the court Friday, he stood up and turned to face about a dozen members of Johnston's family seated in the gallery, including her parents, her ex-husband and her daughter. He offered what seemed like a rambling apology.
"From the bottom of my heart, I'm sorry that I'm a drunk and I'm an alcoholic," he said wiping away tears. "I wish I could change the fact that Stacey is not here. Not a day goes by that I wish I couldn't trade my life for Stacey's."
His comments prompted an angry outburst from Johnston's ex-husband, David Johnston, who told Adams all he thinks about is himself.
After the sentencing, family members noted Adams did not offer any kind of acknowledgement that he killed Stacey.
Johnston's mom, Martha Curlee, spent much of the two-hour hearing composing and recomposing her comments for the court on a small yellow legal pad. She said she was relieved the trial was over and grateful Cutler gave Adams the maximum sentence. But she said there really was no justice.
"Stacey's death has left a huge hole in my heart," she told the court. "I miss her hugs, her cards, and especially on the holidays. I miss her sense of humor, and her laughter and her love. "
Find S.J. Komarnitsky at www.adn.com/contact/skomarnitsky or 352-6714.
S.J. KOMARNITSKY
skomarnitsky@adn.com