More than 20 years after admitting to killing wife and son, Indianapolis man still awaits trial

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — On Sept. 21, 1999, police wanting into armed robberies of two Pizza Hut eating places discovered two our bodies stuffed in a freezer inside the storage at 3950 Thrush Drive on the close to westside of Indianapolis.

Inside days of the invention, police made an arrest. The suspect, John Keith Adams, of Indianapolis, was discovered on Sept. 30, 1999 in Independence, Missouri. He waived his Miranda rights and admitted to killing his 28-year-old spouse Robin Adams on April 19, 1999 and 10-month-old son John Ramseys Adams round June 1999.

The prosecutor on the time was ready to strive the case and needed to hunt the demise penalty. Greater than 23 years later, Adams has but to face a jury for the crimes he brazenly admitted to committing and the case continues to be nowhere close to going to trial.

Adams continues to be in custody after greater than 20 years. He has spent a lot of the previous twenty years at Logansport State Hospital.

“There can be no appeals or something. I’m going plead responsible in the event that they wish to execute me, they will. If not, I imply, there is no such thing as a method I’m gonna spend 20 years in a spot like this. I imply, in the event that they don’t do it, I’ll simply kill himself,” John Keith Adams stated in an interview with Information 8 in October of 1999. 

In response to the unique possible trigger affidavit, Robin had been shot within the head and John was asphyxiated.

“Robin’s demise was instantaneous and fast. She didn’t even know. She was asleep, she didn’t even know what hit her. Little John, I imply, I didn’t need his demise to be as extended because it was,” Adams stated in 1999.

I-Group 8 has reviewed greater than 450 pages within the case file for Adams. 

Detectives mirror on the case

The victims have been found by two Marion County Sheriff’s Workplace detectives, Doug Scheffel and Chris Hefner. Each males at the moment are retired.

In 1999, the 2 detectives have been investigating Adams for the armed theft of two Pizza Huts in Indianapolis. A tip led them to the Adams home. On their first go to, they knocked on the door and Adams didn’t reply. They bought a search warrant and got here again later in that week.   

With a search warrant in hand the detectives returned to the home. The very first thing they observed was a powerful odor of pot in the home, like uncooked, not too long ago cultivated marijuana. The search led them to the storage.  

 “I went in searching for proof of the robberies and Hefner went out to the storage. Hefner was a narcotics detective. He had a nostril for narcotics. He was out within the storage and known as me, ‘hey, you bought to try this,’” Scheffel stated.

Hefner’s previous expertise led him to imagine he was about to find some pot.

“I can’t let you know what number of instances I had seen bales of marijuana or bricks of marijuana in freezers. So I believed, ‘ah, ha.’ I walked over to the freezer and lifted the lid and the preliminary factor I bear in mind seeing was blood on the inside of the lid and it didn’t click on but,” Hefner stated.

“I thought he discovered some medicine and he took me over to the freezer and that’s the place we situated the our bodies,” stated Scheffel.

The pair discovered the our bodies of Robin and John inside the chest freezer.

“That youngster was put in that freezer alive,” stated Hefner 

Because it turned out, Adams had been on the home when the 2 detectives first visited. He later advised police he hid in the lounge and was ready to shoot them in the event that they got here inside. Earlier than detectives returned with the warrant, Adams had fled.

“He fled and went to Missouri and we entered his automobile data after finding the our bodies and all the pieces. We entered his automobile into the NCIS as an individual of curiosity in a murder case and a police officer in Missouri situated him asleep in a automobile,” stated Scheffel 

It was Adams’ roommate, Elliot Peter, who advised police Adams was driving a rented van and was on the run. He had stored the data to himself to offer Adams time to get out of state. Peter advised police he knew Adams had robbed a few pizza locations and led them to storage field that contained gadgets from the robberies. Peter advised police didn’t know in regards to the our bodies within the freezer.

Scheffel went to Missouri to interviewed Adams. He stated Adams was very matter-of-fact in regards to the murders and didn’t present any regret 

 “It was similar to you and I speaking and, , I by no means bought any actual indication of like psychological sickness, apart from the truth that you’d suppose it will take someone mentally unwell to do one thing like that, however by no means stated, ‘I heard voices in my head to do that,’” stated Scheffel.

Was he competent to face trial on the time?

“I used to be shocked he was discovered mentally incompetent,” stated Scheffel.  

Adams by no means denied killing his spouse and son. The Marion County prosecutor on the time, Scott Neuman, stated he would search the demise penalty in opposition to Adams. The case appeared open and shut, however there’s a hitch. 

Adams deliberate to symbolize himself despite considerations if he was competent to even stand trial, not to mention symbolize himself in a demise penalty case. A lot to his disapproval, he was assigned a public defender.

In 2001, the courtroom dominated him incompetent to face trial.  

“I suppose it’s uncommon until somebody is adjudicated incompetent. What I did discover uncommon is that mainly his public defenders preserve persevering with the competency hearings,” stated Dr. Jody Madeira of the Indiana College Maurer Faculty of Legislation. 

Through the years the courtroom has scheduled dozens of competency hearings and he has been by way of a number of psychiatric evaluations. Adams has written a number of letters to the choose asking for brand spanking new counsel, and continues to insists on representing himself, however the choose has not dominated in his favor. Yearly, he and his court-appointed legal professionals are required to come back to courtroom for a competency replace.  

“The tough factor is that it seems that his very pleas for the competency listening to are why he’s incompetent. In different phrases, he needs to change into competent so he can symbolize himself and basically give himself the demise penalty,” stated Dr. Madeira. 

Why did Adams kill his spouse and son? He advised detectives he didn’t know find out how to depart his spouse and had apparently met one other girl.

I-Group 8’s makes an attempt to contact counsel for Adams – previous and current – have been unsuccessful.

A distant standing listening to for Adams is scheduled for Dec. 1 at 10 a.m. in Marion County Superior Courtroom 30. I-Group 8 will let if the judges determine if is time after 23 years for Adams to face trial.