Sentencing set in battery case

SANDPOINT — One of the teens implicated in a brutal beating of a Bonner County woman last year is scheduled to be sentenced on May 3 in 1st District Court.

Joseph John Martin pleaded guilty to battery with intent to commit a serious felony earlier this year. Martin faces a seven- to 20-year prison term, although sentencing recommendations in his case have not yet been disclosed.

Martin, a 17-year-old from Denver, remains held at the Region 1 juvenile lockup in Kootenai County. His bail is set at $500,000.

Martin’s plea was the product of civil mediation between the state and the defense that aimed to resolve Martin’s case and that of Marshall Owens Dittrich, an alleged accomplice in the July 2011 attack on Vera Gadman.

Dittrich is also charged with battery to intent to commit a serious felony. Although mediation last year was unsuccessful in his case, traditional plea negotiations were still ongoing earlier this year.

Dittrich, also 17, from Danville, Calif., was to be tried this month, but the proceedings were postponed. Dittrich’s four-day jury trial is set on June 11.

Dittrich is held at the Bonner County Jail with bail set at $500,000.

The two runaways from a therapeutic boarding school in Trout Creek, Mont., were hitchhiking near Clark Fork when they encountered Gadman, 66. Gadman agreed to give the duo a ride to the Hope peninsula. While looking for a campsite, the teens allegedly attacked Gadman.

Gadman was choked with a length of cord, hit in the head with a bottle and pelted with rocks, according to court documents. She managed to fend off her attackers and the teens were arrested following an intense manhunt.

Gadman’s tenacity during the ordeal was lauded by candidates running for Bonner County sheriff and prosecutor during a forum in Sandpoint on April 13.