Teen pleads guilty in Hope battery

SANDPOINT — A teenage runaway from Denver pleaded guilty Thursday to beating and attempting to rob a Bonner County woman last summer.

Joseph John Martin faces a seven- to 20-year prison term when he is sentenced in May. His defense counsel, Sandpoint attorney Bryce Powell, requested a two-day hearing so he can call an expert to testify on his client’s behalf.

The nature of the expert testimony was not disclosed in court and Powell declined to comment on the case after the hearing. Prosecutor Louis Marshall said he is unsure of the precise nature of the testimony, but expects it will concern mitigating factors related to Martin’s background.

Martin, 17, pleaded guilty to battery with intent to commit robbery, a felony with a maximum punishment of 20 years.

“Have you ever been in trouble before?” 1st District Judge Steve Verby asked Martin before accepting his guilty plea.

“No, sir,” a downcast Martin replied.

Verby accepted the plea as being entered voluntarily and knowingly, and ordered a presentence investigation in the case. Presentence investigations are dossiers of a defendant’s background which help judges determine an appropriate sentence.

A pretrial hearing for Marshall Owens Dittrich, an alleged accomplice in the July 31 attack on Vera Gadman, was postponed Thursday. Dittrich, a 17-year-old from Danville, Calif., faces the same charge as Martin.

A new hearing date in Dittrich’s case is pending.

Martin entered the guilty plea after the defense and the state took part in civil mediation in attempt to resolve both cases. The mediation talks were held behind closed doors late last year, according to court documents.

Marshall said mediation is concluded in Dittrich’s case, although conventional plea negotiations continue.

Martin and Dittrich allegedly ran away from a therapeutic boarding school in Trout Creek, Mont. They were hitchhiking near Clark Fork when Gadman, 66, encountered them and agreed to give them a ride to the Hope Peninsula.

Once on the peninsula, Gadman was allegedly choked with a cord, hit over the head with a bottle, battered and hit with rocks. Gadman managed to flee her assailants, who were arrested following a manhunt by Bonner County sheriff’s deputies.

Both Martin and Dittrich, who are being prosecuted separately in adult court, remain in custody.