Teen pleads guilty to brutal attack

SANDPOINT — A California teen pleaded guilty Monday to his role in an attack on a Bonner County woman who offered to give him and another hitchhiker a ride last year.

Marshall Owens Dittrich faces up to 20 years in prison, although the state is recommending a three- to 10-year prison sentence, according to the terms of a plea agreement.

Dittrich, 18, of Danville, Calif., is scheduled to be sentenced in 1st District Court on Sept. 7. He remains held at the Bonner County Jail while the case is pending.

Dittrich and Joseph John Martin, both of whom were 17 at the time the attack on Vera Gadman, were charged with battery with the intent to commit robbery in connection with the July 2011 attack.

Gadman, 66, was choked, hit and struck over the head with a glass bottle during the incident. Gadman was able to break free and escape her assailants, who were arrested in an ensuing dragnet.

During a day-long sentencing hearing last month, counsel for Martin argued he should be imprisoned in a juvenile setting with the prospect of further incarceration in an adult prison if need be. Bonner County Prosecutor Louis Marshall recommended a 20-year sentence — the maximum allowed by law — and called it one of the worst battery case he’s seen.

Judge Steve Verby sentenced Martin 15 years in prison, the first three years of which are fixed.

Martin, of Denver, is described in court documents as the primary aggressor, while Dittrich was portrayed as a somewhat reluctant accomplice who had to be goaded into taking part in the attack.

In Dittrich’s case, Marshall is recommending a fixed prison term of three years with the possibility of an additional seven years. The defense remains free to recommend a lesser sentence, including retained jurisdiction, probation or incarceration with the Idaho Department of Juvenile Corrections.

The court is not obligated to adopt either the state or the defense’s recommendations, however.

The two teens were runaways from Explorations, a therapeutic boarding school in Trout Creek, Mont., when Gadman encountered them hitchhiking near Clark Fork.