Son gives new life to Gaime prosecution

Adam Rotell's affidavit keeps his mother in jail. Prosecutors won't say whether he will testify at her murder trial, but he is on the witness list.

By JAMAL THALJI
Published May 6, 2005

DADE CITY - What Adam Rotell knew, he did not want to remember.

His mother, Kristina Gaime, is accused of drugging and poisoning Adam and his younger brother in a 1999 murder-suicide plot. Mathew, 6, died. Adam, then 8, survived. So did his mother.

Her former attorney questioned Adam in a 2002 deposition. He didn't have many answers.

"I don't want to remember what went on ... ," said Adam, then 11. "I locked it up in a box. I threw it in the ocean. I am never going to open that box."

To keep his mother in jail, Adam Rotell opened that box.

After an appellate court upheld Circuit Judge Lynn Tepper's tossing of key evidence, Adam's recollection was enough Thursday for Tepper to deny Gaime's request for freedom until her long-delayed trial.

Adam, now 14, signed a two-page affidavit Wednesday describing the events he saw before his brother's death.

In it, he said his mother fed him and Mathew "vitamins and unknown white pills," which authorities said was morphine. Adam said he threw up shortly afterward, then went to bed. His mother then woke him up and walked him to the van in the garage.

Inside, he saw Mathew asleep on the seat. Authorities say that's where they found the younger boy dead.

The recollection in the affidavit matched an account Adam gave deputies shortly after the incident.

"Apparently he has decided to (remember)," Tepper said, "and that's good enough for me."

Gaime, charged with first-degree murder and attempted murder, faces life in prison if convicted.

Does Adam's affidavit mean he now will testify against his mother?

"Adam Rotell signed the affidavit," said prosecutor Phil Van Allen, "and Adam Rotell is on the witness list."

When asked whether Adam volunteered his testimony, whether prosecutors asked him to testify, or whether a psychiatrist cleared him to testify, Van Allen responded each time: "Adam Rotell signed the affidavit."

Authorities accuse Gaime of drugging her children, putting them in the vehicle, running a hose from the exhaust to the inside, then getting in with them on April 12, 1999.

Gaime, 40, has pleaded not guilty and spent six years in the Pasco County jail, awaiting a trial now tentatively set for Oct. 31.

Prosecutors once said it would be detrimental to Adam if he were to face his mother at her trial.

But their case took a hit when Tepper threw out evidence such as purported suicide notes and a hose. Gaime's Fourth Amendment rights against unreasonable search and seizure had been violated, she ruled. The search warrants were improper, and the detectives who obtained them were not credible, the judge found.

The 2nd District Court of Appeal unanimously affirmed that decision. The state let its last option, asking the appeals court for a rehearing, expire.

In Florida, juries must determine whether a defendant is guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. But to hold Gaime without bail pending trial, the state is held to an even higher standard than that required to prove guilt.

At Thursday's hearing, the defense argued that the state no longer had the evidence to keep Gaime in jail without bail. Tepper ruled the prosecution met that burden, thanks to two affidavits: one from Adam, the other from one of the original investigators, Pasco sheriff's Deputy Brett Landsberg.

Both were signed Wednesday and handed to the judge and Gaime's attorney, Lyann Goudie, minutes into the hearing. Gaime sat silently during the proceedings, which Adam did not attend.

Goudie questioned why the affidavits were handed out at the last minute. "There's not much you can do to rebut it. They didn't put (Adam) on live so anybody could cross examine him.

"They did that for a reason."

Goudie signaled that the defense would fight to keep Adam off the stand. "I think they'll try to put him on," she said.

The Tampa attorney said she will depose Adam and his father, Stephen, who attended Thursday's hearing.

Goudie also said the defense's experts are ready to testify that Adam's recollection is permanently tainted by the detectives who questioned him the day after Mathew died, in an interview criticized by the judge.

As for the state's old contention that testifying would be harmful to Adam, Goudie said: "That's been their position all the way up until this morning. It's very interesting."

Adam's mental health is not an issue, Van Allen said. "Since 1999, Adam Rotell has constantly been under the care of a psychiatrist."

The state's experts also will testify that the boy does not have a learning disability. That, and his ability to tell time, were issues the defense raised after Adam's original interview with detectives.

Prosecution and defense attorneys also sparred over how morphine was given to the children.

Van Allen said there was no sign of forced entry to Gaime's townhome, Mathew's autopsy showed lethal levels of the drug, Adam's urine also tested positive, and Gaime had access to the drug as a hospice nurse.

Goudie disagreed with the state's version of events.

That prompted the judge to ask: How did the morphine get into the children?

The defense attorney didn't respond and changed the subject.

Asked afterward for the defense's version of what happened in Gaime's townhome, Goudie responded, "You'll hear it when we go to trial."

[Last modified May 6, 2005, 00:55:01]