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At center of plea, an angry son

Adam Rotell agreed to his mom's plea deal in his brother's death but was willing to testify against her.

By JAMAL THALJI
Published October 7, 2005

DADE CITY - All the prosecution had left was two brothers.

One was dead.

The other was angry.

Mathew Rotell died at age 6 of a lethal mix of morphine and carbon monoxide. The same concoction almost killed 8-year-old Adam.

Adam, now 14, was the prosecution's best witness against his mother, Kristina Gaime, in the failed 1999 murder-suicide plot.

And he wanted her to pay.

"On a scale of one to 10," family attorney Kennan Dandar said Thursday, "his anger is at a 10-plus.

"Adam was ready and willing to testify. Adam wanted to see justice done for his brother."

The son also approved the mother's surprise plea deal Wednesday. But Dandar said a 20-year prison sentence was not enough for Adam, who since Mathew's death grew from traumatized victim to determined witness.

Gaime pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and attempted second-degree murder. Prosecutors had sought a life sentence for the 41-year-old Land O'Lakes woman, whose bitter custody fight ended with first-degree murder and attempted murder charges. Instead, she will get credit for the 61/2 years she spent in jail waiting for the long-delayed trial.

Adam was not just the crux of the state's case, but the motivation that brought all sides together.

The prosecution feared trying a case based so heavily on the testimony of a scarred 14-year-old. The defense feared the sympathetic survivor could persuade a jury to convict Gaime. Adam feared his mother could go unpunished for Mathew's death.

State Attorney Bernie McCabe said he was ready to accept the plea deal even if Adam and Gaime's ex-husband, Stephen Rotell, had not.

"It would have been a tremendous burden to place on that young man," McCabe said, "and if I could avoid that, I was going to."

Adam had always been on the witness list. But for years prosecutors said it would be detrimental for Adam, in therapy since his brother's death, to testify against his mother. Then in 2004 a judge threw out key evidence: her suicide notes, and the hose she used to pipe poisonous carbon monoxide into the minivan she loaded her sons into.

An appellate court upheld the decision. Gaime's lawyers then tried to free her from a pending trial at a May bail hearing. The motion was defeated, thanks to the emergence of a key witness: her surviving son.

"He was the entire case," said Assistant State Attorney Jim Hellickson. "We had nothing left."

Which is also why the state didn't want to go to trial so dependent on one who had endured so much.

"He knew that the entire case would hinge on his testimony, yet at the age of 14 he was willing to do that," Dandar said. "But the prosecutors ... felt uncomfortable in having their entire case hinge on one person."

Veteran defense attorney Lyann Goudie had already drilled the detectives in the case. The state wondered: Would she do the same to Adam?

"There's a way of attacking people without being harsh about it," she said. "I had no intention of putting this child through the wringer."

But she would have sought to discredit him. Gaime's lawyers obtained Adam's psychiatric records, deposed the professionals who have examined him over the years and lined up their own expert witnesses.

"But at the end of the day, you go before 12 people and you have a 14-year-old" who lost his brother, she said. "I believe that's pretty powerful evidence."

The state huddled for two hours Tuesday with the Rotells and Dandar, who led a seven-year legal battle against the Church of Scientology over the death of Clearwater member Lisa McPherson in 1995.

The Rotells blessed the deal.

The son had two conditions:

First, that she plead guilty.

Second, Dandar said, Adam told prosecutors: "I never want to see her again."

The judge ordered it so.

Dandar declined to reveal personal details about Adam, who he said endures unwanted attention from peers, parents and the media. He gets good grades in school and plays sports.

And he has matured, despite his ordeal.

"Adam was extremely mature for his age," Dandar said. "He sat there (Tuesday). They really directed all their comments to him, he had questions of his own, he answered those questions."

It was serious stuff. Until the end.

"There was some joking at the meeting with prosecutors, that he might be an assistant state attorney one day," Dandar said. "But who knows? At 14? The sky is the limit."

[Last modified October 7, 2005, 01:49:15]