Last month, a jury in Indiana's Brown County convicted Randy Small of murder in the shooting death of his neighbor Bob Adair. Today, we attended the sentencing hearing in the case.
Our coverage of the sentencing of Larry Jo Taylor Jr. in the murder of Amanda Blackburn: https://art19.com/shows/murder-sheet/episodes/9f5f355d-86ba-4e58-8608-fafc918c62dd
Send tips to murdersheet@gmail.com.
The Murder Sheet is a production of Mystery Sheet LLC .
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
[00:00:00] [SPEAKER_03] The Murder Sheet keeps us super busy and so sometimes between writing and podcasting and trying to sell these t-shirts, we don't do a great job of taking care of ourselves. That's probably something a lot of people can relate to. We're all busy people with jobs and families and obligations. It can be hard putting yourself and your own health first.
[00:00:17] [SPEAKER_01] Randy Orton Our brand new sponsor Prolon can help. Prolon's fasting mimicking diet is a plant-based nutrition program that is backed by science. It takes all the fuss out of fasting. Instead of giving up food, you undergo a five-day program where you enjoy snacks, soups and beverages designed to make your body's cells believe they are fasting.
[00:00:40] [SPEAKER_03] Randy Orton It's designed to give a serious boost to your metabolic and cardiovascular health. Plus, it's a no-brainer. Your food comes in prepackaged and labeled so you know what to eat and when. They found that three consecutive Prolon cycles can reduce your biological age score by 2.5 years and cut your waist circumference down by 1.5 inches. Plus, it gets you down to a healthier blood sugar level.
[00:01:04] [SPEAKER_00] Randy Orton Fast with food. Take charge of your health. Try Prolon.
[00:01:07] [SPEAKER_03] To help you kickstart a health plan that truly works, Prolon is offering Murder Sheet listeners 15% off site-wide plus a $40 bonus gift when you subscribe to their five-day nutrition program. Just visit prolonlife.com slash msheet. That's P-R-O-L-O-N-L-I-F-E dot com slash msheet to claim your 15% discount and your bonus gift. Prolonlife slash msheet. Add some luxury into your life without breaking the bank.
[00:01:36] [SPEAKER_03] Check out our wonderful sponsor, Quince.
[00:01:39] [SPEAKER_01] This is a brand that's unlocking luxury products for all of us ordinary people. All the things that sound pricey and out of reach like washable silk shirts and dresses, 14-karat gold jewelry, European linens, Italian leather handbags, sweaters of Mongolian cashmere and organic cotton. That's what Quince offers, but at an unbeatable price.
[00:02:01] [SPEAKER_03] All Quince items are 50-80% less costly than those of their competitors. It's an amazing deal. They cut down the middleman and pass the savings on to you. And remember, by supporting our sponsors, you're supporting our show.
[00:02:14] [SPEAKER_01] We recently gifted ourselves some pieces from Quince. I got their suede bomber jacket. This one is very stylish and it keeps me really warm, which is helpful because it's been a cold winter. I also like the way I look in it, which is big for me.
[00:02:28] [SPEAKER_03] Give yourself the luxury you deserve with Quince. Go to quince.com slash msheet for free shipping on your order and 365 day returns. That's Q-U-I-N-C-E dot com slash msheet to get free shipping and 365 day returns. Quince.com slash msheet. Content warning. This episode contains discussion of murder and violence.
[00:02:52] [SPEAKER_01] Last month, we did several episodes covering the trial and ultimately the conviction of Randy Small for the murder of Bob Adair. As a quick reminder, Small and Adair were involved in some sort of property dispute, which ended one afternoon when Adair's pickup truck was on Small's property.
[00:03:18] [SPEAKER_01] Small drove up to the pickup truck on a tractor. A few minutes later, Small drives away, leaving Bob Adair in his truck with his head literally blown off. Now, in the course of the trial, the defense team for Mr. Small, which was led by Andy Baldwin, tried to make the case that what happened in those few moments between Small and Adair was self-defense.
[00:03:46] [SPEAKER_01] The Small felt he had to fire his weapon to protect himself. The state argued that it was actually murder, that Adair posed no threat whatsoever to Small. Ultimately, the jury ended up agreeing with the state's interpretation, and they found Small guilty of murder.
[00:04:06] [SPEAKER_01] Now, today, Monday, August 28th, 2023, Randy Small was sentenced, and we decided to attend the hearing so we could hear the end of the story and then bring it to you.
[00:04:18] [SPEAKER_03] My name is Anya Kane. I'm a journalist.
[00:04:21] [SPEAKER_01] And I'm Kevin Greenlee. I'm an attorney. And this is The Murder Sheet. We're a true crime podcast focused on original reporting, interviews, and deep dives into murder cases. We're The Murder Sheet.
[00:04:33] [SPEAKER_03] And this is Randy Small and the murder of Bob Adair. The sentencing.
[00:04:38] [SPEAKER_03] So today, as Kevin mentioned, we drove down to Brown County, Indiana to see out the end of the trial of Randy Small, essentially.
[00:05:31] [SPEAKER_03] This is the part of the process where the offender gets sentenced having been convicted. Do you want to talk a bit about that process, Kevin, before we begin?
[00:05:42] [SPEAKER_01] Yeah, I think it's worth talking about the process because it is something that perhaps a lot of people haven't had to go through or even think about.
[00:05:51] [SPEAKER_03] And honestly, sometimes, you know, we kind of get osmosis through sort of television shows and movies about trials. And they can give a somewhat boiled down unrealistic depiction where you're kind of seeing everything happen at once. So it's always a little bit more involved on the ground.
[00:06:07] [SPEAKER_01] So basically, in the state of Indiana, if you're found guilty of murder, you can be sentenced to between 45 and 65 years in prison. And so your obvious question is, well, how is it determined whether you get 45 years, 50 years, or 65 years, or what have you? And that's basically figured out and calculated by the judge looking at so-called aggravators and mitigators.
[00:06:35] [SPEAKER_01] Aggravators or aggregating factors are pretty much what you might guess they are. They are things either about the convicted person or the crime that makes him look especially bad. Let's say I rob someone and the person I rob is a young mother who is pushing a stroller with like a three-month-old child.
[00:07:03] [SPEAKER_01] I think when you consider that fact that, oh, this robbery happened in front of a child. It perhaps endangered the child. That might make that crime worse. So that's an aggravator. That's an aggravating factor that might make a judge potentially lean towards the harsher side of the sentence. And then on the other side of the table, there are mitigators or mitigating factors.
[00:07:28] [SPEAKER_01] And these are things that might make the judge go a little bit easier on the person. These are things that make the person or the crime seem like not as bad as it could be. You might remember in the recent Kagan Klein sentencing, the Kagan Klein defense attorney said, well, as a mitigator, let's look at the fact that he pled guilty and spared the county the expense of a trial.
[00:07:51] [SPEAKER_03] Yeah. To use your robbery example, maybe that looks like, you know, your family is starving and you were stealing, you know, food for them or something like that.
[00:08:01] [SPEAKER_01] And also is a part of this entire process. Victims get an opportunity to come in if they wish and make victim impact statements. And victims can include people who were actually the victim of a crime. So if you were robbed, you could come in and talk about it potentially. In the case of murders, it's often people who are affected by the loss of the person who was killed.
[00:08:28] [SPEAKER_01] And this is interesting because typically in courts, there's an effort to try to look at things dispassionately. You know, let's look at all the facts of a situation and try to figure out what really happened. And there's very complicated rules. OK, when we're trying to figure out what really happened, we can look at this fact, but not this fact. There's an effort to keep emotion out of it.
[00:08:55] [SPEAKER_03] I want to note that because I think sometimes when people are following true crime stories, especially ones that are really covered well in the media, they think, OK, everything's going to end up in trial. Everything. The kitchen sink. And the reality is that there are, as Kevin said, strict rules, evidentiary rules and, you know, what's hearsay, what's not hearsay. And all of that gets determined in pretrial hearings.
[00:09:22] [SPEAKER_01] Yes. And there are certain facts aren't brought out in trial because they say, oh, if that's brought out, that might cloud the juror's mind because that might be prejudicial.
[00:09:30] [SPEAKER_03] Yeah, it's very complicated. And typically there's a lot of things you don't hear. So even though a trial is a wonderful time to get a lot of information about a case, not everything comes out.
[00:09:42] [SPEAKER_01] And as I say, there's an effort to keep emotion out of it. But that changes in these victim impact statements. Often in these victim impact statements, the person giving the statement can get very emotional when they're describing how the crime affected them.
[00:09:56] [SPEAKER_03] One previous sentencing hearing with victim impact statements that you and I attended was for the murder of Amanda Blackburn. There were several perpetrators who were tried and convicted in that case. And you had people representing Amanda's family. She was the wife of a pastor and she was murdered. She's also pregnant when she was murdered. So just a really heinous crime and some home invasion robbery gone wrong.
[00:10:21] [SPEAKER_03] Essentially, you had people in her family coming up, but you also had people who were also robbed that day, kind of robbed them of their peace of mind. So that was very emotional. That was a very emotional situation. But this one was the we'll get to that. Yeah, we'll get to that.
[00:10:40] [SPEAKER_01] So it I looked at the time at 827 a.m. Randy Small was let in. And he looked different this time than he had during the trial.
[00:10:50] [SPEAKER_03] He was wearing a jail uniform, so light gray and dark gray stripes and his hands were handcuffed. And so he was led to his seat previously, obviously, because, you know, he was pretrial. He was more dressed in everyday clothes.
[00:11:06] [SPEAKER_01] I think also could have been a fact that there may have been concern that if the jury sees him in prison garb or jailhouse garb, maybe that might have a prejudicial effect. Right. So when we saw him during the trial, he was not shackled and he was wearing basically street clothes.
[00:11:21] [SPEAKER_03] Yes. Looked like someone you might see on the street. But now he's in the jail garb for his sentencing because you don't have to worry about he's already convicted. So you don't have to worry about a jury seeing that. We noticed there were quite a few people there this time. We saw Randy Small's two brothers sitting to the side. They were actually sitting right near us. So they were here to observe it.
[00:11:45] [SPEAKER_03] For a reminder for everyone who may not remember this from the last episodes, they were the ones who actually alerted law enforcement to the fact that something had happened. They reached out to Indiana State police officers at the Pendleton Post, which is very far away from Brown County. And there's some debate amongst law enforcement and the prosecution and the defense that perhaps they sort of may have seen more than they said. But essentially, they're the ones who sounded the alarm and said our brother is in this property in Brown County.
[00:12:14] [SPEAKER_03] He may be suicidal and he may be trying to commit suicide by cop. He may have shot somebody. There's debate about their involvement in this, but at the very least, they did come forward for that. And of course, then they called Randy while on camera from the officer's body camera and he's yelling at them for snitching on him. So that was some damning moments in the actual trial. But they were there to see this out.
[00:12:37] [SPEAKER_01] So Small has led to the defense table. He confers with his defense counsel, Andrew Baldwin, from the criminal defense team. In the actual trial, Andrew Baldwin was working with a co-counsel named Kelly Pyle. She was not present today. It was just Andy Baldwin.
[00:12:55] [SPEAKER_03] Which makes sense because they were both taking different aspects of the trial. But in this situation, the trial is over. It's sentencing. You definitely need the representation there for that. But you don't necessarily need to have the full court press coming out there. So Andy Baldwin was conferring with Randy. They're discussing. And then...
[00:13:17] [SPEAKER_01] One thing that's worth noting, I think we talked about this in past episodes too, is that Randy Small has kind of a loud, booming voice. So we were diagonally across from the defense table. We were about as far away from the defense table as it was possible to get and still be in the courtroom. And I clearly heard Randy Small lean over to his attorney, Baldwin, and say, I probably won't see you no more after today.
[00:13:45] [SPEAKER_03] Yeah, I heard that too. I wrote that down too. I was like, whoa.
[00:13:49] [SPEAKER_01] I could not hear attorney Baldwin's response. But this was also an issue during the trial because we've heard that Small made some inflammatory comments during the course of the trial that were likely overheard by the jury. It might possibly have influenced their verdict.
[00:14:06] [SPEAKER_03] I heard clearly him say some curse words about Rob Seat, the deputy prosecutor. And that was pretty shocking because, I don't know, you would think you'd be trying to have some self-control at your own trial for murder. Because at the very least, even if you're angered by what somebody is saying, you're right in front of the jury. We were on the prosecution side. So, I mean, we were on...
[00:14:32] [SPEAKER_01] We were on the prosecution side of the courtroom.
[00:14:34] [SPEAKER_03] Yeah, of the courtroom. Not, yeah. No, we're very biased for the prosecution. No, we were on the prosecution side of the courtroom, meaning that if we heard it, I think the jury definitely heard it because they were closer to Randy. There were some pretty surprising moments in the trial.
[00:14:48] [SPEAKER_01] The prosecution today was represented by Brown County Prosecutor Ted Adams and Deputy Prosecutor Rob Seat. I'll just quickly note they've had a busy month. I know they just were called in to handle a child molestation case in Johnson County, which they won. So they've been pretty busy.
[00:15:09] [SPEAKER_03] I'm going to say this. Also, just, you know, I do want to underscore, because this is probably the last we'll cover, the Randy Small case and the Bob Adair case. You know, the Brown County Prosecutor's Office has an excellent team behind it. And there's a lot of excellent work done by Mr. Adams, Mr. Seat, and Detective Brian Schrader, who was the lead detective on this. And the same goes for the criminal defense team.
[00:15:35] [SPEAKER_03] Andy Baldwin, Kelly Pyle did an admirable job trying to pick apart the prosecution's case. That's what defense attorneys do. That's what their job is. And trying to argue that there's reasonable doubt here. They were not successful. But I think there was a lot of legal talent here. So for me, it's nice to see that because you're really seeing the system working as it should with talented people on both sides, really working for their cause and trying to make arguments to that effect.
[00:16:04] [SPEAKER_03] So and I thought Judge Mary Wirtz, who was overseeing all this, did a good job of she had sort of a light touch as a judge. She was not overbearing in her presence or anything. She was just kind of trusting everything to play out well and then possibly intervening to ensure that things went smoothly and that Mr. Small got a fair trial. So I thought she did a good job, too.
[00:16:26] [SPEAKER_01] So the session started out with briefly talking about the pre-sentence report prepared by the probation department.
[00:16:35] [SPEAKER_03] Yes, my understanding is that that was prepared by chief probation officer of Brown County Jennifer Acton. So that's where the probation office does extensive research. It's often a very long document. And it's putting in all the possible mitigating, aggravating factors, all the background, everything the judge needs to know about this person before they render a sentence.
[00:16:58] [SPEAKER_01] And these these reports often include very personal information. So because of this, they're not made public. So Anya and I have not been able to read this pre-sentence report, nor has really anyone else except for the attorneys and the judge.
[00:17:16] [SPEAKER_03] Nor would we expect to unless somebody leaked something to us, which obviously did not happen here. But like that's just standard. Yeah, that's not that you can't get everything at trial. You can get a lot, but you can't get everything. That's one thing that, you know, even if it's a high profile case, you should never expect that to get out.
[00:17:33] [SPEAKER_01] Judge then asked the defense if they planned on presenting any evidence. And attorney Andy Baldwin said they did not since, in fact, Randy Small intended to appeal the verdict. And then the state calls to the stand someone to make a victim impact statement.
[00:17:54] [SPEAKER_03] So this is Bob Adair's daughter, Lauren. Bob Adair obviously is the victim in this situation. He was killed in a really sudden and frankly, heinous fashion. The role she served at trial was essentially to underscore the anguish and pain caused by Bob Adair's sudden violent death.
[00:18:17] [SPEAKER_01] And she also wanted to refute some of the characterizations of Bob Adair because the defense was arguing that this was an act of self-defense. The death of Bob Adair was the result of an act of self-defense. And so part of what she wanted to tell the jury was this is not the sort of man who would pose a risk to someone. You don't need to act in self-defense against a person like this.
[00:18:45] [SPEAKER_03] And so at trial, she was under oath. She was giving evidence, giving testimony, you know, responding to the questions from the prosecutor. And that's that was the trial. But here we're at a sentencing hearing. So that's all over. And she can basically speak to her experience and speak to the devastation.
[00:19:09] [SPEAKER_01] She can talk about what's in her heart. She doesn't have to follow some preset strategy established by a prosecutor or anything of that nature. She can get up there and say, this is how I feel about losing my dad. This is what I feel should happen to the person who took him out of this world.
[00:19:28] [SPEAKER_03] And this was an incredibly angry and, in my opinion, powerful statement made by her.
[00:19:34] [SPEAKER_01] It was very emotional.
[00:19:35] [SPEAKER_03] It was very emotional. To be honest, I think both of our mouths were open because I've never heard. I mean, listen, I don't I'm not going to say I have the most extensive experience with covering trials. I think we'd like to continue covering trials because it's interesting and it gives you a real look into the legal process and the criminal justice system. But I mean, in the limited experiencing in the limited experience we have with sentencing. With sentencing, I've never seen a victim impact statement like this.
[00:20:05] [SPEAKER_03] And she she laid into small.
[00:20:09] [SPEAKER_01] Yeah, I think we were both frantically scribbling down some phrases and maybe we can share some of those.
[00:20:15] [SPEAKER_03] Yeah, she starts off by calling him basically saying I'm paraphrasing. You're not a man. You're a demon. She refers to him as a demon multiple times.
[00:20:23] [SPEAKER_01] I will never, ever forgive you. You're the lowest thing on this earth. You're not Brown County pond scum. You are West Virginia pond scum. And to be clear, I don't believe in saying that she was meant to criticize people from West Virginia. She was just trying to criticize this one particular person. And his family and his family and perhaps highlight the fact that they came from outside.
[00:20:48] [SPEAKER_03] Yeah, basically, they're interlopers in the community coming from outside and not rather than making friends and being good neighbors. They're terrible neighbors, in her view.
[00:20:58] [SPEAKER_01] And we can all agree West Virginia is a fine place.
[00:21:00] [SPEAKER_03] West Virginia is gorgeous. And I also will say we've visited there a few times, had a great time at the Mothman Museum in Point Pleasant. And also, if you go to Susie's Hamburgers in South Charleston, West Virginia, that's basically an old burger chef. So you actually get kind of a burger chef experience. So obviously, having covered the burger chef case, we're obsessed with that. But anyways.
[00:21:23] [SPEAKER_01] To get back to this very powerful impact statement, Lauren also said, You have no one who cares about you. She referred to Small's, quote, piece of shit family. You are evil and your parents were too. This demon is nothing but pure evil, referring to Small. She says, I hope you die a slow and painful death.
[00:21:46] [SPEAKER_03] She said, I will spit upon his family, spit upon him. And one thing I got from the trial was that family, family loyalty, the family's land, a possessiveness about the family's property seemed to underscore. It was kind of a quiet thread running through some of the Randy Small stuff. Like, that's just a sense I'm getting. Like, nobody laid that out as clearly as Lauren in the statement. But she's hitting him where it hurts, seemingly.
[00:22:15] [SPEAKER_03] Because he's kind of seems like some of the issues about his property and his family's property and how dare you put building materials on his family's property. Like, there seemed to be something there. So I thought it was interesting that she underscored that.
[00:22:29] [SPEAKER_01] Yeah, I think it was clear that this was an emotional statement, but it was very thought out, thought out, very intentionally constructive. And then she spent some time on this.
[00:22:41] [SPEAKER_03] Yes. And it seemed, I mean, I hope it was cathartic for her because, you know, this is like if you put yourself in her position, she's living her life. And suddenly you get a call saying that something like this happens to your elderly father. And somebody did this to him over what turns out to be a property dispute. I mean, that's just that's horrific.
[00:23:06] [SPEAKER_03] And I mean, the anger that everyone who cares about Bob Adair must have felt and must still feel over losing this man who seemed very beloved. He's he's a local musician. He's a local artist, you know, and whatever opinion you have about a property dispute, who's in the right, who's in the wrong. Once violence enters the picture, every everything else is out the window. It doesn't matter. We like to automate things here at the murder sheet.
[00:23:35] [SPEAKER_03] We get all kinds of alerts about our episodes. We schedule emails in advance. We set reminders for ourselves to do interviews, lest we accidentally ghost a detective or a defense attorney. Automation makes life easier because it's one less thing to have to think about. That's why we love Acorns. This is an automatic investment service that's built to help everyone invest, no matter how much money you have.
[00:23:58] [SPEAKER_01] You've heard us speak about our sponsor, Acorns, before. Today's episode is sponsored by them. Acorns is a financial wellness app that makes it easy to start saving and investing for your future. You don't need to be an expert. Acorns were a recommended diversified portfolio that matches you and your money goals. You don't need to be rich. Acorns lets you get started with the spare money you've got right now, even if all you've got is spare change.
[00:24:23] [SPEAKER_03] I just wish we had had an app like Acorns back when we were just starting out. It would have saved us so much money-related time and stress because it's really a no-brainer. All it takes is $5 or even just your spare change. Sign up now and join the over 13 million all-time customers who have already saved and invested over $22 billion with Acorns. Head to acorns.com slash msheet or download the Acorns app to get started. Paid non-client endorsement. Compensation provides incentive to positively promote Acorns.
[00:24:53] [SPEAKER_03] Tier 1 compensation provided. Investing involves risk. Acorns Advisors LLC and SEC Registered Investment Advisor. View important disclosures at acorns.com slash msheet. Here's one thing where you have the intensity of emotions actually kind of butt up against court proceedings. And while the goal with victim impact statements is to give some catharsis or an opportunity to speak or reclaim your voice to the victims and their families,
[00:25:21] [SPEAKER_03] there's a limit in terms of what's okay in court. So the judge actually did at one point sort of gently admonish Lauren to dial it back. And I think that probably we talked about it afterwards that probably had more to do with profanity used. Obviously, like you can totally understand Lauren's perspective because like that's probably what you'd want to say to this person. You'd want to tell them how disgusting and low you think they are if they if they killed somebody who meant so much to you.
[00:25:50] [SPEAKER_03] From the judge's perspective. She's looking at it as how do we make the system function? How you know, we need to treat the court like it's a temple. We've talked about in our episodes profiling Judge Francis Gull, who is, of course, the judge presiding over the Delphi case. Like she's been quoted in the press saying the courtroom is a temple. We have to treat it with solemnity.
[00:26:11] [SPEAKER_03] There's definitely a divide between the victim's experience and their experience, you know, the victim's experience with a loss and then the victim's experience in the court system. You're not necessarily going to get everything that you want to do. I mean, like, obviously, in some cases, I'm sure victims' families would want to kill the perpetrator themselves and not have them be in prison. So there are limits and there can be times when I just find that interesting. It's like an intersection where there's only so much you can say or do in court.
[00:26:41] [SPEAKER_01] After Lauren stepped down from the stand, the judge asked defense attorney Andy Baldwin for his arguments in this matter. He indicated that he didn't think Small should get anything worse than the presumptive sentence. And as a mitigating factor, he brought up the fact that Randy Small was a 56-year-old man and in his 56 years of life, he'd only had one criminal conviction.
[00:27:08] [SPEAKER_01] Prior to this incident, he was very much a law-abiding man.
[00:27:13] [SPEAKER_03] And to be clear, he was 56 when he shot and killed Bop-Ader. He's not 56 now. I think that happened in 2021.
[00:27:20] [SPEAKER_01] Right. And then Ted Adams gets to talk about aggravating factors. Yes.
[00:27:26] [SPEAKER_03] There was some lack of clarity on this that I don't really know if I fully understood, but there was some kind of criminal history with recklessness that they were unable to delve into.
[00:27:40] [SPEAKER_01] He had one criminal conviction of some kind. So Ted Adams said that should be potentially an aggravating factor. And he also brought up something interesting, which was that in 1997, I believe, Small had been charged with criminal recklessness and that this incident seemed to involve the use of a firearm. He didn't really give the details of this incident. Even though he was charged with this, it was dismissed.
[00:28:07] [SPEAKER_03] It was dismissed, but there was some element of it that was saying that Randy Small shouldn't possess rifles. Of course, if it was dropped, then that's moot.
[00:28:18] [SPEAKER_01] Prosecutor Adams also said that he felt that the nature and circumstances of this crime themselves should be considered an aggravating factor. He highlighted the fact that after Adair was shot, Small left him out in the hot field in the truck to rot and that Randy Small never notified law enforcement of his self-defense claims.
[00:28:43] [SPEAKER_01] And so because there was the aggravating factor of the circumstances of the crime and perhaps the previous charge, he said he wanted to have an aggravated sentence imposed on him between 60 and 65 years.
[00:28:59] [SPEAKER_03] How would you characterize Randy Small's demeanor as Lauren and later Ted Adams were speaking?
[00:29:06] [SPEAKER_01] To be honest, I wasn't watching him while Ted Adams was speaking. When Lauren was speaking, it almost seemed to me like he was trying to avoid her gaze.
[00:29:15] [SPEAKER_03] He was. She called him out at one point for smirking. I don't want to read into people's expression too much because I think that's overdone in true crime and frankly not particularly helpful. I could understand why she characterized it as a smirk, though. So that's all I'll say on it.
[00:29:32] [SPEAKER_01] So after Adams finished speaking, it was time for the judge to make her decision about the sentencing. She said that she didn't feel that she could consider as an aggravating factor the fact that he'd had a charge dismissed against him.
[00:29:50] [SPEAKER_03] Makes sense.
[00:29:51] [SPEAKER_01] Because if it's dismissed, you know, it basically...
[00:29:54] [SPEAKER_03] It didn't go anywhere.
[00:29:55] [SPEAKER_01] Yes. So not only... Yeah. So she couldn't consider that. But she did consider as an aggravating factor the fact that the victim of this crime was over the age of 65. And she also said that she felt that the nature and circumstances of this offense were especially heinous. She said you left him in that truck subject to coyotes.
[00:30:18] [SPEAKER_03] She also said the thought of his face on that floorboard will stick with me and just called the whole thing horrendous.
[00:30:26] [SPEAKER_01] And she also made the point that Adair was unarmed at the time. And by all accounts, other than that, given by Randy Small and members of the Small family, Bob Adair was a peaceful man.
[00:30:38] [SPEAKER_03] One point where she sounded maybe the word would be particularly disgusted, at least to me, was when she noted, I can't ever forget this was a dispute over property. Underscoring just the triviality of the events that led to this situation.
[00:30:58] [SPEAKER_03] As a reminder, our understanding from trials that Randy Small was angry because Bob Adair was keeping building materials on a field that belonged to the Small family. And as a result, Small kept on tearing out Bob Adair's mailbox. So just very petty. Very, very petty.
[00:31:19] [SPEAKER_01] She did say she did consider it as somewhat of a mitigator, the fact that he had, in fact, led a largely law-abiding life. With all of that said, she then made her sentence, which was?
[00:31:32] [SPEAKER_03] 60 years in the Indiana Department of Correction, all executed, none suspended. Now, our understanding is that the modern-day rules on good time allow for you to serve 75% of your sentence, which in this case is 45 years. Now, I'm really bad at math, just like embarrassingly bad, but when I multiply 60 by 0.75, I get 45.
[00:31:58] [SPEAKER_03] Given that Randy Small is...
[00:32:02] [SPEAKER_01] Randy Small was born in 1965.
[00:32:05] [SPEAKER_03] Meaning that he's 58. So 58 plus 45 is 103. I think this is essentially a life sentence for this particular offender.
[00:32:17] [SPEAKER_01] Yeah, I would agree with that.
[00:32:19] [SPEAKER_03] So this was obviously a very substantive punishment for a heinous and pretty horrible crime that obviously devastated the people who knew Bob Adair, devastated the community, and seemed to be completely pointless as far as everything went. Just truly senseless.
[00:32:38] [SPEAKER_01] And that wasn't quite the end of the hearing. It ended on a bit of an anticlimactic note because... Yeah. As indicated, Randy Small indicated he wanted to file an appeal. I'm not sure, obviously, what exactly the basis of that appeal would be, but if he is indigent, in other words, if he doesn't have enough money to pay for his own appellate attorney, then the state would provide him with one because that's the way the system works.
[00:33:07] [SPEAKER_01] And so then it became up to the judge to ask him questions to determine whether or not he had financial resources. And so she asked him some questions, established that at the time of the murder, he was getting $1,430 a month in disability. She asked him, are you still getting those payments? And he said he didn't know.
[00:33:30] [SPEAKER_01] And then she asked him about vehicles that he owned, and he says he didn't know if they were still in his name or not. And so then the judge basically said, I can't make a determination of whether or not you lack financial resources if you don't even have this information. So essentially, he's going to have to fill out some paperwork and submit it to the judge so she can determine whether or not it is his responsibility or the state's responsibility to pay for his appellate attorney.
[00:34:00] [SPEAKER_03] Absolutely. And yeah, I mean, it's anticlimactic, but it's sort of like it goes to show you that, you know, these things happen very differently than they're portrayed in fiction. And oftentimes it's that sort of minutiae or those questions of, okay, what happens next? Does he get appointed?
[00:34:16] [SPEAKER_03] Those are very important because obviously his appeal would be a chance to either get out of prison if the conviction is overturned or have a sentence reduced potentially if the sentence is overturned.
[00:34:32] [SPEAKER_01] Yeah, I'm not sure what his argument would be. I'm sure we will follow it. But I don't see us doing another episode on it. But if it's an interesting appeal, perhaps we'll talk about it on Cheat Sheet at some point.
[00:34:44] [SPEAKER_03] Yeah, and as for the Adair case in general, if you knew Bob Adair and you want to reach out and kind of speak with us or remember him as a person, not just how he died, please reach out. We'd love to hear from you and share that with our listeners.
[00:34:58] [SPEAKER_01] Yeah, I feel we've been focusing on what happened in court and perhaps we've neglected to explain what kind of a person Bob Adair was.
[00:35:05] [SPEAKER_03] Yeah, and he really sounds like a nice guy and it's just horrible what happened to him. So, you know, we'd love to hear from you. MurderSheet at gmail.com. Let us know about him and, you know, if you'd be willing to do an interview or just have, you know, some statement read on the air. Or, you know, that's we always want to go beyond just the cases and talk about the people at the center of them. So that would be something we'd love to do if anyone has anything to share about him.
[00:35:35] [SPEAKER_03] Also, I should note that we were happy to see there were other media there at this at the sentencing. And we met a very nice lady who I believe was from a media outlet. We did not get her outlet, though. So once that's up, once her her work is up, we'll be finding it and including it hopefully in our show notes so that you can read about the case from an additional perspective. But anyways, thank you all so much for listening. We really appreciate your support and you sticking with us.
[00:36:02] [SPEAKER_03] And we hope that you find these trial coverage episodes helpful for not only learning about specific cases, but perhaps learning a bit about how the whole criminal justice system works. We definitely appreciate getting to do these and would like to continue doing them. So we just hope that that's something that's helpful for our audience.
[00:36:22] [SPEAKER_01] Thanks so much. Thanks so much for listening to the Murder Sheet. If you have a tip concerning one of the cases we cover, please email us at murdersheet at gmail.com. If you have actionable information about an unsolved crime, please report it to the appropriate authorities.
[00:36:46] [SPEAKER_03] If you're interested in joining our Patreon, that's available at www.patreon.com slash murdersheet. If you want to tip us a bit of money for records requests, you can do so at www.buymeacoffee.com slash murdersheet. We very much appreciate any support.
[00:37:10] [SPEAKER_01] Special thanks to Kevin Tyler Greenlee, who composed the music for the Murder Sheet and who you can find on the web at kevintg.com.
[00:37:19] [SPEAKER_03] If you're looking to talk with other listeners about a case we've covered, you can join the Murder Sheet discussion group on Facebook. We mostly focus our time on research and reporting, so we're not on social media much. We do try to check our email account, but we ask for patience as we often receive a lot of messages. Thanks again for listening.
[00:37:43] [SPEAKER_01] Before we wrap up this episode, can we take just a moment to say a few more words about our great new sponsor, Acorns?
[00:37:51] [SPEAKER_03] Yeah, thanks so much to Acorns. Remember, when you support our sponsors, you're supporting us, and our sponsors make it possible for us to do this job, so we really appreciate them.
[00:37:59] [SPEAKER_00] We love our sponsors.
[00:38:00] [SPEAKER_03] Absolutely. Acorns is a terrific investing app. It's the perfect thing for somebody who wants to get started with their personal finance journey. That can seem daunting. It is daunting. I'm so not financially minded. For me, it's always really hard to get started with something like this, where you're like, what am I doing? But Acorns sort of takes the guesswork out of that. It gets you started, and it will essentially help you take control of your financial future.
[00:38:28] [SPEAKER_03] You can get set up pretty quickly, and it allows you to start automatically saving and investing. That money can help you, your kids, if you have a family, your retirement. And you don't need to be rich. You don't need to be an expert to do this. It's very simple. And you can start with only $5 or whatever change you have. It's not like you need to put in some massive payment.
[00:38:48] [SPEAKER_03] So it's a great fit for people who are starting out, but they want to take the next step and improve themselves financially and make their money work for them more. So if you're interested, head to acorns.com slash msheet or download the Acorns app to start saving and investing for your future today. Paid non-client endorsement. Compensation provides incentive to positively promote Acorns. Tier 1 compensation provided. Investing involved risk. Acorns Advisors LLC and SEC registered investment advisor.
[00:39:17] [SPEAKER_03] View important disclosures at acorns.com slash msheet.
[00:39:19] [SPEAKER_01] Before we go, we just wanted to say another few words about VIA. This is really a wonderful product. I think it's really helped both of us get a lot better rest.
[00:39:28] [SPEAKER_03] VIA is pretty much, I guess you'd say, the only lifestyle hemp brand out there. So what does that mean? It means that they're all about crafting different products to elicit different moods. Kevin and I really like their non-THC CBD products. Specifically, Zen really helps me fall asleep. Some Zen can really just kind of help me get more into that state where I can relax and fall asleep pretty easily. And they've been such a wonderful support to us. They're a longtime sponsor.
[00:39:55] [SPEAKER_03] We really love working with them, and they really make this show possible. I'm going to say this. You may not realize this, but when you support our sponsors, you're supporting us, and it kind of makes it possible for us to do this show. So if you or one of your loved ones is interested in trying some of this stuff, you're going to get a great deal. It's very high quality, high value.
[00:40:15] [SPEAKER_02] Anya, if I wanted to get this discount you speak of, what do I do?
[00:40:19] [SPEAKER_03] Okay, if you're 21 and older, head to VIAHEMP.com and use the code MSHEET to receive 15% off. And if you're new to VIA, get a free gift of your choice. That's V-I-I-A, hemp.com, and use code MSHEET at checkout.
[00:40:33] [SPEAKER_00] Spell the code.
[00:40:34] [SPEAKER_03] M-S-H-E-E-T. And after you purchase, they're going to ask you, hey, where did you hear about us? Say the murder sheet because then it lets them know that our ads are effective, and it really helps us out.
[00:40:47] [SPEAKER_01] Can we talk a little bit before we go about Quintz, a great new sponsor for us? I think in one of the ads that we've already done for them, we talked about the compliments I'm getting on my jacket. I know you're a very modest woman, but can we talk about the compliments you're getting on the Quintz products you wear?
[00:41:06] [SPEAKER_03] Yeah, I've got two of their Mongolian cashmere sweaters. They're a brand that just does this sort of luxurious products, but without the crazy costs really well. They give you Italian leather handbags. They do like European linen sheets. You have a really cool suede jacket. And I really like the way I look in my sweaters. I like the way you look in your bomber jacket. It looks super cool.
[00:41:32] [SPEAKER_02] You've gotten a lot of compliments when you go out wearing these sweaters.
[00:41:35] [SPEAKER_03] I think I have, yeah.
[00:41:36] [SPEAKER_02] And deservedly so.
[00:41:37] [SPEAKER_03] Also, I'm one of those people, my skin is very sensitive. So when it comes to wearing sweaters, sometimes something's too scratchy. It really bothers me. These are so soft. They're just very delicate and soft. Wearing them is lovely because they're super comfortable. You're not, you're not, it's not one of those things where you're like, you buy it and it looks great, but it doesn't feel that great. They look great. They feel great. But yeah, I really love them. And you got, you know, your cool jacket.
[00:42:05] [SPEAKER_03] I mean, that's a little bit of a, you're the guy who like wears the same thing all the time. So this was a bit of a gamble for you, a bit of a risk. You got something a bit different.
[00:42:13] [SPEAKER_01] I do wash my clothes.
[00:42:14] [SPEAKER_03] I know you wash your clothes, but I mean, you're filthy.
[00:42:18] [SPEAKER_01] You just made me sound awful. So no, I wash my clothes.
[00:42:22] [SPEAKER_03] But you don't really, you don't really experiment with fashion that much is what I'm saying. So this is a little bit out of the norm for you, but I think you really like it and it looks good.
[00:42:30] [SPEAKER_01] Thank you. Great products. Incredible prices. Absolutely. Quince.com.
[00:42:35] [SPEAKER_03] There you go. So you can go to quince.com slash msheet. And right now they're offering 365 day returns plus free shipping on your order. So it's quince.com slash msheet. That's quince.com slash msheet.

