Deal is made in killing at alleged meth house

By Matt Pordum (contact)

Monday, Jan. 24, 2005 | 9:39 a.m.

One of the two men accused in the killing of a 19-year-old at a home where alleged methamphetamine users lived pleaded guilty to lesser charges on Friday and is expected to be sentenced to five to 20 years.

Rodney Evans pleaded guilty to one count of voluntary manslaughter with use of a deadly weapon and one count of battery with use of a deadly weapon. His stipulated sentencing will be handed down Feb. 25 by District Judge Jennifer Togliatti.

Evans' attorney, Terrence Jackson, said the negotiation was reached after it became clear Evans was "less involved" in the incident and was more of an "aider and abettor."

Evans and 24-year-old Jim Holden both originally faced five charges of murder, attempted murder, conspiracy and kidnapping in connection with the Feb. 6, 2004, shooting at Evans' home in which 19-year-old Michael Panek was killed, and another man, Gary Sutton, was shot in the arm.

Evans admitted to entering the home with a baseball bat and preventing Sutton from trying to call 911.

Deputy District Attorney Marc DiGiacomo said Evans hired Holden to be "the muscle" after problems arose between Evans, Sutton and Panek at the home they all lived in from time to time.

DiGiacomo said the home on White Cap Street, near Charleston Boulevard and Christy Lane, was a "meth house" that Evans, Holden, Sutton and Panek and other drug users shared.

On Friday afternoon Togliatti ruled the portions of a jailhouse journal Holden wrote in which he claims to be a murderer for hire will be admissible at trial. She said only those portions that make reference to the murder and to him referring to himself as a hitman would be admitted.

In frenzied run-on sentences filled with misspellings and lacking punctuation, Holden's journal zigzags between complaining about headaches -- he says he hears voices and has violent nightmares -- and pining for his wife and son. But the bulk of the journal is dedicated to crimes he has committed or wants to commit.

"I can't sleep every time I close my eyes I see those two people I killed," begins an April 8 entry.

"The one on whitecap I did not want to kill but he pulled a knife but the other one was so easy I wonder what it felt like when I shot him in the head I wonder what was going thru his mind besides my bulit."

Holden is scheduled to stand trial on July 25 before Togliatti. Holden faces separate charges for the March 27 murder of 34-year-old Gerardo Ojeda-Garcia, who police said was shot in the head with a high-caliber rifle in an apartment at 3301 Civic Center Drive.

The Ojeda-Garcia case is to be tried before District Judge David Wall at a date not yet set.