by Kevin Lilly
On Thursday, a Cass County judge sentenced a Logansport man to four years in prison for possession of crack cocaine.
Cass Circuit Court Judge Leo Burns accepted the terms of a plea agreement calling for 35-year-old Adonis Holmes to spend four years in the Indiana Department of Correction and two years on probation.
Holmes was arrested in March 2007 after police and firefighters responded to a house fire at 720 15th St.
The fire started in the kitchen after Holmes reportedly forgot he had food cooking on the stove. As a Logansport officer arrived on the scene, he saw Holmes standing outside the house trying to throw water onto the fire through an open window.
After being instructed to stop, Holmes walked away and began arguing with a woman in the alley near the residence, the officer reported. As the officer went to investigate the commotion, he saw Holmes drinking vodka from a bottle.
The woman, a resident of the house, claimed that a few days before the fire, Holmes had assaulted her. She told police he confined her to a car while he drove around Kokomo trying to find the person who reportedly stole $500 from him.
Holmes was placed under arrest. Upon searching him, police found a marijuana pipe in his pocket. While Holmes was being booked into the Cass County Jail, a correction officer discovered a bag of crack cocaine that weighed just over four grams.
Also in Holmes’ possession was a house key and an insurance card that belonged to the woman he was accused of battering.
Holmes was charged with possession of cocaine, domestic violence, criminal confinement, possession of paraphernalia, public intoxication, residential entry and possession of stolen property. Those charges were later amended by the prosecutor’s office.
The fire resulted in heavy damage to the kitchen and heat and smoke damage to the house, according to fire reports. An upstairs apartment had smoke damage.
Investigators ruled that the fire was accidental.
In February, Holmes, who was facing a class C felony charge of possession of cocaine, two counts of theft and one count of residential entry, pleaded guilty in exchange for a deal that dropped three of those counts and the habitual substance offender enhancement the prosecution had filed.
In a pre-sentence investigation, the probation department stated its concerns about the probation portion of the sentence because of Holmes’ lengthy criminal history. Prosecuting attorney James Ackermann said probation officers wanted assurances the defendant would successfully transition back into the community.
Holmes, defended by court-appointed attorney Jay Hirschauer, had been sitting in jail on a bond of $5,000 cash/$25,000 surety since his arrest in March of last year. He received credit for 369 days of jail time, meaning he could be eligible for release in about a year.
Kevin Lilly can be reached at (574) 732-5117, or via e-mail at kevin.lilly@pharostribune.com
