Adel v. State

The trial court properly admitted testimony elicited from the roommate of the victim's acquaintance regarding his direct observations about the acquaintance's whereabouts around the time of the murder.

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Following a jury trial, Renato Adel was found guilty of malice murder for killing his roommate, Mesfin Asfaw, and theft by taking for taking Asfaw’s car.1 On appeal, Adel contends, among other things, that the evidence presented at trial was insufficient to support the verdict and that his trial counsel was ineffective. We affirm. 1. Viewed in the light most favorable to the jury’s verdict, the record reveals that, at approximately 5:00 p.m. on May 13, 2007, Asfaw drove his car to visit Paul Goss at the apartment that Goss shared with Randy Domantay. When Asfaw found out that Goss was not home, he left. About two hours later, Domantay and Goss went to visit Asfaw at the apartment Asfaw shared with Adel. Although Asfaw’s car was in the parking lot, Adel informed them that Asfaw was not home and that he did not know where Asfaw was. Adel also did not let the men into the apartment. The next day, Asfaw uncharacteristically did not show up for work. Adel worked that night until around midnight. Although Adel normally rode the bus to work, that night, Adel drove Asfaw’s car to work.

At 4:05 a.m. the next morning, Kennathia Freeman, a woman who lived on Charter Lane a street on which Adel used to live and that was twenty-two miles away from his current residence, was returning home and noticed a fire on the side of the road and a person squatting by the road watching the fire. After pulling into her residence, the person saw a four-door truck drive by the fire. Goss owned a similar truck. Later that morning, Asfaw’s body was found off Charter Lane, burned having been doused with an accelerant, decapitated, drained of almost all blood, missing most of his internal organs, and cut into pieces.

Adel v. State

The trial court properly admitted testimony elicited from the roommate of the victim's acquaintance regarding his direct observations about the acquaintance's whereabouts around the time of the murder.

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