Eugene man sentenced to Prison for four day assault on Woman – AA related
The victim of a brutal four-day assault faced her attacker Friday in Lane County Circuit Court, telling a packed courtroom of how the crime impacted her life and challenging her attacker to “do better.”
“I hope you do better, because I know I will,” the woman told Adam Tardie in the moments before he was sentenced to 4½ years in prison.
A 12-person jury found Tardie guilty in April of three counts of felony coercion, three counts of felony strangulation and two counts of felony fourth-degree assault. The other charges, which included multiple Measure 11 counts of rape and sexual abuse, as well as kidnapping charges were dismissed.
Prosecutors asked for a 16½ year sentence, arguing that the 2016 assault equaled four separate criminal episodes. Tardie’s defense attorneys asked for probation on the premise that the assault was just one criminal episode and that Tardie was a changed man.
Ultimately, Judge Clara Rigmaiden ruled that while Tardie may have changed — getting off of methamphetamine and attending Alcoholics Anonymous — he still needed to take responsibility for his crimes. Rigmaiden did find that the assault was one criminal episode, but because Tardie was on probation at the time of the crime, she enhanced his sentence.
Tardie apologized to the woman and her parents, addressing them directly in the courtroom filled mostly with his family and friends.
“There’s nothing I can say to make it better for you,” Tardie said. “All I can do is move forward from here and live a clean and sober and happy life.”
Tardie was first arrested in March 2017, three months after the victim escaped from his Eugene home on Hilyard Street, allegedly having been held captive for four days during which time she was allegedly beaten and raped. According to a search warrant affidavit filed at the time, the victim was screaming and frantic when police found her at East 43rd Avenue and Fox Hollow Road. She had a fat lip and bruising and swelling on her face, the affidavit stated.
The woman told Rigmaiden in court Friday that no one will ever understand the torment, manipulation and abuse she suffered, long before those four days in December 2016 and long after, outlining a history of domestic violence at the hands of Tardie.
The assault was captured on Tardie’s own surveillance videos taken from inside his 2,242-square foot home. Those videos were played for the jury during the trial. During the sentencing hearing, prosecutor Dan Higgins said that Tardie initially denied assaulting the victim — telling Eugene police that the woman was crazy — until officers served a search warrant to collect the cameras. The victim told Rigmaiden on Friday that the videos only provided a snapshot into her daily life with Tardie during their two-year relationship, and that no amount of AA meetings or time in prison would change that.
https://www.registerguard.com/news/20190629/eugene-man-sentenced-to-prison-for-four-day-assault-on-woman
