LONGVIEW — Ryan Scott Adams said that despite “telling myself not to swing,” he wouldn’t stop swinging a hatchet at Robert Lorenzo Diaz III on May 11, according to police interview footage played for the jury during the third day of Adams’ murder trial Tuesday in Cowlitz County Superior Court.
That footage, which details an hour-long interview with Longview police detective Branden McNew on the day of Adams’ arrest, also shows Adams, 27, holding his head in his hands and crying, especially when retelling the moment he started swinging at Diaz, 32.
While Adams describes feeling “rage” just before the incident, he begins the police interview expressing concern for Diaz’ well being.
Adams, a Florida man, is charged with first-degree murder and faces life in prison. Testimony is expected to continue through at least Thursday. Diaz, of Massachusetts, suffered massive head wounds from the attack and died two days afterward. Neither man had any apparent connection to the area prior to the incident.
Adams’ defense has argued that Diaz moved toward him threateningly that day and that Adams acted in self defense. His attorneys have also raised Adams’ voluntary call to 911 and his emotional state when interviewed by police.
On the police recording, Adams told McNew that Shannon Miosek, whom he calls his girlfriend, traveled with him to Longview sometime after February 2018 to get medical care.
After staying in a camp on an overgrown lot near the 300 block of 14th Avenue for about two weeks, the two met a group of men travelling to California by van. Miosek decided she wanted to leave with those men. On the recording, Adams said he was concerned one of those men, Diaz, had been trying to get her drunk.
At some point on May 11, Adams, Miosek and Diaz walked back to their camp. Diaz got in his face, Adams said, with a “smiley” — or improvised weapon made from a heavy object attached to a chain — at his side. (Under cross examination, McNew said police recovered the smiley but did not send it in for DNA testing, unlike the hatchet.)
Adams told McNew that at some point, Diaz told him, “Don’t feel bad, bro, my girl left me too,” stepping closer to Adams as he spoke.
Adams told Diaz to get away, he said, but Diaz would not move. Adams described feeling “rage,” and the two were face to face when, Adams said, he hit Diaz in the head with the hatchet. The two men went to the ground, where Adams said he continued hitting him.
“I watched myself swing, and I’m telling myself not to swing, but I won’t stop,” he said in the recording. Miosek, who said she witnessed the attack, described it as “traumatizing” in previous testimony.
Afterwards, Adams and Miosek went to Holt’s Market nearby to call 911. Adams, who told dispatchers that “someone” assaulted Diaz, suggests in the recorded interview that Miosek told him what to say to dispatchers. (In previous testimony, Miosek said she was afraid for her safety and asked Adams to come with her to get help for Diaz rather than try to run away from him.)
During cross examination, defense attorney Joshua Gooday asked McNew what he thought about Adams’ call to 911 and show of concern about Diaz’s well being.
“If you call 911, it shows some kind of character,” McNew said. “If you’re trying to get help.”
