Peterson's friends and neighbors shocked at murder charge in Marino case

Shawn Doherty  —  6/28/2008 8:05 pm

Friends and neighbors of Adam Peterson say they are shocked that the 20-year-old Minnesota native has been charged with first-degree homicide in the death of Joel Marino, but neighbors in his former downtown apartment building, 431 W. Main St., say that over the past year, there have been growing problems with loud parties, drugs and drinking there.

"It's a pretty shady building with a lot of shady characters living here," said Shauheen Soofi.

Despite the problems, Soofi, a graduate student at the UW School of Engineering, has stayed in his apartment in the three-story red brick complex for four years. At $510 a month, the rent is a deal. But recent events have been too much -- he is moving out in August.

His girlfriend, Jennifer McGarry, is relieved. "It's just creepy here," she said.

A representative of H&H Management Co., which owns the building at 431 W. Main St., declined to comment about the building on the record Saturday.

Residents of the building pointed to three apartments as being the center for the disturbances, including the one lived in by Adam Peterson and his twin brother, Eric. Two neighbors on that floor said the residents in the other two problem apartments knew each other and partied together. But neither of the neighbors claimed to know the Petersons.

"I just saw them once or twice," said Kevin Rhyne, who opened his door just a crack to speak to a reporter. "People stick to themselves here."

One resident who lives in an adjoining building said that one night in early March, he was awakened around 3 or 4 a.m. by screaming that he is sure came from Peterson's apartment. The screaming person, who the resident could not identify, was repeating "I'm going to kill that bitch. I'm going to kill that f------- whore."

Peterson does not have a prior criminal record in Wisconsin.

Madison police announced at a news conference Friday that they matched Peterson's DNA with evidence on the knife used on Marino as well as more on a hat and backpack found near Marino's home on Monona Bay. He was stabbed there on Jan. 28, and died in a nearby alley.

Friends contacted by The Capital Times via Peterson's Facebook page say he transferred to UW-Madison in the fall after being at UW-La Crosse for his freshman year. Police said he dropped out of UW-Madison before Marino's death. They took the DNA sample from him Thursday at his mother's home in Grant, Minn., outside Stillwater on the Mississippi River.

Police Capt. James Wheeler said at the news conference Friday that they have not established a reason why Peterson would have killed Marino.

All of Peterson's friends contacted by The Capital Times via Facebook said they were shocked that he would be connected with Marino's death. One high school and college classmate wrote that he knows him as a talented baseball player and "always a very nice guy."

"All his friends and his brother (who he spent a lot of time with) were incredibly friendly, caring, intelligent people who I have always respected," wrote the classmate, who asked not to be identified.

"I'm very sad that this has happened, and I dread to think that a former teammate, classmate, and friend may be spending the rest of his life in prison."

Other people who knew Peterson were surprised by Friday's announcement as well.

At the Main Street apartment building, a different Eric Peterson, 34, lives in Apt. 204, where neighbors complained of screaming, shouting, swearing, and loud music at all hours. Neighbors also claimed that detectives descended on the apartment several days after UW-Madison student Brittany Sue Zimmermann was murdered in April, and two men were taken into custody. No one has been charged in that case.

Peterson said a reporter was the second visitor he has had recently who confused him with the Peterson brothers upstairs.

"The first visit was from the detectives. They got me mixed up," said Peterson, barefoot and dressed in black sweatpants. He apologized for the mess in his efficiency. Cold pizza was on the kitchen counter, and dirty dishes and clothes were strewn on the floor. A blanket hung lopsided from the window as a sort of makeshift curtain.

Peterson agreed that his neighbors had good reason to complain. "I fell in with a bad crowd," he said. "I was having some problems with drinking. I'm trying to get myself out of this. I don't have time anymore for idiots or bums."

Peterson moved into his apartment last August, he said. "Some people were staying with me on and off. Some of them were homeless. I wanted to help them out. The police were asking me about them, too. Some of them got in trouble. I didn't find out until too late that many of them were drug dealers"

Peterson said most of the people who hung out in his apartment were in their 40s and 50s, and used and dealt crack cocaine. He said that he, however, does not use cocaine. "My drug of choice is alcohol."

Peterson said things have quieted down since the police visited him shortly after the Zimmermann murder and the landlord threatened to evict him. " It's calmed down quite a lot. I've not had people staying with me for quite a while. It's just not worth it. It's been nothing but trouble."

He described the people he had allowed to crash on his floor as people he felt sorry for. "I believe in trying to help people out," he said. "I didn't know they were drug runners and users." He said he has no phone service anymore. "The drug dealers were using it."

He denied that the Peterson brothers were part of the partying in his apartment, but said they "hung out" with one of the partiers, a friend who lived upstairs. When informed that Adam Peterson is a suspect in the death of Joel Marino, his eyes became watery.

"Wow," he said, and let a long silence pass. "I'm very surprised. And the DNA actually matched? Wow."

Peterson said that he had met Adam Peterson several times and spoken with him once after Peterson's laptop was stolen. Police said Friday that it was Adam Peterson's report of that theft and his strange behavior then that put him on their radar.

"We are in different worlds and different ages and different generations," Eric Peterson said of Adam. "I grew up on a farm in Mazomanie. Peterson is a college kid." The Peterson brothers were friendly, he said, and nothing seemed unusual about them. "I never would have expected this," he said. "They were just clean-cut college kids in jeans."

Several residents complained that over the past year both the apartments and the neighborhood as a whole have gone downhill.

Liz Johnson, a UW student who lives on the first floor of the apartment building, was stunned when informed that the man accused of Marino's murder had lived in her same apartment building. "What a shock," she said, and was silent for several moments. "That's crazy!" Johnson said she's never had a problem with residents in the apartment building. "People keep to themselves," she said. "You never expect something like this to happen in your own backyard." Johnson says she always carries a bottle of mace with her when she walks around the neighborhood. She also said she is moving out this summer. "I'm definitely not going to live here next year," she said. "There's too many drunks around at night. I want to get out of this neighborhood."

Residents complained that the backyard of the apartments feels especially unsafe. "It's the perfect place for creeps to roam around at night, away from the roads," Soofi said. He said that twice, late at night recently, a stranger in a black stocking cap knocked on his door and then fled when he realized he had the wrong apartment. "He was totally wiped out. He was probably running drugs or something," he said.

Another man who lives in the complex led a reporter through the buildings worn and dirty red carpeting out back, where the yard was littered with garbage and weeds. He pointed out how simple it was for residents of his complex to get into the backyards and homes on Doty Street, where just the next block up the street Zimmermann was murdered. Police said Friday that there is no forensic link between Peterson and Zimmermann's death.

While residents expressed relief that a suspect had been arrested in the Marino case, they were concerned that the person who killed the girl right up the street is still at large. "I sure hope they catch that guy who killed Brittany," said Marty, a resident of the apartment complex who asked that his last name not be used. "I'm afraid of retaliation," he explained. Marty said he knew Brittany from passing her on the sidewalk, and that whenever he saw her he'd greet her the way he greeted other women in the neighborhood he has called home for 25 years: "Stay as gorgeous as you are."

Erin Joswick lives across the street from the green home Zimmermann was murdered in. Ever since that murder, she says, she has kept chains on her doors and the windows shut, even when it gets stuffy

"I still can't believe it. I was at home in the middle of a beautiful afternoon feeding my 1-year-old lunch, while something that terrible was happening right across the street. I feel awful that I didn't hear anything, that I couldn't do anything to help," she said.

Yet while some residents spoke of their frustration at the changing face of the area they live in, others voiced concern that the homeless who share the neighborhood have been unfairly targeted as suspects.

Emily Whitmore, a UW student who works with the homeless, expressed relief that the suspect arrested is not a homeless individual. "See," she said. "That just goes to show you. Here's a middle-class college kid and he's not homeless."

Shawn Doherty  —  6/28/2008 8:05 pm