Baseball bat beating gets
man 4 years

Copyright © 2008
Gallup Independent
By Phil Stake
Staff writer

GALLUP — Ernest Cadman Jr., who is charged with violently beating a former girlfriend using an aluminum baseball bat, agreed Thursday to serve at least four years in prison.

Cadman Jr. agreed to the sentence as part of a plea bargain negotiated with prosecutor Bernadine Martin during his preliminary hearing at Magistrate Court Thursday. Cadman agreed to serve a total of seven years in prison, three years for the most-recent aggravated battery charge, a third-degree felony, and four years for his habitual felon status. However it is assumed that Cadman will serve both sentences concurrently — whether he will or not will be up to a district judge — bringing the actual time served down to four years.

The latest charge stems from events that occurred around 8 p.m. on Oct. 7. According to police reports, which reflect interviews with the victim and witnesses, Cadman, Jr. entered the home of Pamela Yazzie, making accusations that she was cheating on him with another man. Yazzie said she had not been involved with Cadman, Jr. for a long time and, in fact, had a restraining order against him.

Cadman, Jr., proceeded to pummel Yazzie with closed fists and to throw her against walls, at one point breaking a mirror with her head and putting a hole in the wall.

Yazzie’s daughter attempted to quell Cadman’s rage with an aluminum baseball bat, which he took away and used against her mother. Yazzie put her arms up in defense and took the first blow to the forearm, but the second strike with the bat caught her in the right rib cage. An ambulance transported Yazzie to Gallup Indian Medical Center, where she received medical care for the injuries inflicted by Cadman, Jr.

Cadman, Jr., followed the ambulance in Yazzie’s car and was waiting in the parking lot of the hospital when police arrived. Asked what had happened to cause Yazzie’s injuries, Cadman, Jr., told police that Yazzie had fallen.

Another term of the plea bargain states that Cadman must have no contact with Pamela Yazzie or her children.