Rookie defender in at deep end

PORT ST. LUCIE - James Adams' trial lawyer was a new assistant public defender on the job less than a year when Edgar Brown was murdered.

After Adams was convicted, lawyer N. Richard Schopp presented no witnesses in a hearing to decide life or death, but he gave a one-minute statement.

Schopp was admitted to the Florida Bar in May 1973, six months before the murder, though he said he was permitted to practice in January. As the case neared trial, the judge even noted his ''overload of work,'' records show.

Now in private practice, Schopp acknowledged that having a new lawyer on such a major case was not ideal.

He said he did his best to represent Adams, working with another lawyer and investigator: ``We were looking at any defense that would exculpate him. We looked for anything.''

He thought of teenager Vivian Nickerson as ''the primary suspect from the point of view of the defense.'' She denied involvement. He then asked her to testify for Adams at sentencing and, when she wouldn't, he decided against calling anyone.

Schopp found Adams a reluctant client: ''He didn't give us anything to work with as far as the prior convictions,'' he said. 'James' stance was always deny, deny, deny.''

Though Schopp admitted he thought Adams was guilty, he told The Herald recently that he still wonders how Adams could have gotten to the victim's house 12 miles away from where the card game was being played.

``It doesn't make any sense how he could run out there, commit this burglary, and run back.

``I just didn't see any evidence where he sat down and planned this out. . . . It nags at me.''

-- RONNIE GREENE