Adam Michael Kincaid
HANCOCK COUNTY — The rape trial of Adam Michael Kincaid was still in session late Thursday afternoon at print deadline, but officials with the case told the Daily Reporter the trial was headed for a pause after the first three days of testimony. Due to commitments on Friday, Aug. 11 (today) of Judge D.J. Davis, who is overseeing the case in Hancock County Superior Court 1, the trial is now expected to be settled early next week.
Once both sides rest, each side will then deliver a closing argument and then the jury will get the case to deliberate. Earlier this week Davis warned the jury they might have to come back next week to finish the trial after taking a break Friday.
Kincaid, 24, Indianapolis, is the former New Palestine man who has been accused of one count of rape, one count of attempted rape and two counts of sexual battery against two different women stemming from an incident in June of 2018.
According to a probable cause affidavit and officials who investigated the case, Kincaid raped, attempted rape and sexually abused victim 1 while also sexually abusing victim 2 in the back seat of his car following a night of drinking at a local house party.
The most serious charge against Kincaid carries up to 16 years in prison. The incidents happened when all three people allegedly involved were 19 years old — a year after they all three graduated from New Palestine High School in 2017. The three had been friends since childhood, it was reported earlier in the trial.
Day 3 of trial testimony started with Davis telling the jury they’d get in as much evidence as they could Thursday. The defense team then began their cross examination of a medical expert, a state witness, who told the jury late Wednesday it’s not uncommon for a sexual assault victim to wait to report an incident and that reporting an event at a later time does happen often and for various reasons.
Michael Borning, one of the defense attorneys, handled the cross examination and asked the medical expert if she was paid to work with the state on the case and she noted she was. He also questioned the witness on how victims of sexual abuse answer questions and asked if she believed them. The medical expert noted it wasn’t her role to determine if an alleged victim is telling the truth.
On redirect, deputy prosecutor Abigail Jessup, (who is assisting lead prosecutor Claramary Winebrenner, former prosecutor in Dekalb County) noted a medical expert’s time is valuable and paying medical experts is not abnormal. The medical expert also stated she’d seen an estimated 1,000 sexual assault victims during her career.
The next witness for the state was the woman (who was 19 at the time) who hosted the house party where Kincaid and the alleged victims attended before the alleged incident of June 2018. She was brought in at first without the jury present and told she could not discuss any events about Kincaid, who she has also accused of rape from a completely separate incident in 2021.
When the jury was brought back in, they heard a few comments from the woman about the night of June 2018. She stated both alleged victims planned to spend the night after the house party but ended up leaving after they returned from a trip to a fast food restaurant when the alleged incident had occurred during the drive. She also noted she saw alleged victim 1 crying later in the evening before she left.
The woman then told the jury Kincaid approached her after the alleged incident and said, “I don’t know what they are saying, but I didn’t do anything.”
When this trial is finished, Kincaid will face another rape charge, the one mentioned, in Indianapolis from an alleged separate incident that officials there say happened after the 2018 incident, with another of his childhood friends, in March of 2021. That case is scheduled to go to trial in mid-September in Marion Superior Court 31. In that case, according to court records, Kincaid is facing a Level 3 felony rape charge and a Level 5 felony criminal confinement with bodily injury charge.
The next witness for the state’s case was former Hancock County Sheriff’s Department Detective Jake Lewis, who handled the investigation. On cross examination, Boring asked why Lewis, now a member of the Fortville Police Department, didn’t look at photos, videos or text messages from the night of the incident. Lewis stated none of those things were relevant to the criminal acts committed by Kincaid in the back of his car with the alleged victims.
The Daily Reporter will update the case online and in Saturday’s paper if the trial should go to the jury for deliberations late Thursday. If it did not, the case is scheduled to be continued Monday, Aug. 14.
