Defendant in 2003 death pleads guilty to misdemeanor

NORWALK — A man who faced a murder charge for the death of Michael Sheppard Jr. had the charges dismissed after he pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor.Adam White, 36, of Sandusky, pleaded guilty Tuesday to obstructing official business, a second-degree misdemeanor, in the Huron County Common Pleas Court.In exchange for his plea, the Ohio Attorney General's Office — which is prosecuting the case — dismissed murder and aggravated robbery charges each with a firearm specifications.When asked what specific conduct was considered obstructing official business and what led to the plea deal, attorney general's office spokesman Dave O'Neil said they had no comment.The court scheduled his sentencing for Tuesday when his jury trial was supposed to take place with co-defendant Scott Hall, 46, of Clyde. Hall will, instead, have a pretrial that day."These two hearings are scheduled to be done back-to-back," O'Neil said. A third co-defendant, Joshua Stamm, 37, pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter in October and was sentenced to serve three years in prison at the same time as an unrelated prison term in Florida.Case HistorySheppard went missing in May 2003. Perkins police initially investigated it as a missing persons case, but his family didn't believe he would go this long without contacting them.After years with no progress, the case was turned over to the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigations in 2009. Agent Tom Brokamp led the investigation. Brokamp eventually came to the conclusion that Sheppard was killed in a drug dispute after he returned from a trip to Las Vegas. He believed Sheppard was buried near Fox Lane, but despite multiple searches, including one in October, his body remains missing.Brokamp's investigation was able to gather enough evidence to lead to indictments on murder and robbery charges for White, Hall and Stamm in 2017. With White and Stamm's plea agreements, Hall is the only defendant left facing a murder charge for Sheppard's death.*Editor's Note: This article has been updated to correct the degree of misdemeanor to which White plead.Reach reporter Michael Harrington at michaelharrington@sanduskyregister.com, follow the Register at Facebook.com/SanduskyRegisterDefendant Adam White listens during a pretrial hearing on June 19, 2017, for murder and aggravated assault charges for the 2003 death of Michael Sheppard.