The Medicine Hat Court of Queen's Bench facility is pictured.--NEWS PHOTO
Robert Hoefman is guilty of first-degree murder and extortion, a Medicine Hat jury ruled last night.
Hoefman was arrested Nov. 8, 2017 after a nearly month-long threat of mass murder hung over the city.
The now convicted murderer hung his head and rubbed his eyes as the jury read out the verdict, “guilty.”
The 59-year-old man killed James Satre on Oct. 10, 2017 as part of a $1 million extortion plot and repeatedly threatened to kill dozens more if his demands weren’t met.
The victim of the extortion cannot be named due to a publication ban but the court heard how that individual and those close to him were repeatedly threatened by Hoefman with torture and violent deaths.
The threats came by way of a series of letters in which Hoefman presented himself as a team of killers called the “Wolf Pack.” The letters, written by Hoefman, threatened to also kill dozens of random Hatters, including children, if the money wasn’t provided.
The jury took a little more than six hours coming to a verdict.
Over the course of more than three weeks, jurors heard of a mountain of evidence against Hoefman, from DNA to forensic searches of the man’s computer.
A pair of glasses proved critical in tying the convicted murderer to the scene of the stabbing of his victim.
The glasses, recovered at the murder scene, were originally not believed to be connected to Satre’s killer until police were informed by Hoefman’s family members of the man losing them.
Testing of the glasses found both the blood of Satre on them as well as Hoefman’s genetic profile recovered from the arms and nose of the spectacles.
The glasses were taken to a local optometrist who confirmed they matched Hoefman’s prescription.
The forensic search of a laptop computer and digital storage devices recovered from Hoefman’s residence also pointed the finger of guilt against the man.
Copies of the extortion letters were recovered from the devices despite being deleted with Medicine Hat digital recovery specialists pulling out otherwise hidden evidence.
Damning evidence also included a reconstructed apparent rough draft of a second-chance extortion letter recovered from a paper shredder at Hoefman’s residence. A similar extortion letter was delivered to the extortion victim the day before Hoefman’s arrest on Nov. 8.
Hoefman’s DNA was also found on two of the extortion letters.
Sentencing will be held this afternoon.
First-degree murder comes with an automatic life sentence with no chance of parole for at least 25-years.
