NEWS FILE PHOTO
The Medicine Hat Police major crimes unit investigate at the corner of Mill Street and Smelter Avenue on Oct. 11, 2017. Robert Hoefman has been charged with the first-degree murder of James Satre, and will go trial in the fall of 2020.
A nine-week trail has been scheduled for the fall of 2020 into what local police say is one of the most unusual murder cases they have ever seen in Medicine Hat.
Robert Hoefman is charged with first-degree murder in the death of James Satre, whose body was discovered in a lane near Mill Street in late-2017.
Police and prosecutors allege the killing was an intimidation tactic in a blackmail scheme to which Satre had no known connection.
Hoefman, who is in custody, was ordered to stand trial after a preliminary hearing in May.
This week defence lawyer Marc Crarer and Crown prosecutors finalized dates for the trial to take place between Sept. 28 and Dec. 4, 2020.
A pre-trial conference is set to take place this month to schedule witnesses who at this point are the subject of a publication ban. The identity of the target of the alleged extortion plot is also under a ban.
Hoefman was arrested on an extortion charge in November 2017 and then subsequently charged with murder in early 2018.
