NEWS FILE PHOTO Medicine Hat's Court of Queen's Bench is seen in this file photo.
A chance encounter and a footprint left in the snow led city police to a suspect in a million-dollar extortion plot, a Medicine Hat jury heard on Tuesday in the trial of Robert Hoefman.
Hoefman, 59, is facing charges of extortion as well as first-degree murder in relation to the Oct. 10, 2017 homicide of James Satre as part of a shakedown plot. The extortion target and information which could lead to his identification is covered under a publication ban.
Medicine Hat police Sgt. Kirt Murray testified that on Nov. 7, 2017, the target of the million-dollar extortion had received another letter at his workplace after getting the first one nearly a month earlier.
Murray was dispatched to the workplace as part of the investigation.
Police had collected evidence earlier in the day from a footprint impression outside the extortion target’s workplace.
When Murray arrived at the scene and parked, he recognized an individual walking nearby as a person of interest caught on a police trail camera 10 days earlier.
The image of the person of interest was captured near where the money bag for the extortion was left.
Murray told the court he followed the individual but lost sight of him. But he did note where the suspect laid fresh tracks in the snow-covered ground as well as the place the individual had stopped to look at something on the ground.
He testified he believed what caught the suspect’s attention was the red-coloured wax police sprayed on suspicious footprints earlier in the day to help preserve the shoe impression left in the snow. Murray added he took photos of the newly laid footprints from the suspect.
Murray also told the court how he was part of the earlier investigation and had placed covert surveillance cameras at three locations on Oct. 14 – the flagpole at the Trans-Canada Husky station, a walking path near St. Mary’s School and a municipal building on Kipling Street. All of those locations were part of a path of letters the target of the extortion was to follow. Two cameras were also set up at the extortion target’s workplace on the same day.
The court heard from Hoefman’s mother-in-law and daughter, both of whom said the accused was suffering from a “breakdown” during the time of the crimes he is alleged to have committed.
They also said Hoefman appeared physically unwell with the mother-in-law saying he would get confused.
The Crown focused parts of their questioning on Hoefman’s glasses with his daughter and mother-in-law telling the court Hoefman had lost them.
The mother-in-law said she believed the glasses were lost sometime before Oct. 9, 2017 but the daughter wasn’t sure when.
Both witnesses testified to Hoefman enjoying walking on the coulee trail running from College Drive to Kipling Street to photograph and enjoy “nature.”
The area was also near where his mother-in-law lived and her home was a few dozen metres from where the extortion money bag was left.
The court heard earlier testimony from the lead officer involved in the Medicine Hat Police Service’s Forensic Identification Unit run down the collection of evidence including blood, DNA, letters connected to the extortion and foot impressions.
Defence lawyer Ian McKay questioned in detail Sgt. Stacey Fishley’s handling of evidence by challenging his training and, specifically, why a single document wasn’t produced detailing the chain of custody of exhibits.
Fishley said all documentation relating to the handling of evidence was kept in the MHPS record management system and within the notes officers kept but couldn’t explain why a single chain-of -custody report wasn’t made.
The trial continues Wednesday.
