Personal items link Hoefman to crime scenes, court hears

By Alex McCuaig Special to the News on March 12, 2021.

The connections between Robert Hoefman and evidence collected as part of a 2017 homicide and extortion got closer Thursday as the court heard of shoes recovered from the accused’s home matching the brand which left footprints near a crime scene.

It was just one piece of a litany of evidence brought before the court on Thursday ranging from clothing, a paper shredder, broken barbecue tongs and even used chewing tobacco.

Hoefman, 59, is accused of the 2017 first-degree murder of 63-year-old James Satre to further a $1-million extortion plot on an individual who can’t be named due to a publication ban.

Medicine Hat police Const. Jeff Unrau testified to seizing a pair of Nike Air Monarch shoes at Hoefman’s residence on Nov. 8, 2017 after police executed a search warrant at the man’s home.

That particular brand of shoe matched footprints left in the snow near the extortion target’s workplace which were collected as evidence on Nov. 7 and sent to RCMP shoe print experts for analysis, according to the agreed statement of facts.

Those facts agreed to by both Crown and defence identified those prints as coming from Nike Air Monarch shoes.

Unrah also testified to collecting a pair of glasses at the scene of the Oct. 10, 2017 Satre homicide near the intersection of Mill Street and Smelter Avenue.

Unrau told the court how the glasses were taken to a Medicine Hat optometrist as well as sent for DNA analysis.

The court has heard previous testimony about the glasses from members of Hoefman’s family, including his mother-in-law who told the jury she understood them to be lost sometime prior to Oct. 9, 2017.

The court also heard of collecting evidence from the home of Hoefman on Nov. 7 as the month-long investigation started to wind down with the arrest of the man. That investigation saw city police throwing dozens of officers into play to stop the menacing letters being sent to the target of the extortion.

Of note among the items seized at Hoefman’s residence was a paper shredder and attached waste bin. The court has heard earlier submissions that paper shreds were reassembled as part of the investigation.

Video evidence was also seen in court connected to an attempt to stick a note on the door of the workplace of the extortion target.

The court was shown video early in the proceedings of this attempt, more on Thursday showing an individual carrying a long stick with the court hearing how police located a similar stick in a pile of construction material near the extortion target’s workplace.

The court is not scheduled to sit on Friday with proceedings continuing Monday.

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