Robert Hoefman pictured in an image taken on Oct. 18, 2017 with a police trail camera set up at the scene of where a million-dollar extortion drop was to be made off College Drive. During testimony last week, Sgt. Jeff Klick identified the image to be Hoefman as he appeared when he first encountered the man after being alerted to the trail camera being triggered.--TRAIL CAM SCREENSHOT
The murder and extortion trial of Robert Hoefman continued Monday with the jury hearing more details on items seized from the accused’s home and letters from the million-dollar shakedown plot.
Hoefman, 59, is accused of the first-degree murder of 63-year-old James Satre to further a million-dollar extortion of an individual who can’t be named due to a publication ban.
Starting on the morning of Oct. 10, 2017, the extortion target began to receive a series of menacing type-written messages providing instructions to follow a trail of letters. Those letters laid out a path to follow that would lead to where $1 million cash was to be left.
Hoefman is accused of killing Satre on the same date the first letter was received.
Former Medicine Hat police Sgt. Randy Teel testified to following the trail of letters meant for the extortion target starting at the Trans-Canada Husky station identified in the first letter. But that he did so days before the letters instructed the extortion target to begin the journey to drop a camouflaged bag containing the money.
Teel, the lead police investigator on the file, told the court how he found the Husky letter under a concrete slab by the gas station’s flagpole.
Reading from the letter, Teel told the court of the instructions to go to a second location at a pedestrian bridge near St. Mary’s School.
That letter warned if there was any indication the extortion target was talking on the phone or using GPS while driving to the second location, “we will kill three extra people for any offence that we think you are doing,” read Teel from the note.
He told the court of following the letter trail from the pedestrian bridge to the third note located next to a municipal building, indicating the cash drop was to be made near a water gate located off a pathway below College Drive.
Officers would recover the letters as they were found, replacing them with replicas, Teel testified.
Police had the drop spot under surveillance before, during and after the Oct. 16 date when a camouflaged bag was to be left there.
It was moved on Oct. 18 to a marshy hole close to the water gate, but the bag wasn’t picked up from the scene, the court heard during earlier testimony.
A trail camera mounted nearby the drop spot did capture an image of Hoefman around the time police received automatic notifications of movement in the area.
Teel told the court of another letter left at the workplace of the extortion target on Nov. 7, this time indicating the extortionist was willing to give the target a “second chance” but that “chaos” would be unleashed across the city if instructions weren’t followed.
Teel said Hoefman was arrested during the evening of Nov. 8 for extortion and murder.
Medicine Hat police Const. Marshall Armstrong testified earlier in the day about several items of clothing being seized from a common area of a building where Hoefman lived and presumptive tests on a jacket and hooded-sweater indicated evidence of blood on them.
Two garbage bags and duct tape were also recovered from the pockets of the jacket.
Under cross-examination, defence lawyer Ian McKay noted the presumptive test can’t detect whether the blood was from a human or animal and a false positive reaction could occur from tomatoes or even rust.
McKay highlighted the presumptive test used by police was past its expiry date.
The defence also continued its probe of how evidence was handled by police with McKay questioning in detail the procedure police followed regarding changing gloves while handling items seized.
A civilian witness also testified Monday about seeing Hoefman flying a drone.
The trial continues Tuesday.
