California

State Supreme Court Won't Hear Case of Man Convicted of Shooting Parole Agent

The California Supreme Court refused Wednesday to review the case against a parolee convicted of shooting a parole agent in the face in Lake View Terrace seven years ago.

Steven Hoff was found guilty in July 2015 of two counts of attempted murder of a police officer and one count of being a felon in possession of a firearm for firing two shots on Jan. 4, 2012, while at a female friend's trailer.

Hoff ambushed a California Parole Apprehension Team member who was trying to locate him for absconding from parole in an attempted burglary case about six months earlier, Deputy District Attorney Michael Blake said after the verdict. The agent's jaw was completely shattered and he has had to go through a series of reconstructive surgeries, according to the prosecutor.

Another gunshot just missed hitting another officer's forehead, according to the 26-page ruling from a three-justice panel of California's 2nd District Court of Appeal. Authorities closed a section of the nearby Foothill (210) Freeway and locked down the nearby Brainerd Elementary School and Delphi Academy as officers searched for Hoff, who was bitten by a police dog after being found several hours later in an abandoned swimming pool.

Hoff had also been wounded by gunfire from one of the agents. Hoff was sentenced in September 2015 to 193 years to life. But a state appellate court panel ordered in a Feb. 5 ruling that he should be re-sentenced on the possession of a firearm by a felon charge after finding that the third-strike sentence imposed on that count was "not statutorily authorized."

Copyright CNS - City News Service
Contact Us