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HOFFMAN |
The 20-year-old Bloom Center man who shot and killed a 16-year-old boy after a night of underage drinking was indicted Wednesday on three charges.
Evan John Hoffman faces charges of reckless homicide, a third-degree felony, and felonious assault, Logan County Prosecutor William T. Goslee reported Wednesday evening. He was also indicted for a felony unlawful sexual conduct with a minor charge, for incidents unrelated to the party but that came out during the course of the investigation into it.
Mr. Hoffman has admitted shooting Branden Doseck of Jackson Center, in the early morning hours of Dec. 27. He has already pleaded guilty to furnishing alcohol to underage persons for providing a group of teenagers and young adults with beer and a place to drink on the night of Dec. 26.
At some point in the early morning hours of Dec. 27 a fight broke out involving Branden, and he was asked to leave. He went to his family’s Jackson Center home before going back to the party with his older brother and other adults with the intent of fighting.
Branden was shot in the abdomen with a shotgun slug after forcing entry into the home. Mr. Hoffman said in the ensuing 911 call and in Bellefontaine Municipal Court that he shot Branden in self-defense.
The grand jury that handed up the indictment spent nearly 12 hours Wednesday considering the case, Mr. Goslee said.
They were presented with nearly 10 hours of evidence from law enforcement investigators and “every witness who has firsthand information about the case,” Mr. Goslee said as the grand jurors considered charges.
The prosecutors also offered a poster board drawing of the home showing where the witnesses were during the confrontation, and a computer slideshow of the evidence collected.
They also presented both sides of a self-defense argument and offered the grand jury a range of homicide charges from negligent homicide on the low end of the scale to premeditated murder at the top of the chart.
“We gave them a checkbox form with a number of conceivable charges that could arise out of this,” Mr. Goslee said. “But the first question we asked was if the castle doctrine applies. If the answer to that was yes, there was no need to proceed further.
“We gave them an awful lot to think about,” the prosecutor said, noting that grand jurors were allowed to ask questions of the witnesses. “They were very attentive and asked a lot of good questions.”
The grand jury spent about 1 hour and 25 minutes in deliberation.
“The fact they are out so long shows that they are giving this a lot of thought,” Mr. Goslee said.
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