A 20-year-old Bloom Center man who already has admitted to killing a teenage boy after supplying a party of people with alcohol, entered guilty pleas on Friday that will likely net him five years in prison.
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While the mother of 16-year-old victim Branden Doseck said she would have liked to have seen the defendant get more jail time, she didn’t want to risk the possibility of him getting off at trial.
Evan John Hoffman entered guilty pleas to a third-degree felony count of reckless homicide with a gun specification and a fourth-degree unlawful sexual conduct with a minor charge.
As part of a plea agreement, a second-degree felonious assault charge was dismissed taking the maximum sentence from 15 1/2 years to 5 1/2 years, but prosecutors said they would recommend a five-year sentence.
“I feel he should have gotten more time, and all of the adults who provided alcohol for this party and allowed this to happen should go to prison for life,” Branden’s mother Amy Ward said after the hearing.
“This has destroyed my life and he can stand there in court and wave at his mother and say ‘I love you.’ Branden can never do that again.
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“But in the end we didn’t want to put the teenagers through a trial and it only takes one guy to hang a jury. We didn’t want to risk him getting off with nothing.”
The defendant threw a party at his 6089 County Road 21, Lewistown, home Dec. 26-27, and at some point in the night engaged in a fist fight with Branden, Chief Assistant Logan County Prosecutor Eric Stewart said in court Friday. Branden, who lived in Jackson Center, left on foot in the rain, but returned some time later with his brother and others.
Evan Hoffman had locked himself in the house, but Branden reportedly forced entry through a side door, and the teen was shot in the abdomen. The defendant calmly called 911 and reported the shooting, but by the time a squad arrived, it was too late to save the boy.
Within days of his arrest, the defendant had entered guilty pleas to seven misdemeanor counts of furnishing alcohol to underage persons and was sentenced to spend six months in the Logan County Jail — a sentence that was just recently completed.
The sex charge was from an unrelated sexual encounter between the defendant and a 15-year-old girl that came to light during the investigation. As part of the sentence for that admission, he will be labeled a Tier II sex offender and be required to register his address with authorities twice a year for the next 25 years.
The homicide case was complicated by Ohio laws that protect individuals who use deadly force to defend their homes from intruders — a consideration that made the resolution to the case justifiable to the victim’s family.
Judge Mark S. O’Connor ordered a presentence investigation and set sentencing for Aug. 22.
CLARIFICATION: There is some dispute whether a confrontation ensued inside the house after Branden returned. The defendant says there was a struggle but evidence is not conclusive.
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