Appeal dismissed for Alberta man convicted of $1 million racketeering, arbitrary murder
CALGARY – The Alberta Supreme Court has rejected an appeal for a man found guilty of extorting a $1 million businessman and killing a random stranger.
Robert Hoefman had argued that much of the evidence against him was obtained illegally, including through CCTV cameras.
But the Court of Appeal ruled that he had no reasonable expectation of privacy in those cases and further found that the police did not violate his rights.
The three-member panel said none of the new evidence presented by Hoefman at his appeal hearing helped his case.
In his 2017 trial in Medicine Hat, Alta., the court heard Hoefman sent a number of letters to the entrepreneur demanding the money.
The Crown argued that Hoefman then stabbed a 63-year-old man as a warning who had nothing to do with the case.
The court heard that Hoefman’s DNA was on some letters and on his glasses found under the victim, James Satre.
This report from The Canadian Press was first published on July 4, 2023.
