An appeal by a Berkeley resident who was convicted in the 2008 stabbing and killing of a UC Berkeley student was denied Wednesday by the Supreme Court of California.
On May 3, 2008, an angry confrontation ensued when defendant and then-student at Berkeley City College Andrew Hoeft-Edenfield and a friend got in an “alcohol-fueled brawl” with a group of young men gathered outside a UC Berkeley fraternity house, according to court documents. As the confrontation escalated, Hoeft-Edenfield began waving a pocketknife. UC Berkeley senior and member of the Sigma Pi fraternity Christopher Wootton grabbed the defendant in a bear hug from behind and was subsequently stabbed by Hoeft-Edenfield, according to the documents.
Wootton collapsed onto the street and died en route to the hospital from a knife would that pierced his heart, the court documents read.
In the court records, Hoeft-Edenfield said he acted in self-defense. He was convicted of second-degree murder in 2010. In June, the First District Court of Appeal upheld the sentence. Hoeft-Edenfield was sentenced to a term of 16 years to life imprisonment.
On June 31, Hoeft-Edenfield filed for review. The state’s high court decision to deny the review of People v. Hoeft-Edenfield was unanimous.
Defense attorney Barry Karl could not be reached for comment.
Chloe Hunt covers crime. Contact her at [email protected].
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As revenge the brothers of Sigma Pi should have lynched this son of a bitch.
Hope he dies in prison.
Then he would have died quickly and not had to suffer through years of incarceration. And being the skinny white boy he is, I am beyond certain that he most definitely will suffer during the years he is in prison.