by Thaddeus Flint
The jury in the trial of Brendan Hoffman, the 22 year old Stephentown man accused of manslaughter and homicide charges, as well as leaving the scene of a 2012 accident, found Hoffman guilty on 12 counts last Friday.
The guilty charges include vehicular manslaughter and homicide. Three counts of aggravated vehicular homicide and one count of reckless driving were dismissed by Judge Debra Young due to a lack of evidence.
[private]Christopher Baker, a 24 year old RPI student and son of Stephentown attorney Brian Baker, was thrown from a car in the early morning hours of June 28, 2012. A witness, identified as Levi Borghi, said that seconds before the crash he had been narrowly missed by the car moving at high speed on Cranston Hill Road in Stephentown. He said that following the crash Hoffman was picked up and taken from the scene by a woman in another car.
Sheriff’s Deputies investigating were not aware that there had been a passenger in the car until Hoffman’s father called later that morning. Along with Stephentown firefighters they then searched and found Baker’s body about 100 feet from the crash off the other side of the road in a wooded area.
During the trial witnesses testified that both Hoffman and Baker were drinking and smoking marijuana at the Bakers’ house the night of the accident. Hoffman, on the date of the accident, was 20 years old, a minor.
“We do not feel victory in a sense you would normally think,” Baker said to journalists at the Rensselaer County Court House in Troy. “We have a modicum of satisfaction that justice has been done and that Chris’ name has been cleared.”
Hoffman is now looking at 5 to 15 years in prison. However, Assistant District Attorney Kelly Egan is asking the State Supreme Court Appellate Division to review Judge Young’s decision to drop the aggravated vehicular homicide and reckless driving counts. Should those charges be reinstated, Hoffman could be looking at a sentence of up to 25 years.
Hoffman’s attorney, Peter Moschetti, was reported as saying he was disappointed by the jury’s conclusion. He also plans to file an appeal.
Sentencing was scheduled for April 25.[/private]