A state appellate court panel Friday rejected the latest appeal from a parolee convicted of shooting a parole agent in the face in Lake View Terrace more than a decade ago.
The three-justice panel from California’s 2nd District Court of Appeal found that “no arguable issues exist” in the case of Steven Hoff, now 57, who is serving a 161-year-to-life state prison sentence.
Hoff was found guilty in July 2015 of two counts of attempted murder of a police officer and one count of being a felon in possession of a firearm for firing two shots Jan. 4, 2012 while at a female friend’s trailer.
Hoff ambushed a California Parole Apprehension Team member who was trying to locate him for absconding from parole in an attempted burglary case about six months earlier, Deputy District Attorney Michael Blake said after the verdict.
The agent’s jaw was completely shattered and he has had to go through a series of reconstructive surgeries, according to the prosecutor.
Another gunshot just missed hitting another officer’s forehead, according to an earlier appellate court ruling.
Authorities closed a section of the nearby Foothill (210) Freeway and locked down the nearby Brainerd Elementary School and Delphi Academy as officers searched for Hoff, who was bitten by a police dog after being found several hours later in an abandoned swimming pool.
Hoff had also been wounded by gunfire from one of the agents.
Hoff was initially sentenced to 193 years to life in prison, but his sentence has been reduced twice since then — once as a result of a 2019 appellate court ruling and then again as a result of a recent change in state law.