CHAT News File Photo

By Chris Brown

Envelopes, letters, surveillance items

Officer testifies on items seized at accused’s residence

Mar 11, 2021 | 4:50 PM

MEDICINE HAT, AB – A Medicine Hat officer who worked in the city police service’s forensic identification unit when James Satre was killed in October 2017 says close to 30 items were seized from the residence of Robert Hoefman a month later.

Hoefman is on trial for the first-degree murder of James Satre as well as for extortion, the target of which can’t be identified. Prosecutors believe Satre was a random victim chosen to further the extortion attempt.

MHPS Const. Jeff Unrau told court Thursday afternoon that on Nov. 9 he attended the residence and photographed and seized surveillance items such as a spotting scope and tripod and binoculars.

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As well, he seized boxes of envelopes and paper, postage stamps and a pair of blue latex gloves. Letters found at or delivered to various locations in the city have come up often in the trial’s first week.

Unrau also testified that on Nov. 8 he photographed and seized two notebooks, a jacket and a shredder and its contents.

And on Nov. 10 seized several kitchen knives and various items of clothing from the residence.

Unrau said that when he first arrived at Hoefman’s residence on Nov. 8 he was already in police custody.

Testimony from Unrau in the morning focused on chain of custody for evidence gathered from Satre’s Mill Street home the day his body was found on Oct. 17, 2017.

The trial continues on Monday, March 15.