BUCYRUS, Ohio (AP) — A man who fatally beat or strangled four other men inside their homes in this small Ohio city pleaded guilty Wednesday under an agreement with prosecutors and will spend the rest of his life in prison.
Donald Hoffman’s plea change came days before he was scheduled to go on trial in a case that could have resulted in the death penalty.
Hoffman, 41, had been indicted on 21 counts. He pleaded guilty to aggravated murder charges under the deal, in exchange for prosecutors dropping other counts against him.
Hoffman declined to address court. The judge who handed down the sentence told him “this community bids you goodbye.”
Ahead of the hearing, Crawford County Prosecutor Matthew Crall told the Bucyrus Telegraph-Forum the plea agreement would allow closure for the victims’ families and restrict the potential appeals in the case.
A coroner determined the slain men were beaten, strangled or both. Friends and relatives said at least some of the men knew each other and Hoffman.
Two bodies were found Sept. 1. Two more were discovered the next day after Hoffman approached police with information.
One of the victims, Billy Jack Chatman, 55, had called for an ambulance days earlier after Hoffman entered his home and collapsed on the floor, bloody and smelling of alcohol after an apparent assault, according to police records.
The other victims were identified as Freelin Hensley, 67; and Darrell Lewis, 65; and Gerald Lee Smith, 65, who sometimes spelled his first name Jerald.
Investigators had been reluctant to publicly discuss potential motives for the slayings. It was an unusually violent series of crimes in Bucyrus, a city of roughly 12,000 people where the prevalence of drug problems is no secret.
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