The Times - Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley

WAITSBURG – Gabriel F. Hofer, 36, of Waitsburg was sentenced to 240 hours of community service by Walla Walla Superior Court Judge John Lohrmann on March 30 for one count of harassment, a Class C felony. Hofer was originally charged with1st degree assault for allegedly beating Richard W. Perez, who he believed supplied drugs to his sister, Mariah Hofer, who died of an overdose in January of 2014.

Hofer pleaded guilty to an amended charge of harassment on March 17, for threatening to kill Perez and placing him in reasonable fear that the threat would be carried out. Standard sentencing for the charge is one to three months, with a maximum term of five years.

Judge Lohrmann imposed the low-end sentence of one month and converted the jail time to 240 hours of community service, to be completed within one year, at the recommendation of Prosecuting Attorney Jim Nagle. Lohrmann also sentenced Hofer to six months community supervision under the Department of Corrections and $1950.30 in fines and court fees.

Nagle said he considered several factors in offering the plea agreement. “We cannot prove if Ricky Perez or someone else gave Mariah Hofer the drugs that caused her death. We cannot know that because he was beaten up before anyone from law enforcement could question him, depriving law enforcement of the ability to establish a case of controlled substances homicide. What we were left with were admissions by Gabriel Hofer of his belief that Perez gave Mariah the drugs and his desire to kill Perez. Mr. Hofer’s mental state would have been called into question. There was also the concern that Mr. Perez would not appear as a very sympathetic victim,” said Nagle.