By Gary Ogle
gogle@wbcowqel.com
Those who live in Bucyrus and Crawford County know all too well the true cost of illicit drug use in terms of lives lost and scarred. The question of why Donald Hoffman killed four men – Bill Jack Chatman, Freelin Hensley, Darrell Lewis and Gerald Smith – painfully illustrated the cost in a horrific way some may not think could happen in a small tight-knit community.
“I don’t feel safe in town no more and I was born and raised here,” Hensley’s daughter, Donna Hardymon, said during her victim impact statement.
One of the things that made Hoffman’s crimes so difficult to comprehend, and perhaps accept, is that all four victims were known to one another and Hoffman, and as more than mere acquaintances. He even shared a place to live with Smith. The five men were known to spend time together. Just a day or perhaps two before he was killed, Chatman actually called for an ambulance to take an injured Hoffman to the emergency room at the Bucyrus Community Hospital after he was reportedly assaulted.
Crawford County Prosecutor Matt Crall shed some light on Hoffman’s stated motives for killing four men he called his friends.
“He was in a cocaine-induced binge. He was very intoxicated, because of that and he was stealing more money to buy cocaine,” Crall said.
Hoffman was on that cocaine and alcohol binge in the home he and Smith shared along with a man and woman from Bucyrus who are not implicated in the murders. He returned to that home between each murder.
According to Crall motives for the killings were primarily financial. Hoffman took credit cards, debit cards, and cash from all four men. Police have found between $1,800 and $1,900 in debit card and ATM receipts. Hoffman used the cash to buy cigarettes and then resold them to get cash to buy cocaine.
“I can’t say what was going on in his brain, but it appears as it was a way for him to get more money to get more drugs,” Crall said.
Crall outlined Hoffman’s criminal history during his first hearing in Municipal Court. Hoffman’s history of illegal activities is primarily in Marion County, although he was on community control in Crawford County at the time of the murders.
Hoffman was convicted of burglary and theft in Marion County. In addition there were charges of menacing, domestic violence and assault in Marion County. He was sentenced to 10 months in prison after pleading guilty to passing bad checks in Crawford County.
He has a wide variety of traffic offenses in both counties as well, including vehicle control and vehicle trespass stemming from two separate incidents in Crawford County. He also had an extensive known history of heavy drug and alcohol use.
But cash for drugs was not the lone motive that factored into the killings. Crall did confirm that one of the victims, Chatman, had shared correspondence with a woman Hoffman had had a previous relationship with. Although the two were no longer together, Hoffman admitted it angered him when Chatman told him he had been in touch with the woman.
Hoffman also told police he killed Hensley in part to steal his car and go to Wisconsin. Phone records show a call to Wisconsin but that number had been disconnected when police contacted it. Crall believes it was probably a throw-away phone. Crall said Hoffman had told the individual he needed to get out of town quickly because of something he had just done. The man in Wisconsin reportedly told Hoffman that he wanted nothing to do with him.
Early in the investigation Crawford County Coroner Dr. Michael Johnson released information as to the official cause of death for each victim from their autopsies. Johnson said in a press release that Smith and Hensley died of strangulation and blunt force injuries to the head; Lewis died of ligature strangulation and Chatman died of blunt force injuries to the head.
The bodies of the men were not discovered in the order they were killed.
Hensley was discovered first by police in his Marion Road apartment at 2:43 p.m. on Labor Day, Sept. 1. They had been asked by family members to do a welfare check on Hensley because they could not contact him.
One half-hour later Chatman was discovered in his Fremont Street home by a neighbor.
Bucyrus police were not initially sure they had a crime on their hands, especially in the case of Hensley. That changed quickly.
Based on his statements to police, it was the following morning when Hoffman went to a store in town to buy cigarettes presumably with one of the victim’s credit cards. That clerk told police she asked Hoffman if he had heard about the death of one of the victims. According to the clerk, Hoffman turned pale and left the store immediately.
According to Hoffman’s statement to police he then went to the CVS Pharmacy to try again to get more cigarettes. In the store he saw a photograph in the local newspaper of one of the victims’ daughters who he knew very well and he went immediately to the police station in City Hall.
There he told police he had not only killed both Hensley and Chatman, but also Lewis and Smith.
Crall said for the most part investigators have found Hoffman’s statements to police to be truthful, although there is some discrepancy in his timeline. Crall attributed that, in part, to the fact Hoffman was admittedly under the influence of alcohol and cocaine all throughout his spree.
Between 10 and 11 that Tuesday morning, police discovered the bodies of Lewis and Smith in their homes when they followed up on what Hoffman had told them.
Between Hoffman’s statement and the forensics from the four crime scenes and autopsies, authorities determined that the four men were killed between Aug. 31 and Sept. 1. Crall said the weapons he used were ones of opportunity. They ranged from an electric chord from a lamp, a liquor bottle, a frying pan and even Hoffman’s own shoestring. Later searches of Hoffman’s clothing confirmed one of his shoes was missing a shoestring.
Smith was the first man killed in the house on West Mansfield Street he shared with Hoffman. It was also where Hoffman and the other two people spent the weekend getting high on cocaine and alcohol. Even so, Hoffman wrapped Smith’s body in plastic and put it in the basement. He warned the two people who were at the house not to go in the basement because a sewer line had broken.
Chatman was the next man killed, followed by Lewis and Hensley.
Hoffman rode his bicycle to the scene of each murder and then back to his home on West Mansfield Street. Allegedly after one of the murders he returned bloodied and bruised and joked with his guests that he had killed someone. Then he explained his appearance by telling them he had fallen off his bicycle.
Hoffman also claimed that when leaving the location where he was buying the cocaine he walked across the street and was nearly hit by an Ohio State Patrol car. But an investigation of the patrol logs and GPS records could not confirm that part of his story.
Crall had expansive praise for the Bucyrus Police Department, Crawford County Sheriff’s Office and the state’s Bureau of Criminal Investigation for their work on the case. He also expressed his gratitude for the assistance of the Ohio Attorney General’s Office.
“The police department (Bucyrus) did a fantastic job. The Crawford County Sheriff’s Office was very helpful to them as well as the Bureau of Criminal Investigation,” Crall said. “The attorney General’s Office was very helpful in prosecuting the case.”
He also acknowledged the impact on the families and friends of the victims, as well as the community as a whole.
“We live in a small town because we like living in a small town. We like the fact that crime is lower here. That’s one of the things we’re all fighting for,” Crall said, quoting Hardymon’s comments about safety. “That’s why I do what I do, because I want to keep our communities safe.”