Mich. Woman, 75, Convicted of Murdering Grandson
Defense attorney Jerome Sabbota said later that Layne was "devastated" by the
verdict.
But some family members had harsh words. Hoffman's mother,Jennifer Hoffman, said her mother was a "monster" who deserved to go to
prison.
"I'm glad she's put away and can't do
harm to anyone else," Jennifer Hoffman said outside court. "He was a
great kid and didn't deserve this."
His father, Michael Hoffman, said the verdict was a "final vindication for my son."
As Layne was handcuffed and being led out
of court, some family members sitting with her 87-year-old husband, Fred, waved
in a show of support. But she couldn't make eye contact because there was a
deputy in between blocking the view.
Layne fired 10 shots at her 17-year-old grandson, striking him six times
over a six-minute span during an argument last May in her home in West Bloomfield Township.
She never disputed that she killed him, but she testified that she did so
because he had hit her and she feared for her safety.
The evidence included a recording of
Jonathan Hoffman's desperate call to 911 in which he pleads for help, even as
more shots are fired.
"My grandma shot me. I'm going to
die. Help. I got shot again," he told the dispatcher as he gasped for air.
Jurors declined to comment following the
verdict, but they told attorneys during a private meeting that the 911 call was
crucial to their decision. It revealed that Layne had left Hoffman bleeding but
then returned with more gunfire.
"They said they played it over and
over and over again" in the jury room, prosecutor Paul Walton said.
"One of the big things they said is when you hear the shots on the (call)
there's no struggle."
Sabbota said jurors found the "911
call was critical."
The Oakland County jury had a choice of
first-degree murder or lesser charges, or it could have acquitted Layne based
on her argument of self-defense.
In his closing argument, Walton told
jurors that Layne never rushed out of the West Bloomfield Township home,
despite claiming to be afraid of her grandson, and never called for an
ambulance to help him after the shooting. She said she shot him after Hoffman
struck her during a heated argument about money and a plan to flee Michigan
because of a failed drug test.
"I wanted him to pay attention to me.
He had to listen. It wasn't a conversation. It was arguing. Swearing,"
Layne said in tearful testimony last week, explaining why she pulled out a gun.
Walton called Layne's story
"fanciful." He pointed out that she never complained to police about
being attacked. A hospital nurse who examined her after her arrest said Layne
had no injuries and spoke lovingly about Hoffman.
Sabbota asked jurors to view the incident
through the eyes of a woman in her 70s. He said Layne was taking care of a teen
who had used drugs and brought strangers to the home. Hoffman's parents were
living in Arizona during his senior year of high school, and they had their
hands full with a daughter being treated for a brain tumor.
After the verdicts were read, Sabbota said
Layne has long been punishing herself and referred to her continued grief and
regret.
"I've been saying it all along: We
can't do anything that she hasn't already done to herself," Sabbota said.
"She punishes herself every day. The legal system does what the legal
system does. The jury felt that it wasn't appropriate self-defense. "
.jpg)
