Roommate sentenced for fatal beating

But by his ruling, Grandsaert sided with Hoffman’s defense team which argued Friday that the lesser charge is more appropriate for the crime.

“Anyone on Mars or outside this courtroom looking at this case would consider it second degree,” attorney Geoff Carr said.

Hoffman conceded during trial to hitting Joseph Consentino, 70, with a mallet but claimed it was a self-defense reaction based on prior abuse after the victim demanded oral sex. However, the jury deliberated two days in May before convicting Hoffman of first-degree murder, using a deadly weapon and causing great bodily injury of a person over age 60. The prosecution had contended the killing was not sparked by repressed sexual abuse memories but him “snapping” Dec. 5, 2011 over feeling that Consentino demeaned his family and possibly over money.

Carr said he and co-attorney May Mar had argued the case as though voluntary manslaughter or second-degree murder were the only logical results for what they said was a non-premeditated crime and the jury’s first-degree conviction was a result of “our failure to make it clearer.”

Prosecutor Al Serrato said the murder only appeared impulsive “because it doesn’t make sense.”

Consentino was struck at least nine times in the back of the head until he died. Hoffman then covered the body with three blankets and fled, confessing to a friend in San Francisco and eventually going in Southern California where he surrendered.

Hoffman had moved into Consentino’s Garden Drive apartment in 2011 to make ends meet and help Consentino sell his late wife’s belongings. Serrato said the two immediately butted heads. Carr said Hoffman planned to move out and was in the process of borrowing money to do so at the time he killed Consentino. According to the defense, Consentino — clad only in his boxers — brandished a mallet meant to dismantle furniture and demanded oral sex from a surprised Hoffman who had a towel in his mouth because of panic attack-induced gagging. Hoffman allegedly “snapped” because as a child he was sodomized by his father while forced to bark like a dog, then grabbed the mallet and struck Consentino.

michelle@smdailyjournal.com

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