- Associated Press - Tuesday, March 18, 2014

IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) - An Iowa inmate who has spent most of his life in prison for a 1984 slaying may be nearing freedom, seven years after Gov. Tom Vilsack concluded that his life sentence was too harsh for his minor role in the crime.

The Iowa Board of Parole has scheduled an interview Wednesday with Todd Hoffer. The North Central Correctional Facility, a minimum-security prison in Rockwell City where Hoffer is incarcerated, is recommending Hoffer for placement in a work-release program, which can be a steppingstone to release on parole.

“I am satisfied that he has paid his debt,” said Hoffer’s father, 91-year-old Gilbert Hoffer, of Decorah. “All he wants to do when he gets out is to behave himself and take care of his mom and dad.”

Hoffer, 53, was one of three men who were charged in the August 1984 killing of Juanita Weaver.

According to prosecutors, the three drank for hours at a party at Hoffer’s home before they left in the early-morning hours to retrieve a gun that they believed had been stolen by a man named Kenneth Weaver. One of them, James Dorsey, was armed with a shotgun when they burst into Weaver’s apartment looking for him. He wasn’t home but his mother, 52-year-old Juanita Weaver, and her boyfriend, Dale Lundstrom, were there.

Dorsey started arguing with her, eventually firing a shot that missed her. She ran into the bathroom, where Dorsey shot and killed her. Hoffer said he might have hit Lundstrom while Lundstrom was trying to leave the bedroom. All three men fled the scene.

Dorsey was convicted of first-degree murder and is serving life. Prosecutors offered Hoffer and the other defendant deals in which they would plead guilty to burglary and be eligible for parole within a decade. The third man took the deal and was paroled in 1993, but Hoffer didn’t, insisting he was a bystander. A jury convicted him of aiding and abetting first-degree murder and he received an automatic sentence of life in prison without parole. The Iowa Supreme Court upheld the conviction in 1986, rejecting Hoffer’s claims that he was intoxicated and had no intent to kill anyone.

The outcome troubled the prosecutor, who later supported Hoffer’s clemency application. In his final days in office in 2007, Vilsack used that power to change Hoffer’s life sentence to a 125-year term so that he’d be parole eligible. Hoffer had expressed remorse for the crime and been an ideal inmate, Vilsack noted.

“Most compelling, however, is that Hoffer was not the shooter, nor does the evidence in the record suggest that Hoffer ever intended for the death of Mrs. Weaver,” Vilsack wrote.

Juanita Weaver’s last living sibling, 85-year-old Ella Mae Spaulding of Columbus, Ohio, said Tuesday she had not been keeping up with details of the case and had no comment about Hoffer’s upcoming parole board interview. She said she was surprised that two men remain in prison.

“I don’t mean I’ve forgotten my sister. It was far away and long ago. I’m just really shocked to have somebody bring up,” Spaulding said.

Hoffer is one of two offenders remaining in prison after receiving commutations of their life sentences to make them parole eligible, according to the Iowa Department of Corrections. The other, Rasberry Williams, has an interview with the parole board next month.

Gilbert Hoffer said that if his son is released, he might move near Decorah to be near his parents. He said he has already tried to line up a job for his son at a local construction company. He also said he’s aware of the challenges that his son will face upon returning to society, such as getting a driver’s license.

“He said, ’I’ll have to study for the test. Do you realize it’s over 20 years since I’ve seen the inside of a car?’ You don’t think of those things,” he said, adding that he expects that his first trip to a Super Wal-Mart will “blow his mind.”

Vilsack’s former general counsel, Gary Dickey, said Hoffer exemplifies the offenders who received commutations from Vilsack. Most were youthful offenders who became well-behaved inmates and weren’t the person who physically caused the deaths, he said.

He said those decisions were never intended to result in immediate release.

“We gave them a chance to earn a release if they could demonstrate rehabilitation and meet all the other expectations,” he said. “The parole board is very thorough in their review and they like to transition offenders out through work-release and halfway houses rather than just let them walk out into society again.”

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Follow Ryan J. Foley on Twitter at https://twitter.com/rjfoley

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