After six hours of deliberations, a Solano County Superior Court docket jury on Thursday discovered Gregory Grant Hobson, 64, of Fairfield, charged with killing his spouse on Feb. 14, 2023, responsible of second-degree homicide.
Shortly after submitting into Division 25, the panel of six males and 6 ladies, responding to the courtroom clerk’s questions, acquitted Hobson of first-degree homicide, as initially charged, however not of the lesser crime, for the demise of Anu Anand Hobson, 53, his spouse of 28 years.
Choose Janice M. Williams, who presided over the four-week trial, then polled every juror, asking them, “Is that your verdict?”
All stated, “Yes,” and Hobson, clad in his standard darkish grey swimsuit on the protection desk, titled his head again as he listened to their responses.
The choose then ordered Hobson to return for a presentencing report and sentencing, together with victim-impact statements, at 1:30 p.m. Jan. 22 within the Justice Middle in Fairfield. He faces 15 years to life for the second-degree homicide conviction.
After jurors filed out of the courtroom, Hobson seemed exhausted and resigned to his destiny as he walked out of the courtroom and returned to the Stanton Correctional Facility in Fairfield, the place he has been held with out bail since his Feb. 16, 2023, arrest.
Jurors started their deliberations round midday Wednesday, and apparently hewed to a suggestion by Chief Deputy District Lawyer Bruce Flynn, who, in his rebuttal assertion, reminded the jury that Hobson burned his spouse’s physique on the night of Feb. 14 in a rural Fresno County orchard and that he watched it burn for awhile, then fled southward on Interstate 5.
Instantly after making that assertion, Flynn, a veteran prosecutor with a long time of expertise on his resume, then requested the jury to contemplate initially a verdict of second-degree homicide, however then presumably additionally think about first-degree homicide, an illegal killing that’s premeditated and deliberate, with malicious intent.
In his closing argument, Chief Deputy Public Defender Oscar J. Bobrow urged jurors to seek out Hobson not responsible of homicide, arguing the deadly confrontation stemmed from sudden provocation reasonably than premeditation.
He stated there was no proof that he needed or meant to kill her. Moreover, Bobrow famous testimony from the Hobson youngsters, Sara and Sean Hobson, indicated that Sara “never saw” her dad and mom interact in violent bodily conduct and that Sean “didn’t think his father was capable of such violence.”
However Flynn, in his rebuttal statements, stated many actions by the defendant — who on Monday admitted on the witness stand that he was “responsible” for the demise of his spouse — have been “calculated” and his testimony untrustworthy.
Afterward, Choose Janice M. Williams, who presided over the four-week trial in Division 25, issued closing jury directions and ordered the panel to start deliberations.
Court docket testimony indicated Gregory and Anu obtained right into a heated trade on the morning of Feb. 14 and, someway, she ended up on second-floor of her workplace within the house they shared on Americano Method in Fairfield. He testified that he had suspected his spouse of poisoning him and of getting an extra-marital affair.
He straddled her twice whereas she was on the ground, and the second time, whereas face up, blood coming type her mouth, she fell silent and died. Hobson then positioned her physique in a sleeping bag, loaded it into his silver Toyota Tacoma pickup truck, utilizing a conveyable hydraulic elevate bought that day. He then drove the truck on eastbound I-80, then southward to Fresno County, the place he poured gasoline on the sleeping bag and lighted it.
A Coroner’s post-mortem report indicated that the reason for Anu’s demise couldn’t be decided.
Cellphone information offered in courtroom, moreover displaying his travels from Fairfield to Fresno County, additionally indicated drove round Southern California for a time on Feb. 15, then determined to return to Fairfield on Feb. 16, the place Hobson, a former chemist for the Chevron Corp., was arrested, after Fairfield cops obtained a “hit” from a license place-reading surveillance digital camera.
Throughout his 35-minute rebuttal, Flynn recounted among the many particulars of what Hobson did after killing Anu, from cleansing up blood proof within the upstairs workplace and the storage to “making sure there was no evidence of a crime,” to the defendant’s admission that he moved the house’s surveillance cameras to verify he couldn’t be seen leaving the house in his pickup truck with Anu’s physique within the again.
Flynn additionally recalled testimony that Hobson threw his and Anu’s cellphone within the river on the way in which down Interstate 5 towards Fresno County, and the crime analyst’s testimony about “cell mapping” that confirmed Hobson’s whereabouts as he traveled.
Flynn pointedly requested, “Why didn’t he call 911?”
“He didn’t want anyone coming to the house,” he stated, including that, after Anu’s demise, Hobson searched on-line about methods to elevate his spouse’s physique from the storage ground into the again of his pickup truck.
