A Solano County Superior Court docket choose once more has rescheduled a jury trial for a Fairfield man accused of killing his spouse on or about Valentine’s Day 2023, then burning her physique in Fresno County.
Gregory Grant Hobson on Monday was scheduled to seem in Division 25 for a trial affirmation, however court docket information present Choose Janice M. Williams vacated Hobson’s beforehand scheduled July 21 trial within the Justice Middle in Fairfield and reset it for 9 a.m. Sept. 29. She additionally scheduled a pretrial matter within the case, a trial administration convention for 8:30 a.m. Sept. 24. The trial is anticipated to final an estimated 5 weeks.
Throughout the morning court docket continuing Chief Deputy Public Defender Oscar Bobrow represented Hobson, 64. Chief Deputy District Lawyer Bruce Flynn represented the DA’s Workplace.
Gregory G. Hobson, 64, of Fairfield (Fairfield PD picture)
The trial date comes greater than 18 months after Hobson’s preliminary listening to on expenses associated to the disappearance and loss of life of Anu Anand Hobson, 53, additionally of Fairfield, his spouse of 28 years.
Proof offered through the listening to revealed a bloody tote bag that forensic evaluation indicated had the sufferer’s blood on it, the couple didn’t notify their youngsters earlier than they left the realm, and the sufferer’s physique was burned, which a choose deemed was adequate trigger to seek out {that a} crime was dedicated.
Hobson, who has no prior legal document, stays with out bail within the Stanton Correctional Facility in Fairfield.
Choose John B. Ellis, who presided over the primary days of the preliminary listening to in December 2023, referred to as the defendant a hazard to the neighborhood and a flight danger, denying bail for Hobson.
Throughout a later listening to Bobrow continued in his attraction to a different choose, Barbara A. Zuniga, citing the couple’s prolonged marriage, Hobson’s son testifying that his father didn’t exhibit violent tendencies, and Hobson returning to Fairfield after the alleged killing.
Zuniga, nonetheless, recalled the son testified that his father exhibited indignant outbursts and cited “destruction of evidence” — the burning of his spouse’s physique.
“He does pose a threat” to the neighborhood, she added, ordering Hobson to return for a held-to-answer arraignment two weeks later.
To help her eventual determination, Zuniga additionally cited earlier California circumstances and clarified the definition of “sufficient cause” in comparison with “probable cause” and the character of circumstantial proof to help a conviction.
She additionally made detailed references to prior listening to testimony, a few of which she had learn earlier than she presided over the continuing.
They included Hobson’s perception that his spouse as attempting to poison him with eyedrops in his water and his suspicions that his spouse was dishonest on him, and, stated Zuniga, “If he found out who it was, he’d kill them.”
Moreover, she famous that Hobson’s telephone utilization was tracked to cellphone towers within the space the place his spouse’s charred stays had been discovered; DNA evaluation of blood discovered on recovered objects; and a dedication that the burned physique was, certainly, his spouse’s.
The truth that her physique was burned and that she had disappeared “demonstrates consciousness of guilt,” stated Zuniga, noting a tote bag belonging to Anu was “soaked with blood.”
She admitted investigators nonetheless have no idea on the time how Anu Hobson died.
Anu Anand Hobson, 53, of Fairfield (Courtesy picture, Fairfield Police Division)
Crime scene findings and DNA evaluation dominated the second day of the preliminary listening to on Dec. 14.
Throughout the morning session on that day in Division 23, a Fairfield Police Division crime scene investigator stated the charred stays believed to be these of Anu Hobson and “pieces of a gas can” had been present in early March in a “dirt area” east of Interstate 5 close to Kamm Avenue in Fresno County.
A DNA analyst testified that the testing of some cotton swabs yielded DNA, a human being’s distinctive genetic “fingerprints,” belonging to Anu Hobson, swipes taken from inside a black tote bag discovered lower than a mile from her stays, and swipes taken from a hydraulic carry within the Hobson household storage in Fairfield. The DNA professional additionally famous {that a} swipe taken from the decrease again space revealed the charred stays had been these of a feminine.
Crime scene investigator Amy Tudi-Akaka testified and repeated data offered through the listening to’s first day on Dec. 13, that she and different Fairfield investigators traveled to Fresno County on Feb. 22, 2023, after receiving phrase from regulation enforcement officers there who stated they discovered proof “that would be of interest to you” in fixing the alleged crime.
Tudi-Akaka informed Flynn, who led the prosecution on the time, that she photographed the tote bag and used swabs to gather DNA from contained in the tote bag, which, she stated, contained a “reddish-brown substance,” suggesting blood.
Tudi-Akaka famous her return to the Kamm Avenue space, southwest of Fresno, on March 3, when Fairfield investigators, aided by Fresno County Sheriff’s Workplace deputies, determined to comb the realm looking for Anu Hobson’s physique.
On that day investigators discovered stays believed to be Hobson’s about “3,000 feet” east of the place the black tote bag was discovered and Tudi-Akaka drove a part of the best way there in a division sedan.
Throughout one of many listening to days, Fairfield Police Detective Dennis Chapman stated Dr. Arnold Josselson, a forensic pathologist in Fairfield, carried out an post-mortem on Hobson’s stays on March 13. An exterior examination didn’t yield the reason for Hobson’s loss of life. Nevertheless, Josselson informed Chapman that his “internal examination” confirmed “two specific injuries,” together with “hemorrhage to the front of the scalp” and harm to a part of the precise jaw.
Throughout the afternoon session Wednesday, Chapman revealed he recorded interviews with the Hobson youngsters on March 3, asking them if there was a historical past of violence between their dad and mom. They stated that they had no recollection of violence between their mom and father. Nevertheless, Sara Hobson informed Chapman that he “was always irritable and punching walls.”
Upon cross-examination, Bobrow obtained Chapman to disclose that Sara informed the detective that she by no means noticed her father be violent towards anybody within the residence.
Court docket information present the Hobsons had been final seen Feb. 13 of their silver-colored 2021 Toyota Tacoma, noticed on roadway surveillance cameras a day later close to Elk Grove Boulevard in Sacramento. The couple was reported lacking on Feb. 15.
Although Anu Hobson was not discovered on the time, Fairfield investigators reported that “based on evidence collected thus far, police believe she has been killed.”
Gregory Hobson was arrested on Feb. 16 close to the intersection of Walters Street and East Tabor Avenue in Fairfield and later pleaded not responsible to first-degree homicide.
If convicted of first-degree homicide at trial, he faces 25 years to life in state jail.
Initially Revealed: June 18, 2025 at 6:11 AM PDT
