May 6, 2008 5:23 pm US/Pacific
Cal Stabbing Suspect Arraigned On Murder Charges
BERKELEY (CBS 5 / BCN) ―
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20-year-old murder suspect Andrew Thomas Hoeft-Edenfield.
Berkeley Police Dept./CBS
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21-year old Christopher Wootton died after he was fatally stabbed after a party on UC Berkeley's fraternity row.
SigmaPi Fraternity/CBS
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Frat house where University of California, Berkeley engineering student Christopher Wootton lived. The Sigma Pi fraternity member was stabbed and killed in a nearby parking lot.
CBS
Andrew Hoeft-Edenfield was arraigned Tuesday on murder charges for the stabbing death of University of California, Berkeley student Christopher Wootton in a late-night confrontation on fraternity row near campus.
Dressed in yellow jail clothes and sporting a crew-cut, Hoeft-Edenfield, 20, appeared in court only briefly Tuesday in connection with the incident in the 2400 block of Warring Street in Berkeley about 2:45 a.m. Saturday and will return to court on Thursday to be assigned an attorney and possibly enter a plea.
Alameda County Deputy Public Defender Tony Cheng represented Hoeft-Edenfield, a Berkeley City College student and Jamba Juice employee, at Tuesday's hearing but said he needs to find out if his office has a conflict of interest in the case before deciding if he will represent Hoeft-Edenfield on a permanent basis.
About 15 family members and friends of Hoeft-Edenfield attended the hearing.
No one came on behalf of Wootton, but a memorial service for him was to take place on the Sproul Plaza steps on the UC Berkeley campus only a short time after the court hearing.
In addition to charging Hoeft-Edenfield with murder, the Alameda County District Attorney's Office charged him with the enhancement clauses of using a deadly weapon, namely a knife, and inflicting great bodily injury.
According to Berkeley police, Hoeft-Edenfield and Wootton, a 21-year-old senior from Bellflower who was due to graduate with a nuclear engineering degree later this month, were part of a larger group that was involved in a verbal exchange that quickly developed into a physical fight.
Police say that during the fight Hoeft-Edenfield stabbed Wootton.
Hoeft-Edenfield's mother, who said her first name is Ellen but declined to disclose her last name, told reporters outside court, "We do feel this case is a tragedy. We do grieve for the Wootton family and I'm so sorry."
San Francisco Deputy Public Defender Rebecca Young, who accompanied Hoeft-Edenfield's mother and said she's a family friend, Hoeft-Edenfield "is not someone who glorifies violence or tries to lord it over someone."
Young said Hoeft-Edenfield "is a decent, sweet kid who was pulling his life together and had a girlfriend and was saving his money for college."
Young said, "I've known Andrew since he was six years old and he hasn't been in trouble before and this is a shock."
Young, who said her son grew up with Hoeft-Edenfield in Oakland and Berkeley, said Hoeft-Edenfield "was goofy and liked to be the class clown and was fun-loving and respectful."
Berkeley police spokeswoman Sgt. Mary Kusmiss said Hoeft-Edenfield hasn't necessaryly confessed to stabbing Wootton to death but she said he admitted to police that he possessed the knife that was used to kill Wootton.
Kusmiss said, "He admitted that he's connected with the knife and he recognizes that he stabbed someone."
Kusmiss said investigators are still trying to determine what caused the incident but she said it appears it stemmed from "some form of disrespect or pride challenge."
Kusmiss said Wootton was with a large group of UC Berkeley students and Hoeft-Edenfield was with at least one other person.
Hoeft-Edenfield is being held in the Alameda County Jail without bail.
(© CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Bay City News contributed to this report.)
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