In December 2017, Christopher Hoefling was kidnapped with his friend Brandon Waldroup’s car during a carjacking, which took place in the parking lot behind an Evansville bar. Brandon was shot by a robber and left at the lot, while Christopher was found dead with four gunshot wounds inside the stolen car not far from the crime scene.
The shooting reportedly began after a drug deal went wrong and a man named Jalil Fellows was soon identified as a suspect in the case. Jalil then implicated the shooter Earl Martin and revealed that the two of them conspired to steal from the victims. However, he mentioned that Earl acted on his own with regard to the shooting.
An upcoming episode of The Murder Tapes on ID will revisit Christopher Hoefling’s shooting death this Tuesday, August 22, 2023. The episode, titled Help, I’ve Been Shot, airs on the channel at 8:00 pm ET.
The official synopsis of the episode reads:
“Officers with the Evansville police department arrive at a crime scene to find a shooting victim barely alive and needing medical attention; the stakes get higher after they realize there might be another injured victim who’s now missing.”
Christopher Hoefling was found dead inside the stolen car one day after the carjacking took place
According to The Cinemaholic, Christopher Hoefling was taken during a carjacking incident, which occurred in the parking lot behind Rick’s Bar in Evansville, Indiana. He and his friend Brandon Waldroup were sitting inside the latter’s red Hyundai Sonata when an older man approached them. The man shot Brandon, left him in the lot, and stole the car with Christopher still inside it.
Brandon was found wounded in the same parking lot by police and given immediate medical attention by paramedics. He later informed detectives about the carjacking and his account was verified using surveillance footage. The 20-year-old’s phone, which was still inside the stolen car, was used to locate Christopher and the vehicle.
The outlet reported that Brandon eventually admitted to police that the duo was at the location for a drug deal. However, the carjacking and shooting took place after the deal went wrong. Brandon was allegedly contacted by an acquaintance named Jalil Fellows to sell marijuana to the latter’s associate, Jeremiah.
Following this, detectives tracked Brandon’s phone, which last pinged in an area called Lombard Avenue, situated about five to seven minutes from the crime scene. The vehicle was located the following evening. Sadly, Christopher was found dead inside the car with at least four gunshot wounds.
Detectives arrested two suspects in connection to Christopher Hoefling’s shooting death
Detectives examined Brandon’s phone and linked Jalil Fellows and another man named Earl Martin, who already had an extensive criminal history and was on parole at the time, to Christopher Hoefling’s shooting death and Brandon Waldroup’s attempted murder. Earl was arrested after police found the alleged murder weapon, weed, and more in his house.
Meanwhile, 26-year-old Jalil was arrested a few days later, on December 21, and charged with murder and robbery with serious bodily injury. He then confessed to having conspired with Earl to rob Christopher and Brandon but claimed that he did not know about his associate’s plans to shoot the duo.
The murder charges against Jalil were dropped after his account was backed by text messages between him and Earl. The former pleaded guilty to the conspiracy of robbery and was sentenced to five years in prison in 2019. He was released on parole in April 2022.
Elsewhere, Earl was charged with murder, robbery with serious bodily injury, murder attempted with a firearm, and kidnapping while hijacking a vehicle. He was given a maximum sentence of 65 years for murder, a 40-year term for attempted murder, and three additional concurrent six-year terms for robbery along with two 15-year sentence enhancements.
Learn more about Christopher Hoefling’s case on ID’s The Murder Tapes.
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Edited by Adelle Fernandes
Categories: Trending
Source: newstars.edu.vn