The suspect in a 1980 killing that went chilly, Herman Lee Hobbs, 76, pleaded not responsible Thursday in Solano County Superior Courtroom for the dying of a 21-year-old girl whose physique was present in rural Dixon.
With Deputy Public Defender Nick Filloy at his facet in Division 11, he additionally denied, as anticipated, all allegations and all prior felony strikes, and waived his proper to an early preliminary listening to.
Decide William J. Pendergast then assigned the case to Division 15, ordering Hobbs to seem in Decide Robert Bowers’ courtroom at 9 a.m. Could 15 for a preliminary listening to setting within the Justice Constructing in Vallejo.
Beforehand convicted in 2005 for a 1975 killing in Sacramento, Hobbs, bald and shackled in a wheelchair, confirmed no distinct feelings in the course of the temporary afternoon proceedings.
District Lawyer Krishna A. Abrams represented the folks and can lead the prosecution.
The case towards Hobbs entails particular circumstances, together with the alleged prior homicide conviction and the alleged homicide of Holly Ann Campiglia, of New Jersey, along with two prior felony strikes. Hobbs is at the moment serving two life sentences.
As beforehand reported, Hobbs was arrested by Solano County Sheriff’s officers on the most recent homicide cost on Feb. 24 at Valley State Jail in Chowchilla. Additionally within the 1980 case, Hobbs faces the felony of being a felon in possession of a firearm.
Sheriff’s officers introduced the arrest on Feb. 27 in a social media put up, indicating he was taken into custody for Campiglia’s dying. He's being held with out bail in Solano County Jail on the fees and likewise on a state jail maintain.
In August 1980, officers mentioned, two area employees on Sievers Highway in rural Dixon found a physique of a girl in a cornfield. She had been shot a number of instances within the head and neck and was subsequently listed as Jane Doe for greater than 10 years.
In 1992, the Solano County Coroner’s Workplace was contacted by the Nationwide Lacking Individuals Unit and the girl was recognized as Campiglia.
In late 2021, on the request of her household, an proof technician reviewed the case to find out if any of the unique proof could possibly be resubmitted for added DNA evaluation. Months later, a report from the Serological Analysis Institute decided that male DNA was discovered on the proof, officers mentioned. That DNA was submitted into one other database with the San Mateo Crime Lab, and led to Hobbs.
A warrant was obtained for DNA assortment from Hobbs for direct comparability, officers famous, and it once more got here again as a match within the Campiglia homicide.
An arrest warrant was issued in February, together with an order to switch Hobbs to jail in reference to the brand new cost, together with the enhancement for using a gun.
Detectives proceed to work in collaboration with different Northern California companies to determine and/or resolve different circumstances that could be linked to Hobbs, Sheriff officers mentioned.
“We're grateful to the Campiglia household for his or her endurance and help, to the labs whose new expertise allowed further testing of older proof and to the workers who labored tirelessly to assist deliver closure to a lifetime of ready,” in keeping with wording within the put up.
Anybody with info relating to the Campiglia case is requested to name the Solano County Sheriff’s Investigations Unit at 784-7050.