Jacob Paul Hoffman
Bail was changed to $40,000 bondable after a man who has been held on trafficking charges since Christmas Eve sought a lower bail on Thursday morning.
Jacob Paul Hoffman, 46, appeared in East Fork Justice Court where he said he’d just purchased the vehicle in which 115 grams of the date rape drug and 163 grams of methamphetamine were found during a search.
He’d previously been held on $10,000 cash bail and has been in custody for two months.
Hoffman told East Fork Justice of the Peace Laurie Trotter that he was delivering a Christmas card when he was pulled over in Minden.
On Thursday, Hoffman claimed that video at the Maverik from the arrest would have shown that he was innocent, but that it was no longer available.
He told Trotter he would be seeking to replace attorney Matthew Ence. Hoffman’s preliminary hearing scheduled for Thursday was delayed until April 10.
Hoffman earlier waived his right to a preliminary hearing within 15 days.
Hoffman and wife Susan Woods were arrested on Dec. 24, 2024. Woods was released on bail. She was in the courtroom on Thursday, he said.
Hoffman said felony drug possession charges in Lyon County were dismissed, which was one of the reasons Ence sought a new bail hearing.
At the end of the hearing, Hoffman said he didn’t think he’d be able to bail out.
• A woman, who was arrested last spring in connection with thefts at the Boot Barn and Ulta Beauty in Carson Valley Plaza, appeared in East Fork Justice Court after she was arrested on a warrant.
Sparks resident Sol Jasmine Garcia Hernandez was involved in an April 26 case where Azura Ridley and Jose Trujillo-Gutierrez were also arrested after deputies responded to a theft in progress.
According to the Douglas County Sheriff’s Office, $500 in merchandise stolen from Boot Barn and approximately $1,000 in cosmetics from the Ulta was recovered from the trio’s vehicle.
Garcia Hernadez was released on her own recognizance on April 27 and then failed to appear in East Fork Justice Court twice, according to Judge Laurie Trotter.
Her bail was set at $3,000 bondable and she was ordered to stay away from the two businesses.
• No hearing date has been set in two felony battery on an inmate cases involving a man who was sentenced to up to 20 years in prison last week.
Prosecutors confirmed on Wednesday that they were not going to dismiss a battery case against Ryan Todd Nelson.
A case from August was wrapped up in a guilty plea agreement that saw Nelson enter his guilty plea in February.
However, because he was arrested on a second battery on an inmate charge, Chief Prosecutor Chelsea Mazza indicated it was her intention to pursue the charges. Nelson promised in the plea agreement he wouldn’t violate any new laws.
A new hearing may be set for mid-April.
