A woman claims that one of the Fairbanks Four had blood stained shoes from the 1997 assault of John Hartman.
In a video deposition played at an ongoing evidentiary hearing in the contested case Tuesday,
Margarita Hoffman says she was there when Marvin Roberts came home hours after Hartman was attacked.
“You could tell on the shoes where there was a couple stains of blood on the shoes,” Hoffman said.
Hoffman was the girlfriend of Robert’s Uncle, Kenny Mayo, and says they had been consuming cocaine and alcohol before she observed Roberts arrive home, and head into a bedroom to talk to Mayo.
“When he came out of the room, he had a pair of tennis shoes and he says, ‘we’ve gotta get rid of these tennis shoes,'” Hoffman said.
Hoffman says Mayo disposed of the shoes in a nearby dumpster. She says she decided to come forward with the information when Roberts, George Frese, Kevin Pease and Eugene Vent the men convicted of fatally beating Hartman, began pursuing exoneration.
Roberts has already disputed Hoffman’s story, and petitioners are expected to call Kenny Mayo to further rebut her testimony.
Dan Bross is a reporter at KUAC in Fairbanks.
