A 49-year-old Puna man will make his initial appearance in court today for allegedly shooting a woman and two children to death in Leilani Estates subdivision.
At 8:30 p.m. Saturday, 49-year-old John Ali Hoffman of Leilani Estates was charged with first-degree murder, three counts of second-degree murder, illegally carrying a firearm and use of a firearm in the commission of a separate felony.
Hoffman’s bail was set at $2.75 million, and he remains in custody at the Hilo police cellblock.
The charges came after Hawaii Island police executed a search warrant on a Moku Street home where the bodies of the two children were found early Friday morning. The first-degree murder charge is because of the alleged multiple murders. A conviction on that charge carries a mandatory sentence of life imprisonment without parole, while second-degree murder carries a mandatory sentence of life with the possibility of parole upon conviction.
An autopsy determined that the woman, a boy and a girl all died of gunshot wounds.
The woman has been identified but her identity is being withheld pending notification of her family, police said. The children have yet to be positively identified.
Officers responded to a disturbance call at the house at about 1:30 a.m. Friday and spotted a man driving away in a car with its headlights off.
The car, with Hoffman behind the wheel, was pulled over. Officers spotted a handgun in the seat next to Hoffman. The woman’s body was found in the trunk after officers noticed blood on the car.
Hoffman’s sister-in-law, Marie Hoffman, was shocked to hear the allegations.
“That don’t sound right,” she said several times during a phone interview with the Associated Press from Minneapolis.
She said she did not know much about John Hoffman’s wife but that he is originally from St. Louis and moved to Hawaii about 20 years ago.
Marie Hoffman, who is married to his brother, described John Hoffman as the kind of man who takes care of people, especially children.
“He’s stern, but he’s cool,” she said.
Hoffman, who owned the former Generation Sanitation, a rubbish hauling business, recently posted rants on Facebook under the name “Snofru Ali.”
In a 34-minute video posted May 2, he called himself an “entrepreneur” and rambled at length about his legal issues, most of which are centered around property ownership. He displayed a list he said were properties granted to him and linked to the legal cases against him.
Court records indicate he was sued four years ago over a property he bought in Fern Acres and stopped making payments on. A judge recently ruled no more motions or documents could be filed in the case, a victory for plaintiffs Saron Magan and Bhupen Magan Ttee.
Hoffman resisted eviction from the property and was arrested there in February 2015 on suspicion of trespassing.
He also used Facebook to accuse three Big Island judges of conspiring to have him murdered. Hoffman alleged CIA involvement and accused the U.S. Department of Justice of falsifying documents about him.
He also alluded to “a bigger conspiracy going on in regards to my personal situation and the hidden agendas” he said were surrounding him.
“The court has refused, the people have refused to even talk to me about any kind of compromise,” Hoffman said, and blamed others, who at “every turn in my search for justice have systematically rejected me, trying to call me a lunatic, trying to call me names.”
“I have persevered, including attempts on my life,” he said.
The Associated Press contributed to this story.
Email John Burnett at jburnett@hawaiitribune-herald.com.