By LeAnn R. Ralph
MENOMONIE — A 22-year-old Wheeler man charged with two counts of armed robbery at Peoples State Bank in Boyceville and at U-Fuel near Elk Mound has pleaded guilty in Dunn County Circuit Court.
David J.R. Hoffman appeared before Judge Rod Smeltzer April 21 for a plea hearing, along with Hoffman’s attorney, Shelly Tomtschik.
Hoffman is charged with two felony counts of armed robbery and one misdemeanor count of disorderly conduct.
As part of a plea deal, Hoffman agreed to plead guilty to both counts of armed robbery while the misdemeanor count of disorderly conduct would be c dismissed.
Judge Smeltzer accepted Hoffman’s guilty pleas and ordered a pre-sentence investigation.
A sentencing hearing is scheduled for July 27 beginning at 8:30 a.m.
According to the criminal complaints, Hoffmann admitted to investigators he had robbed both Peoples State Bank and U-Fuel.
At around 8:26 a.m. October 1, Boyceville Police Chief Greg Lamkin was dispatched to Peoples State Bank in Boyceville on a report of an armed robbery.
A bank employee told Police Chief Lamkin the suspect had displayed a silver handgun and had demanded money. The suspect then fled from the bank on foot, the complaint states.
On October 11 at about 12:57 p.m., Dunn County Sheriff’s Department deputies were dispatched on a report of an armed robbery at U-Fuel on 850th Street in the Town of Elk Mound.
The U-Fuel clerk described the suspect as a 20 to 30 year old white male, between 5’9” and 5’10” tall, medium build, blue eyes and wearing a light tan jacket and blue jeans. The suspect had covered the lower part of his face with a bandana before he entered the U-Fuel store, the complaint states.
The robber had come from the area of the tattoo shop and the Juicy Shrimp Shack, to the south of U-Fuel, had displayed a silver handgun and had placed a bag on the counter and told the clerk to put the money from the cash register into it, according to the complaint.
Investigators obtained a photograph from a security camera at the storage units north of U-Fuel, and the possible suspect vehicle was an older blue Ford Escape. The images were posted on Facebook in an attempt to gain additional information. Later that day, a woman contacted one of the deputies at the Dunn County Jail lobby and said she had received information from her daughter that David Hoffman was a suspect in the Peoples State Bank robbery in Boyceville on October 1. The woman said she had reviewed the photograph posted online from the U-Fuel robbery and that the suspect was Hoffman according to the complaint.
The woman said she was the owner of the Ford Escape, and Hoffman had been using it for approximately the last month. The woman also said Hoffman owns a silver handgun, the complaint states.
Hoffman was later located and arrested in Menomonie.
“The defendant provided a full confession to Investigator Knotz and Investigator Mack, in which he admitted to the robbery at U-Fuel, Elk Mound, Wisconsin,” according to the complaint.
Bail was set at $10,000 cash at the bail hearing October 14 for the U-Fuel robbery.
Judge Smeltzer also set bail at $10,000 cash for the People’s State Bank robbery at an October 16 hearing.
The bail amounts in both cases are concurrent.
Armed robbery is a Class C felony that carries a possible penalty for each count, upon conviction, of a fine of up to $100,000 cash and/or 40 years in prison.
Dunn County District Attorney Andrea Nodolf asked the court to cap the initial confinement at 15 years on both cases.
