A Harris County jury sentenced a Spring man to 23 years in prison late Tuesday for the murder of his ex-girlfriend’s new boyfriend in 2016, Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg announced.
“Cases like this are why we take stalking and intimate-partner violence so seriously,” Ogg said. “This man decided to lie in wait for three hours for his ex-girlfriend to arrive at her own house. When she arrived with her new boyfriend, he attempted to force himself into the home, ultimately shooting and killing the new boyfriend.”
Austin Daniel Hoff, 29, will have to serve at least half of the prison sentence before he is eligible for parole after being convicted of murder for shooting 23-year-old Steven Senter on Sept. 5, 2016.
Austin Daniel Hoff
Hoff, who was raised in Spring, had moved to the Austin area, where he was an auto mechanic, and persuaded his girlfriend to move in with him. When she later caught Hoff cheating on her, she moved back to Spring. Hoff eventually started harassing and stalking her, and then went to her home in Spring and parked outside for three hours as he waited for her to come home.
She eventually arrived with her new boyfriend, Steven Senter. As the couple tried to go inside, Hoff tried to force his way through the front door. Senter then pushed Hoff away in an effort to prevent him from entering. During a continued struggle, Hoff shot Senter in the chest. Hoff then took off the shirt he was wearing, got into his car and headed back toward the Austin area. Hoff’s father later called him and persuaded him to turn around and come back. Upon his return, deputies with the Harris County Sheriff’s Office found his shirt and the gun in his car, both covered in Senter’s blood.
On Tuesday, Hoff was convicted and sentenced after seven days of testimony. Jurors sentenced him to 23 years in prison, apparently as tribute to the age Senter was when he was killed, according to Assistant District Attorney Andrew Figliuzzi, who tried the case with ADA Andrew Sanchez.
“This case was about a sense of entitlement,” Figliuzzi said. “This defendant felt entitled to take back his ex-girlfriend and entitled to kill her new boyfriend. He felt he was entitled to get away with murder.”
In an effort to keep our neighborhoods safe, Crime Stoppers of Houston and the Harris County Sheriff’s Office are seeking the public’s help locating the following individuals that have active Felony and/or Misdemeanor Warrants.
Crime Stoppers may pay up to $5,000 for information leading to the location and arrest of the suspects featured. Information may be reported by calling 713-222-TIPS (8477), submitted online at www.crime-stoppers.org or through the Crime Stoppers mobile app. All tipsters remain anonymous. Only tips and calls DIRECTLY TO Crime Stoppers are anonymous and eligible for a cash reward.
The following individuals all have active warrants as of March 3, 2023 at 8:30 am.
Alex Murdaugh was hit with a punishment of two life sentences on Friday, over the double murder of his wife and son in 2021. He’s seen here being led into the Colleton County Courthouse by sheriff’s deputies for sentencing in Walterboro, S.C.
Joshua Boucher/The State via AP, Pool
Judge Clifton Newman sentenced disgraced South Carolina lawyer Alex Murdaugh to two consecutive life sentences for the murders of his wife and son Friday, less than 24 hours after a jury found Murdaugh guilty in the 2021 slayings of Maggie and Paul Murdaugh.
Newman told Murdaugh that each of the punishments apply to “the rest of your natural life,” adding that the sentences are consecutive.
The judge announced the punishment after Murdaugh briefly addressed the court.
“Good morning, your honor. I am innocent,” Murdaugh said. “I would never hurt my wife Maggie, and I would never hurt my son, Paw-Paw. Thank you.”
Murdaugh faced a sentence of 30 years to life in prison for each murder conviction. Prosecutors had said they would seek a punishment of life in prison without parole for Murdaugh.
The court session began shortly after 9:30 a.m. ET. Newman had said he would render his sentence after any victim impact statements, but prosecutor Creighton Waters began his remarks by saying the state did not have anyone who wanted to deliver a victim statement.
“The depravity, the callousness, the selfishness of these crimes are stunning,” Waters said, adding that Murdaugh continued to lie and showed no remorse.
Pointing at Murdaugh in the courtroom, Waters added, “A man like this man should never be allowed to be among free, law-abiding citizens again.”
He then asked for the maximum punishment, of two consecutive life sentences.
The judge said he didn’t question prosecutors’ decision not to seek the death penalty in the case — but he noted that over the decades in which Murdaugh’s family controlled the circuit solicitor’s office, “many have received the death penalty — probably for lesser conduct.”
Newman urged Murdaugh to confess to his crimes in open court, saying it was an opportunity for closure for Murdaugh and his family.
“I respect this court, but I’m innocent,” Murdaugh replied.
“It might not have been you,” Newman told Murdaugh of the person who committed the terrible acts. Perhaps, he added, Murdaugh’s noted drug addiction caused him to become another person.
The jury reached its verdict very quickly
After a trial that spanned 28 days, it took a Colleton County jury only a few hours to agree unanimously that Murdaugh is guilty of two counts of murder and two counts of using a weapon during the commission of a violent crime.
A jury finds disbarred lawyer Alex Murdaugh guilty in the deaths of his wife and son
Jurors found Murdaugh, 54, guilty of using a shotgun to kill his son Paul, 22, and using a rifle to kill his wife, Maggie, 52, on the night of June 7, 2021, at the family’s Moselle hunting estate, in a rural area about 60 miles inland from Charleston, S.C.
The sentencing closes a six-week-long trial that charted Murdaugh’s fall from grace. Murdaugh, who was born into power and privilege as the scion of a prominent family of lawyers and prosecutors, has been disbarred. He also faces dozens of other criminal charges over financial crimes — some of which he admitted to during his murder trial.
His defense team — and Murdaugh himself, when he took the stand in his own defense — insisted he was innocent, depicting him as a caring father and husband who succumbed to a severe opiate addiction that led him to drain his bank accounts, rack up debt and steal money from his law firm.
Prosecutors said Murdaugh killed his wife and son to serve his own ends, after siphoning millions of dollars away from his colleagues and clients. He was facing a financial reckoning, they said, that also included his liability in a court case over a fatal 2019 boating accident in which Paul, then 19, was said to be driving.
The case turned on circumstantial evidence, and lies
Murdaugh admitted to lying to investigators about his alibi — blaming his shifting version of events on paranoia stemming from his addiction — but he maintained that he did not kill his wife and son.
During the trial, jurors heard testimony from victims of Murdaugh’s financial schemes and colleagues at his former law firm. They also learned details about what he described as an attempt to stage his own death, the 2019 boating accident, and a housekeeper who died at Moselle in 2018.
Prosecutors never produced the two murder weapons used to kill Maggie and Paul, and there were no eyewitnesses. But the prosecution proved that from his earliest interactions with first responders on the night of the murders, Murdaugh lied to investigators.
Murdaugh said repeatedly that he didn’t go with his wife and son to the dog kennels where they were shot and killed, saying that he stayed in the house, and took a nap before leaving to see his ailing mother.
But after witnesses identified Murdaugh’s voice in a cellphone video taken by Paul at the kennel around 8:45 p.m. – minutes before investigators said the shooting started — Murdaugh’s alibi fell apart. He then made the extraordinary decision to testify on his own behalf, saying that while he had lied to the police, he didn’t shoot his wife and son.
“I lied about being down there. And I’m so sorry that I did,” he said.
“This defendant has fooled everyone — everyone who thought they were close to him,” Waters told the jury in his closing argument. “He fooled Maggie and Paul, too, and they paid for it with their lives. Don’t let him fool you, too.”
Reward of up to $5,000 leading to the charging and arrest of the suspect(s) in this case.
Crime Stoppers and the Houston Police Department’s Vehicular Crimes Division need the public’s assistance identifying the suspect(s) responsible for a Hit and Run – Failure to Stop and Render Aid.
On Monday, February 20, 2023, at approximately 10:24 a.m., a juvenile victim was struck by a vehicle in the 10400 block of Peachtree St. in Houston, Texas. During the incident, the victim was crossing the street when they were struck by the suspect’s vehicle, a (grey sedan) which was traveling northbound. The suspect(s) fled the scene without rendering aid to the victim. The juvenile victim suffered minor injury and was taken to a local hospital for treatment.
The suspect’s vehicle is described as a gray sedan or crossover (no license plate information).
Crime Stoppers may pay up to $5,000 for information leading to the charging and/or arrest of the suspect(s) in this case. Information may be reported by calling 713-222-TIPS (8477), submitted online at www.crime-stoppers.org or through the Crime Stoppers mobile app. Only tips and calls DIRECTLY TO Crime Stoppers are anonymous and eligible for a cash reward.
The City of Houston and Harris County are pleased to report that the U.S Environmental Protection Agency has issued an order to Union Pacific Railroad providing that EPA will oversee the offsite investigative and cleanup process related to the creosote contamination in the Fifth Ward and Kashmere Gardens. This order is the result of efforts that have been and continue to be pushed forward by the City of Houston, Harris County, and the Bayou City Initiative in their negotiations with Union Pacific.
The EPA’s order—issued under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA), the Superfund law—notes EPA’s concern that the Union Pacific facility may present an imminent and substantial endangerment and provides for direct federal oversight of dramatically expanded environmental investigation and cleanup efforts at and around the site, including:
enhanced testing by Union Pacific under EPA oversight for harmful contaminants (including dioxins and soil vapors), both at the Houston Wood Preserving Works Site and offsite (including local residences);
defined risk evaluation to determine risks to human health and the environment;
an expedited testing and evaluation timeline;
EPA-led community engagement; and
EPA-set deadlines on specific conduct required of Union Pacific including penalties for any failure to meet those deadlines.
“This is a significant step in the right direction, and I am pleased the EPA is taking the lead on UPPR’s cleanup and investigative process. For far too long, the concerns of families in Fifth Ward have been dismissed, and residents have suffered the consequences of being forced to endure decades of uncertainty and higher-than-normal incidents of cancer in the community,” said Mayor Sylvester Turner. “The City will continue to advocate for the area, and I will not be satisfied until residents have answers and accountability to help them move forward.”
“Throughout this process, my goal has been to ensure we know exactly what community members are being exposed to and that we make life safe for the folks who live and work in these neighborhoods as quickly as possible,” said Harris County Attorney Christian D. Menefee. “This action by the EPA—in collaboration with the county, the city, the Bayou City Initiative, and Union Pacific—means a faster and more thorough investigation. That sets the stage for a thorough clean up. The folks living in Kashmere Gardens and the Fifth Ward deserve that.”
These positive developments reflect long-standing and dedicated outreach by the City, the County, and their partners to EPA Administrator Michael Regan, EPA Regional Administrator Dr. Earthea Nance, and key members of EPA’s environmental justice team. These developments also reflect the compelling effect of the Notices of Intent to sue Union Pacific under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act issued by the City, the County, and the Bayou City Initiative in 2022.
Those threatened lawsuits brought Union Pacific to the negotiating table with a new level of seriousness to finally begin taking actions intended to directly improve the health and safety of communities in the vicinity of the Union Pacific facility.
My dear friend Ann Richards used to remind us, “if you’re not at the table, you’re on the menu.” These wise words from one of only two women to ever govern Texas are particularly relevant as state leaders work to shut people of color, women, LGBTQ+ people, disabled people, and others out of our state’s democracy and vital institutions.
Instead of working to make life better for everyday Texans, state leaders have made attacks on our state’s diversity a top priority for the 88th Texas Legislative Session. Despite the opposition of constituents, civil rights organizations, and legislators of color, they’re calling for an end to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) programs at state agencies and public universities.
DEI programs strengthen our public institutions with a workforce that reflects the diverse people and communities these institutions serve while increasing productivity, effectiveness, and innovation. With 66 percent of Texas’ enrollment in public institutions of higher education comprised of non-white students, DEI programs are critically important to our state.
But it’s not just DEI programs; they’re also escalating attacks on academic freedom in a denialist effort to whitewash history and subverting local elections in counties with large, diverse populations like Harris County.
We won’t let them roll back our rights. In Harris County this week, we passed a firm resolution condemning this effort and empowering our county attorney to explore federal action to stop these attacks on diversity.
In the third most populous county in the United States and the most diverse county in the nation, it will take all of us working together to protect our rights, freedoms, and our seat at the table.
Alex Murdaugh was hit with a punishment of two life sentences on Friday, over the double murder of his wife and son in 2021. He’s seen here being led into the Colleton County Courthouse by sheriff’s deputies for sentencing in Walterboro, S.C.
