After a four-day preliminary hearing, a Solano County Superior Court judge said there was enough evidence to hold for trial Gregory Grant Hobson of Fairfield, who is accused of killing his wife on or about Valentine’s Day last year, then burning her body in Fresno County.
At the end of a 40-minute hearing Friday afternoon in Department 25, Judge Barbara Zuniga — citing the disappearance of Anu Anand Hobson, 53, a bloody tote bag that forensic analysis indicated had her blood on it, the parents not notifying their children before they left the area, and the fact that the body was burned — said there was “sufficient cause” to find that a crime was committed.
But before the judge scheduled a held-to-answer arraignment for Hobson, 62, his defense attorney, Chief Deputy Public Defender Oscar Bobrow, asked for “reasonable bail.”
Because his client has no prior criminal record, “He’s entitled,” said Bobrow.
But Chief Deputy District Attorney Bruce Flynn called Hobson “a danger to the community” and asked for no bail, noting that Judge John B. Ellis, who presided over the first days of the preliminary hearing in December, called the defendant a danger to the community and a flight risk.
But Bobrow persisted, citing the couple’s 28-year marriage, Hobson’s son testifying that his father did not exhibit violent tendencies, and Hobson returning to Fairfield after the alleged killing.
Zuniga, however, recalled the son testified that his father exhibited angry outbursts and cited “destruction of evidence” — the alleged burning of his wife’s body.
“He does pose a threat” to the community, she added, ordering Hobson to return for further arraignment at 8:30 a.m. on Jan. 26 in the Justice Center in Fairfield. Judge Janice Williams will preside over the case, and she likely will set a trial date and pretrial matters.
During the proceeding, Hobson, shackled at the waist, wearing a striped jail jumpsuit and sporting gray goatee, took notes with his freed right hand but showed no outward emotion.
To support her eventual decision, Zuniga also cited previous California cases and clarified the definition of “sufficient cause” compared to “probable cause” and the nature of circumstantial evidence to support a conviction.
She also made detailed references to prior hearing testimony, some of which she had read before she presided over Friday’s proceeding.
They included Hobson’s belief that his wife as trying to poison him with eyedrops in his water and his suspicions that his wife was cheating on him, and, said Zuniga, “If he found out who it was, he’d kill them.”
Additionally, she noted that Hobson’s phone usage was tracked to cellphone towers in the area where his wife’s charred remains were found; DNA analysis of blood found on recovered items; and a determination that the burned body was indeed his wife’s.
The fact that her body was burned and that she had disappeared “demonstrates consciousness of guilt,” said Zuniga, noting a tote bag belonging to Anu was “soaked with blood.”
She admitted investigators still do not know how Anu Hobson died.
Crime scene findings and DNA analysis dominated the second day of the preliminary hearing on Dec. 14.
During the morning session on that day in Department 23, a Fairfield Police Department crime scene investigator said the charred remains believed to be those of Anu Hobson and “pieces of a gas can” were found in early March in a “dirt area” east of Interstate 5 near Kamm Avenue in Fresno County.
A DNA analyst testified that the testing of some cotton swabs yielded DNA, a human being’s unique genetic “fingerprints,” belonging to Anu Hobson, swipes taken from inside a black tote bag found less than a mile from her remains, and swipes taken from a hydraulic lift in the Hobson family garage in Fairfield. The DNA expert also noted that a swipe taken from the lower back area revealed the charred remains were those of a female.
Crime scene investigator Amy Tudi-Akaka testified and repeated information presented during the hearing’s first day on Dec. 13, that she and other Fairfield investigators traveled to Fresno County on Feb. 22 after receiving word from law enforcement officials there who said they found evidence “that would be of interest to you” in solving the alleged crime.
Tudi-Akaka told Flynn that she photographed the tote bag and used swabs to collect DNA from inside the tote bag, which, she said, contained a “reddish-brown substance,” suggesting blood.
Tudi-Akaka noted her return to the Kamm Avenue area, southwest of Fresno, on March 3, when Fairfield investigators, aided by Fresno County Sheriff’s Office deputies, decided to comb the area in search of Anu Hobson’s body.
On that day investigators found remains believed to be Hobson’s about “3,000 feet” east of where the black tote bag was found and Tudi-Akaka drove part of the way there in a department sedan.
During the afternoon session, Flynn called to the witness stand Angela Butler, a senior forensic DNA analyst at the Serological Research Institute in Richmond.
She explained DNA analysis basics, including the definition of DNA, calling it “the genetic blueprint for life,” which distinguishes us from one another, meaning no two people, except for identical twins, have the same DNA, commonly extracted from blood, saliva and hair.
She said she compared DNA profiles of both Anu and Gregory Hobson during her analysis. For at least one sample it excluded Gregory Hobson. On another, from the handle of the hydraulic lift found in the Hobson’s garage, Butler noted there were “three contributors, one female and two men.” She found Anu Hobson’s DNA present on the handle “but Gregory Hobson’s couldn’t be included or excluded,” she said.
Also, the testing of the black tote bag yielded no profile for Gregory Hobson “simply because he was male,” but Anu Hobson was a “major contributor,” said Butler.
During one of the hearing days, Fairfield Police Detective Dennis Chapman said Dr. Arnold Josselson, a forensic pathologist in Fairfield, performed an autopsy on Hobson’s remains on March 13. An external exam did not yield the cause of Hobson’s death. However, Josselson told Chapman that his “internal examination” showed “two specific injuries,” including “hemorrhage to the front of the scalp” and damage to part of the right jaw.
The injuries had to occur at or prior to the time of death, Josselson told Chapman, who testified that the doctor was unable to determine the cause of Anu Hobson’s death but called it “homicide by unspecified means” and that the body was burned after she died.
During the afternoon session Wednesday, Chapman revealed he recorded interviews with the Hobson children on March 3, asking them if there was a history of violence between their parents. They said they had no recollection of violence between their mother and father. However, Sara Hobson told Chapman that he “was always irritable and punching walls.”
Upon cross-examination, Bobrow got Chapman to reveal that Sara told the detective that she never saw her father be violent toward anyone in the home.
Court records show the Hobsons were last seen Feb. 13 in their silver-colored 2021 Toyota Tacoma spotted on roadway surveillance cameras a day later near Elk Grove Boulevard in Sacramento. The couple was reported missing on Feb. 15.
Though Anu was not found at the time, Fairfield investigators reported that “based on evidence collected thus far, police believe she has been killed.”
Gregory Hobson was arrested on Feb. 16 near the intersection of Walters Road and East Tabor Avenue in Fairfield and later pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder.
He remains without bail in the Stanton Correctional Facility in Fairfield.
