Police in Zion, Illinois have arrested Jerry Hobbs, the father of one of the two little girls who were stabbed to death Sunday night. The news reports are that Hobbs served time in Texas for an aggravated assault. Does anyone have the details of his prior?

Wonder what the probation reformers and legislative budget savers have to say about this guy??? I suppose in their judgment he should have still been on probation.

Houston Chronicle

May 10, 2005, 4:51PM

Father arrested in deaths of 2 young girls
Associated Press

AP
Krystal Tobias

AP
Laura Hobbs

ZION, Ill. � A father was arrested on suspicion of murder today in the Mother's Day stabbings of his 8-year-old daughter and the little girl's best friend.

The girls were found slain in a park.

Police questioned the father earlier today and confiscated clothes and computers from the family's home, the girl's grandfather said.


Arthur Hollabaugh, 51, said investigators were interviewing his son-in-law Jerry Hobbs, father of 8-year-old Laura Hobbs, and talking to the girl's siblings.

"Jerry just got out of prison for aggravated assault and I think they're holding that against him," Hollabaugh, 51, told The Associated Press. "I don't think he did it."

Donald Meadie, assistant commander of the Lake County Major Crime Task Force, confirmed late Monday that Hobbs had been questioned.

Laura and her best friend, 9-year-old Krystal Tobias, disappeared together on a Mother's Day bike ride and were found stabbed to death Monday off a wooded bike path near their homes in this small city near the Wisconsin line.


Hollabaugh said he and his son-in-law searched through the night for his missing granddaughter when they spotted a bicycle in bushes part way down a ravine. Minutes later, Hobbs was screaming that he had found the bodies, Hollabaugh said.

"I went and I seen them from a distance," Hollabaugh said. "It was clear they were laying there."

Hollabaugh said Hobbs had just returned to the area about a month earlier to reunite with Laura's mother after serving time in a Texas prison.

Hobbs was arrested on Aug. 4, 2001 after arguing with Sheila Hollabaugh, Laura's mother, in a Texas trailer park, said Rick Mahler, a prosecutor in Wichita County, Texas. Hobbs had grabbed a chainsaw and chased other residents around the area, Mahler said. No one was hurt and someone subdued Hobbs by hitting him in the back with a shovel, he said.

Hobbs was convicted of aggravated assault and sentenced to 10 years' probation, but he failed to appear for his required meetings, so his probation was revoked in 2003 and he was imprisoned until his release on April 12, according to the Texas Department of Criminal Justice.

Hollabaugh said police searched the family home and took measurements of his shoe soles. "They went through our stuff, took clothes," he said, adding that they took the computer to see if the girl had been on any Internet chat rooms.

Grief counselors were being brought today to Beulah Park Elementary, where the girls were best friends in the same second grade class. A memorial of flowers and balloons marked the area of the nearby park where the bodies were found a day earlier.

Zion, along Lake Michigan, was founded in 1901 by a religious faith healer as a utopian community. It has about 22,000 residents but retains a quiet, at times rural feel despite being on the edge of both the Chicago and Milwaukee metropolitan areas.

Laura Unrein, who lives near Beulah Park, said the area where the bodies were found is well known as a place to avoid. The heavily wooded park has a paved bike path, a ravine and trails made by mountain bikes.

"There have been incidents of kids beating up people and taking their wallets and park rangers have had to shoo people out of there for hunting illegally," she said, adding that it's also a popular hangout for teens to drink.

Lake County Coroner Richard Keller said it appears the girls were killed where their bodies were found; there was no evidence of sexual abuse and police said no weapons were found.

"They were best friends. When one left, the other left. They were always together," said Unrein.

The killings stunned this town about 45 miles north of Chicago, prompting police and Beulah Park Elementary School officials to escort children directly onto buses at the end of the school day.

"I know that they were very sweet girls," said Julie Dobnikar, who teaches second grade at the school, adding that the girls' teacher is "very distraught right now."

You mean Hobbs revocation was based purely in technical violations? Maybe (if he is in fact guilty) had he not been sentenced to prison he would have been a kinder,gentler Jerry Hobbs; that thing with the chainsaw was just youthful exuberance, you know.

Some of our state lawmakers are so jaded they want to delete many condtions of probation found in 42.12 SS 11(b). Because the words "but not limited to" in the first sentence are deleted, it follows that judges may impose those that remain and no other. By the way, did you notice sex offenders could not be required to post a sign? Check the deletion of (b)23. How does that deletion ease prison crowding? This bill is a sociopath's wet dream.

[This message was edited by BLeonard on 05-10-05 at .]

Father charged in girls' deaths

Hobbs served time for assaulting girl's mother

ZION, Illinois (CNN) -- Police have taken Jerry Hobbs into custody and charged him with murdering his 8-year-old daughter, Laura, and her best friend, 9-year-old Krystal Tobias.

The second-grade classmates are believed to have been stabbed to death Sunday on Mother's Day.

He was reported to have found the girls' bodies early Monday in a wooded park just blocks away from their elementary school, said police in Zion, about 40 miles north of Chicago.

Lake County State's Attorney Michael Waller declined to speculate on a motive, saying there was no "rational explanation" for the killings.

Hobbs, 34, could face the death penalty. But Waller said whether to pursue it is not a decision he wants to make "in the heat of the moment."

"The arrest today is the first step in the process of bringing this person to justice," he said.

Waller said the girls were not lured to the park; rather they encountered Hobbs there.

Waller said police questioned several relatives, but the others "didn't pique the officers' interest like he did."

"We believe we have a compelling case against this defendant, and all of that will come out in due course," he said.

Hobbs' bond hearing is scheduled for Wednesday morning.

Criminal record

Hobbs was released from prison in Texas last month after serving nearly two years for violating his probation. He had been serving time after pleading guilty to assault in 2001 against Laura's mother, Sheila Hollabaugh, said Rick Mahler, an assistant district attorney in Wichita Falls, Texas.

"He started chasing people around with a chainsaw that was running," Mahler said. "Somebody hit him with a shovel, knocked him down. Those people held him until the police arrived."

Hobbs was arrested again in 2003 after failing to show up for visits with his probation officer and skipping anger management classes.

In addition, Hobbs has served time in county jails on a variety of misdemeanor charges, ranging from assault to possession of marijuana and resisting arrest, Mahler said.

School Superintendent Connie Collins said the killings have left the community "in terrible shock." (Full story)

"It's very difficult to begin to understand something like this," Collins said. "It's something that was not expected. In a community like this, we have never had this type of experience, so it's been very difficult for everyone."

Girl 'had a smile for everybody'
Laura's grandmother, Emily Hollabaugh, said her granddaughter was "a typical 8-year-old girl" who "always had a smile for everybody," and Krystal was "just as sweet as Laura was."

"I have a lot of questions, but it's just mostly rage at whoever could do this to two little girls," she said.

Lake County Coroner Richard Keller said each girl had been stabbed at least twice. Investigators found no initial signs they had been bound or sexually assaulted, he said.

Keller estimated the time of death at 1 to 2 a.m. Monday, but said that estimate could be affected by rain and cool temperatures in the area.

Parents, police and city and school officials were expected to attend a community meeting Tuesday night to talk about the killings, to offer safety tips and to provide an update on the investigation, Collins said.

She said the girls' class had recently touched on the issue of loss.

"Fortunately, in talking with the classroom teacher, she shared with me that the children recently read a couple of books on loss -- 'Charlotte's Web' and 'The Taste of Blackberries,' " Collins said. "The children had an opportunity to discuss feelings and talk about what it meant to lose someone and to share with each other."

The girls were last seen riding bicycles Sunday afternoon. One of the bikes was recovered near the spot where their bodies were found, shortly after 6 a.m. Monday by a man taking a walk in Beulah Park, a spot that neighborhood parents warn children to avoid.

"It's out of sight of many adults who might possibly be around the kids or monitoring them," Collins said. "We try to keep them in the open."

Hollabaugh said the girls were seen playing in the park about 5:30 to 6 p.m. Sunday.

"I know she didn't come home for dinner and we got worried, and her brothers and sisters went out looking for her," Hollabaugh told Chicago television station WLS. "They didn't find her, and then, about 9 o'clock, they called the police."

Malcolm said the bodies were found about 100 yards off a bicycle path in a wooded area on the north end of the park.

Zion isn't used to such criminal events, said Mayor Lane Harrison. "This is an unusual occurrence for our community," she said. "We are going to do everything we can to bring this to a quick resolution."

Zion, population 23,000, had three reported homicides in 2002 and none in 2003, according to the police department's annual reports.

CNN's Chris Lawrence and Keith Oppenheim contributed to this report.

[URL=http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/05/10/illinois.girls/index.html ]CNN article (5-11-05)[/URL]

Well, we haven't heard the evidence yet, but I'm sure the DA has more than a 'smattering' connecting the guy to the crime. I just wonder why, oh why, do the infamous murderers have to be from Texas, Clara Harris, the Cheerleader Mom (no murder, thank goodness), Andrea Yates, just to name a few. I long for the day that I can look at a headline and learn that some national murder intrigue was solved by the arrest of an Iowan, or North Dakotan. More Prison time would not have cured the guy, he would have eventually got out.

Yes, he would have EVENTUALLY gotten out -- but perhaps that -eventually- you speak of would have come AFTER Laura and her friend Krystal had become old enough or matured sufficiently to at least allow them a fighting chance against someone who would plunge a knifeblade into their bodies. That is, as you say, if Hobbs is guilty of course.

(if he is guilty) You have to wonder what has sissified us Texans...surely ten years ago if one of us hit a crazed, chainsaw wielding defendant with a shovel he would have stayed hit.