BERKELEY, Calif. (AP) - A judge has dismissed a second-degree murder conviction against a man accused of killing a UC Berkeley student during a 2008 fight.
Alameda County Judge Larry Goodman said on Tuesday that 26-year-old Andrew Hoeft-Edenfield’s defense attorney, Yolanda Huang, was not qualified to handle the case and, among other shortcomings, did not adequately warn her client about the risks of going to trial.
Hoeft-Edenfield was sentenced to 16 years to life after a jury convicted him of killing 21-year-old Christopher Wootton during a fight off-campus.
A call to Huang’s office was not immediately returned on Wednesday. In an e-mail statement to the San Francisco Chronicle (https://bit.ly/PRhpJQ), Huang said she was glad the conviction was vacated because the jury got it wrong. The Chronicle says she did not address the accusations against her.
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Information from: San Francisco Chronicle, https://www.sfgate.com
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