When police found 17-year-old Jonathan Hoffman, he was in a pool of blood in his socks and gym shorts. He was punctured with bullet holes and had the faintest whisper of a pulse. Upon his arrival at the hospital, doctors pronounced him dead. The culprit? His 74-year-old grandmother, Sandra Layne.
Why did an elderly matron kill her own kin in this troubling true crime case? Turns out he wasn’t the best grandson a grandmother could ask for.
There’s audio from a 911 call on May 18, 2012. Hoffman was in shock and told the operator “My grandma shot me. I’m gonna die.” Then more shots are heard in the background. “Help me! I got shot again.” When police arrived at the residence in West Bloomfield Township in Michigan they still heard shots being fired. They told Layne to drop the gun. When they accosted her she said, “I murdered my grandson.”
A search found 10 bullet casings strewn about their house. Layne was taken to the hospital for observation and told police that her grandson did not hurt her. Then she asked for a lawyer.
During a subsequent interview with police, she changed her story to one of self-defense, saying she had a “beef” with her grandson and that she feared for her life and her safety. More investigation revealed that Hoffman was something of a troubled child who had anger issues.
She had previously called 911 on her grandson and had recently bought the firearm because she was “afraid” of Hoffman, according to her attorney Jerry Sabbota. However, calling action “self-defense” was always going to be challenging because she didn’t have any scratches on her, and before the murder, she told her husband to walk the dog, which hinted at a premeditated plot and an intent to kill.
In court, Sabbota painted Hoffman as a violent, drugged-out kid with anger issues. Layne said he would kick in doors in fits of anger and that she was deathly afraid of him. In court, prosecutors systematically chipped away at her claims that she was in danger and needed to protect her life.
Paul Walton, one of the prosecutors on the case, told Oxygen that when he asked her why she got the gun, she said it was “because she just wanted him to listen.”
“Not that she was in fear,” he said. “That she wanted him to listen.” Layne also claimed that Hoffman was using a synthetic marijuana called Spice and that it made him erratic, but they found the drug in his urine, meaning it wasn’t “actively influencing him at that point,” which chipped away yet another point from Sandra’s defense.
Hoffman’s mother, Jennifer, told investigators about what she called her “highly dysfunctional family.” She said her mother was argumentative, controlling, and physically abusive. She said her father left home and just never returned.
At the end of the trial, a jury found Sarah guilty of second-degree murder and she was sentenced to 20 years in prison. But as per the Michigan Department of Corrections records, she was discharged in April 2024, though the reason for her early release remains a mystery.