WOODLAND — For nearly two months, the character of Bryan Hoskins Sr. went through the wringer at the trial of his wife, Susan Hoskins, who claimed he was in a drunken, abusive rage when she fatally shot him in self-defense.
On Tuesday, it was the defendant’s turn as relatives of her slain spouse unleashed a torrent of adjectives they felt described her best: Deceitful. Despicable. Manipulative. Narcissistic. Evil.
“It brings me pleasure to see you being placed in handcuffs,” Ana Hoskins, the victim’s daughter-in-law, told the woman acquitted last fall of both first- and second-degree murder, and whose jury deadlocked on a voluntary manslaughter charge. “My family will have closure the day you are in a box and 6 feet underground.”
Even Yolo Superior Court Judge David Reed, who presided over the trial, got an earful from the victim’s son, who insists the abuse claims were bogus.
“My father’s reputation was tarnished horribly in this court. … The evidence that wasn’t allowed by you painted a picture of my father that was untrue,” Bryan Hoskins Jr. said. “In my mind I can only summarize this case as murder, manipulation and a miscarriage of justice.”
To his stepmother, he added: “You callously put a bullet through his heart, (but) my heart stands beating. He’s not dead — he’s still alive in the ethics, the integrity, the morals, the values and the human kindness that he instilled in me.”
Susan Hoskins, 60, sat quietly through the victim impact statements before Reed sentenced her to four years in state prison, the result of a plea agreement made back in February. She pleaded no contest to voluntary manslaughter with a weapon enhancement, thus avoiding a second trial and potentially steeper sentence.
Susan Hoskins. Enterprise file photo
The former Woodland Healthcare nurse delivered a brief statement of her own, saying while she loved her husband, that love gave way to fear as his alcoholism worsened and aggression increased.
“He was good, kind man like his son says,” she said. “But the man that drank and the man that became violent was the man that I came to know more.”
For both sides, it was an unsatisfactory end to a case that began on Aug. 3, 2014, when a single gunshot rang out in the kitchen of 607 Knollwood Drive, the couple’s Woodland townhouse.
The couple, whose volatile relationship led them to maintain separate residences at times, had spent the day motorcycle-riding and bar-hopping — the festive outing quickly deteriorating into an argument upon their return home.
“Because he’s an a—— and he kept calling me a whore,” Susan Hoskins told a 911 dispatcher when asked why she shot her husband, whose moans of pain could be heard in the background of the recorded phone call.
Hoskins Sr., a retired Yolo County Probation Department superintendent, died minutes later on the kitchen floor.
Susan Hoskins denied suffering from abuse during an interview that night with Woodland police. But that later changed, her attorneys raising the issue of domestic violence as the case moved toward trial.
During her two days on the witness stand, Susan Hoskins described being the victim of physical, psychological and sexual abuse during her 20-year marriage, her husband’s demeanor that final night putting her in fear for her life.
The nine-woman, three-man jury deliberated for eight days, reaching acquittals on the murder charges but hanging 7-5 on the manslaughter count, their vote in favor of guilt.
Prosecutors called the self-defense argument a sham, saying Hoskins shot her husband out of frustration over his drinking. They called several witnesses who testified that Hoskins conspired with her Yolo County Jail cellmate to have medical records altered to show she had suffered abuse-related injuries prior to the shooting.
Even Reed, the judge, described the physical abuse claims as less than compelling, but said Tuesday “there was significant, credible evidence that she suffered psychological abuse by the victim.”
Reed also scheduled a victim restitution hearing for late July but ordered Hoskins sent off to prison in the meantime. With that, a bailiff cuffed her hands behind her back and led her from the courtroom.
With credit for the jail time she served before her trial, Hoskins is expected to be released from prison in about 2 1/2 years, after which she’ll spend three years on parole.
— Reach Lauren Keene at lkeene@davisenterprise.net or 530-747-8048. Follow her on Twitter at @laurenkeene