Bellefonte-area man charged with shooting his dad to remain jailed despite family pleas for his release
A father’s passionate and tearful plea to have his son — who was charged with attempted homicide after shooting him in June — released from jail as he awaits trial was not enough Tuesday to sway a Centre County judge.
Centre County Judge Brian Marshall kept Kyle J. Hockenberry’s bail at $250,000, meaning the 28-year-old returned to the Centre County Correctional Facility.
Ronald Hockenberry was the strongest advocate for his son to be released, testifying during a bail hearing that he did not want his son charged.
“He’s never done this. The boy doesn’t have a bad bone in his body,” the elder Hockenberry said. “... I feel like I’m about half dead without him.”
He later added: “I love that boy with all my heart.”
The family patriarch placed blame on himself for at least some of what led to the shooting, telling Marshall he “put that boy through a lot.”
Cheyenne Hall, Kyle’s fiance and mother of their 18-month-old son, testified she would have no issue if he were released and lived in their Benner Township home. Hockenberry has no prior convictions.
Their son, whose giggles filled the courtroom, “wants daddy all the time,” Hall testified. He carried a picture of his father around for weeks after his arrest.
Hall and Hockenberry lived together for four years. They separated about four days before the shooting, something that left him emotional and upset, Hall and Hockenberry’s father testified.
Hockenberry then worked and lived with his father. The two drank about three beers at a veterans organization before an argument unfolded at the Worth Township home, state police at Rockview wrote in an affidavit of probable cause.
Kyle packed some of his belongings and began to leave, but his truck caught fire at the end of the driveway.
“Everything just mounded on this kid,” Ronald Hockenberry testified. “... It was like one step forward, three steps back.”
The argument continued, and the younger Hockenberry retrieved an “assault-style shotgun,” Centre County District Attorney Bernie Cantorna said.
The weapon did not fire the first time Hockenberry pulled the trigger, police wrote. He cycled the firearm and pulled the trigger a second time, shooting his father in the left thigh.
The elder Hockenberry was transported to UPMC Altoona for treatment. He downplayed the severity of his injuries Tuesday, testifying he was installing shingles on a roof three days after the shooting.
“There was no reasonable justification for any of those things to happen,” Cantorna told Marshall.
Marshall said little other than denying the request from Centre County First Assistant Public Defender Lora Rupert.
The county’s top prosecutor tried to start a conversation with Ronald Hockenberry after the ruling, but it was not well received. Hockenberry turned and pointed toward Cantorna, telling him “I’m done playing games. You lied to me.”
Cantorna sat with his elbows rested on his knees, telling sheriff’s deputies that Hockenberry could air his grievances before they guided him from the courtroom. Cantorna declined comment after the hearing.
Hockenberry is also charged with two felony counts of aggravated assault and three misdemeanors. A trial has not been scheduled.