Let’s begin in the early hours of Sunday, January 24th; the place is Geronimo, Oklahoma, which is approximately 100 miles southwest of Oklahoma City. We find ourselves in the stillness of night; it’s a typical little RV trailer park. But serenity is suspicious. Suddenly, sounds awaken Shirley Salee, a neighbor of Lester Hobbs, today’s subject.
“We heard a kind of loud pop or something about, between 3 and 3:30 (AM) sometime.” Shirley and her husband thought it was a gunshot. The body of Tanya Hobbs, 37, was found in the RV later on that Sunday night. The Medical Examiner’s Office has ruled the cause of death as blunt force trauma.
Authorities now believe that Lester Hobbs used a hammer to beat his wife, Tanya Hobbs, to death. The noise that Shirley Salee heard the night of January 24th may have been the loud thump of a hammer. But could the crack of a hammer be as loud as a gunshot? Perhaps. Police have not said yet whether they have confiscated this weapon.
Further unsavory details were given by Richard Goss, with the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation, at a Thursday news conference. At one point Goss said: “It now appears that Lester Hobbs carried out that threat and actually used a hammer to kill his own wife. Very possibly, Aja lay on the sofa next to him.”
It’s been 34 days now since this slippery character, Lester Hobbs, fled Geronimo, Ok with a seven year old girl, Aja Daniell Johnson. Aja is the daughter of Tanya Hobbs and J. J. Johnson, the biological father. Lester Hobbs is actually the step-father of Aja Johnson. Lester never liked Aja anyway, and once forced her to eat many jalapeno peppers, according to her grandmother, Alice Dunkin.
The unfortunate mother of Aja, Tonya Hobbs, had traveled to Geronimo with her two daughters the very Saturday before the ‘calamitous episode,’ to reconcile with Lester Hobbs. This makes no sense in light of the fact that Tonya had filed a protective order against Hobbs last August. In her petition she said that Hobbs had threatened to kill her children with a hammer, no less.
Lester has a lengthy rap sheet. I don’t have access to his complete record, but here are a handful of infractions that he’s been charged and convicted of. Hobbs served 20 months in prison in 2003 for assault and battery with a deadly weapon. Then he got a DUI and this ‘driving under the influence’ was after a felony convictions.
Other black marks include: assault with a dangerous weapon, eluding police and resisting arrest. (NewsOK.com-Agent says Oklahoma girl may have witnessed mom’s slaying by Tim Talley (AP)-2/25/2010)
You can now add to the list the charges of first-degree murder of Tonya Hobbs and the kidnapping of Aja Johnson, who has a number of medical issues and needs her medication. One problem that I believe is pivotal to this tragic case is that Hobbs was suppose to appear in court in Lincoln County, Oklahoma, for yet another DUI charge that very Monday after the murder.
Obviously, he was a no show, so a warrant for his arrest was issued. My theory is that Hobbs realized that he would be sent back to prison for this DUI charge, and so he decided he would simply flee Oklahoma before the court date. I don’t know whether this was a motive in the homicide, but I suspect it may have played a part in this crime.
Furthermore, it looks like he takes Aja and flees in a white 1992 Toyota Paseo (OK tag number 577-BPW) that Sunday morning of January 24th. The previously mentioned neighbor, Shirlee Salee, saw the vehicle near his RV early that morning, but by the time she returned from church the Paseo was gone.
Authorities have emphasized that this desperado could have made good time and fled a great distance from Geronimo, Ok very early on. I don’t believe he is currently in Oklahoma or Texas for that matter, because he is cunning enough to realize that the law could nab him in such an obvious locale.
Hobbs has been compared to a coyote, so he is craftier than that. Maybe a fox is a better creature to compare him to. He could have hightailed it to Mexico, by the time the cops discovered the body of Tanya!
So it’s been 34 days and there is no sign of Lester Hobbs anywhere. He is all of this: stealthy, slinky, clever, underground, invisible, ‘neath a rock, a desperado on the lam. But most of all, he’s an offender, an abuser and a murderer most foul! Someone thought they had spotted him in Corpus Christi, but this lead never panned out. The OSBI has a new press release that has a more complete profile of this dangerous fugitive.
Hobbs is streetwise and can get by on very small amounts of money. He can survive on as little as $20 a day. He needs little food, but has to have cigarettes and liquor. He frequents bars and likes to hustles money in a game of pool. Lester is an automobile mechanic by trade and can do minor repairs on cars for money. He changes his appearance frequently, by dying his hair, changing his facial hair, clothes or by varying his hair style.
And now with a nation-wide man hunt in place for Mister Hobbs, there’s no telling what measures he’ll take to disguise himself. Plastic surgery is a possibility? Who knows? His nose is quite broken now, but I suppose he could have it fixed.
Some good identifiers of Hobbs are his distinguishing tattoos across the top of his fingers. ROSE is tattooed on the right hand and LOVE is on the left hand. How absurd, but the tattoos could help in his capture too!
Indeed, a most shady character, this Lester Hobbs! A looser, a drifter, a fugitive on the run. Be on the lookout because he likes to hitchhike across the country. Don’t pick up any hitchhikers, people! There’s a Badman on a rampage. A most loathsome urchin, an abuser of women and children. He also likes to surf the internet for lonely women. Be careful! He has no friends, but OSBI spokesman, Richard Goss, believes that someone may be harboring him.
I favor the idea that he gets out of Dodge and flees down the road as far as possible. Lester probably ditched the Toyota Paseo, because it has too many give-away features that would tip off any cops or vigilant citizens. This is hard for me to say, but I don’t think Hobbs would take Aja along on his journey, his escape from justice. I hope and pray the child is safe and still alive, but I don’t sense that she is still with Hobbs.
Richard Goss read from a statement on Thursday: “Drop her off at a Target, a Wal-mart, a K-Mart-any busy store where she will be safe. Attach a note to her clothing simply stating: ‘Call police-Amber Alert-Aja Johnson.'” (NewsOK.com-‘Release Aja,’ Oklahoma police officials say By Ron Jackson-Feb. 26, 2010)
My nerves are on end with this Sicko-of-a-Killer on the loose and on the prowl. I sure hope they nab this ‘Scavenger’ mighty soon. I hope and pray that no more tragedy will be added to this already catastrophic chronicle. Why in the world did Tonya ever want to reunite with such a crazy man?
From the vicious scowl on his face in all his photos, he looks like the most dastardly dark scoundrel that ever roamed the face of the earth. Hobbs is a scumbag, the wickedest low-life of a criminal; Hobbs would just as soon slit your throat as shake your hand! Be wary folks, we’ll all rest much better when he’s finally apprehended.
I fear it (Tonya’s reuniting) might have something to do with the ‘cycle of abuse,’ often associated with abused women. That is, the abuse only gets worse, when the woman reunites with her abusive paramour. In this case it escalates to the extremity of homicide. That’s the furthest extremity of abuse that it possibly can escalate to.
