Ward County prosecutor Roza Larson had teased a lengthy witness list during jury selection the day before and wasted no time running through as many as possible. The first witnesses were the officers who were first on the scene to respond to reports of a gunshot ringing out on what was otherwise a still spring night in northwest Minot.

Minot Police Officer Amanda Somerville said she and another officer arrived on the scene, observing a male laying on his back in the entry to a nearby apartment. Somerville detailed that she saw blood coming out of the victim’s mouth, nose and the side of his skull. Sommerville stated she found no pulse after checking Eckert’s vitals. Eckert was later assessed by paramedics and declared deceased. After clearing the scene, Somerville testified that a spent .45-caliber casing was recovered within 20 feet of Eckert’s body.

Members of the Minot Police Department Crime Scene Response Unit arrived, led by Sgt. Carmen Asheim, to process the scene. Asheim clarified that while officers and investigators did enter the victim’s apartment, it was not fully searched for evidence as there was no indication that any foul play took place inside it. Crime scene photos and maps were entered as evidence and shared with the jury, laying out the timeline and locations of certain events.

Witness Samantha Jackson of Minot testified, sharing her recollection of the morning after the shooting. Jackson had been out on a morning stroll with her dog when she discovered something decidedly out of the ordinary – a .45-caliber handgun in some grass about a block from Eckert’s apartment.

BCI Special Agent Alex Droske explains the particulars behind his audio and video forensic examination of home security footage captured in the moments before and after Alexander Eckert was shot and killed in 2022.

“That day he tugged me in a different way, so off we went. I was walking while on the phone talking to my mom, and I happened to be looking down,” Jackson said. “I took a picture of it and sent it to my mom, and she said to call 911, so that’s exactly what I did.”

Key evidence introduced by the state was home surveillance footage captured on a neighboring residence’s camera system to establish the prosecution’s timeline for the incident. The homeowner provided the footage to investigators, who then sent it off for analysis. Special agent Alex Droske of the Bureau of Criminal Investigation was called to the stand to present his analysis of this footage, which was forensically modified to highlight specific moments of the 30-minute clip for the jury.

Droske highlighted moments of “apparent activity” for the jury, including a vehicle that matched the characteristics of a vehicle of interest in the investigation, which was shown arriving and parking on a street near the crime scene. Annotated footage presented to the jury showed two individuals leaving the area of the vehicle and approaching Eckert’s apartment building. A short time later, audio was captured that Droske, a certified firearms expert, determined to be a gunshot. The figures were then captured in the footage returning to the vehicle and leaving the scene shortly after the gunshot was recorded.

According to the probable cause affidavit, a man named Jesse Schroeder was a witness to the shooting, having allegedly driven Hoffman to Eckert’s apartment that evening and then driving Hoffman back to Minot AFB, hidden in the back of his vehicle after the incident. Schroeder has not been charged in relation to this incident and was named as a potential state’s witness at the beginning of the trial.

Hoffman’s attorney Steven Mottinger pressed Droske on his evidence and expertise, seeking clarification regarding timestamps on the surveillance video and whether the sound heard was actually a gunshot. Droske clarified that there likely wouldn’t be errors in the timestamps on the footage, as most internet protocol-based home surveillance cameras operate with cloud computing and typically don’t require any maintenance by users to adjust for factors like Daylight Savings Time. Droske replied that the sound was definitely a gunshot as opposed to a firecracker, as their recorded reports are quite different due to gunshots breaking the sound barrier.

Witness Samantha Jackson testifies before the court on Thursday, detailing how her morning stroll with her dog led her to discovering the suspected murder weapon in the shooting of Alexander Eckert.

Droske also stressed that he was not privy to all the facts of the case, and that his testimony was limited to the similarities of class characteristics of the vehicle and the suspects as the footage didn’t capture individual details that could more definitively identify them.

The final witness before Judge Gary Lee called to break for lunch was special agent Jaron Olson, a digital forensic examiner from BCI, who testified regarding the partial contents of Hoffman’s Apple iPhone 13 that was recovered. Due to the device still being locked and seized without a password, only a limited set of data was able to be extracted. Mottinger confirmed that none of the data included any user-generated data, including messages, images, app data and other content encrypted by Apple’s security features.

Hoffman’s trial is scheduled to run until Sept. 15.