Patrolman James Duane Hoff, Reno Police Department, Nevada

Patrolman James Duane Hoff

Reno Police Department, Nevada

End of Watch Monday, June 25, 1979

James Duane Hoff

Patrolman James Hoff was stabbed to death after being abducted during an undercover narcotics transaction.

Patrolman Hoff was posing as a drug dealer and had agreed to meet a buyer later in the night to conduct a transaction. The buyer and an accomplice, however, were planning on murdering the dealer and recruited two additional accomplices.

Shortly after Patrolman Hoff met the buyer, the surveillance equipment in his car malfunctioned and his backup officers were unable to hear what was occurring. The suspects were able to abduct him and stabbed him to death before dumping his body near the Dog Valley Road summit.

All four suspects, ages 16 to 20, were convicted of Patrolman Hoff's murder. The 20-year-old suspect was sentenced to death. On Oct. 27, 2011, the Nevada State Supreme Court upheld his conviction for the third time. He is the longest-serving inmate on Nevada's death row. The other three suspects were sentenced to life without the possibility of parole.

Patrolman Hoff had served with the Reno Police Department for seven years.

Bio

Age 33
Tour 7 years
Badge Not available

Incident Details

Cause Stabbed
Weapon Edged weapon; Knife
Offender Sentenced to death

narcotics, abducted, investigation

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Ode To The Blue:

Oh Jimmy my friend;we fought to the end,
And always we lived through to tell it.

But on that last day;behind I must stay,
And I cried as they laid you to rest.

The Piper's Dirge wailed as the wind in bare trees,
And all of the men; they stood proud before you.

The Twenty One Guns did shout to the sun,
At my last sight of you;still wearing the Blue.

The wicked shall flee when no man pursueth.
Proverbs 28:1

Det. Gary Eubanks (ret.)
Reno Police Department

March 17, 2017