The prosecution also wants Hocog, 22, to pay over $14,000 in restitution and to be placed on five-year probation.
Superior Court Associate Judge Perry B. Inos will sentence Hocog tomorrow for involuntary manslaughter.
Hocog has been incarcerated since his arrest on March 4, 2010. On the same day, his victim, Larry Garcia Gonzales, 37, died at the Commonwealth Health Center’s intensive care unit due to blunt trauma to his head.
The court imposed a $100,000 cash bail on Hocog.
Hocog admitted punching Gonzales with his right hand.
A juvenile, who apparently was the girlfriend of the two men, said she saw Hocog punch Gonzales to the left side of his face. She said Gonzales fell backwards, bumping his head on the pavement.
Hocog “did not appear to contemplate that his conduct would cause or threaten serious harm,” said Assistant Attorney General Eli Golob, the prosecutor.
“I feel bad about what happened with Larry. I did not mean to kill him. I want to apologize for what I did,” Hocog stated in court documents.
Hocog said prior to the incident, at about 1 p.m. on March 1, 2010, when he was walking to Kagman Elementary School to pick up his niece, his phone received a text message in Filipino.
Hocog used a school phone to call the texter, Gonzales, who told the defendant that he was texting the juvenile, who was 17 at the time.
Hocog said he was now the phone’s owner and the juvenile “was my girlfriend, soon to be fianceé.”
Gonzale told Hocog that he was the juvenile’s girlfriend.
“I was surprised,” said Hocog, adding that he asked Gonzales how long he and the juvenile were having a relationship.
Gonzales replied: “Going on five months.”
Hocog said he told the victim that he and the juvenile were seeing each other “for about three months now.”
“As I was walking home I was feeling pain and was heartbroken because of what I [learned] from Larry. I was even crying while I was walking home. When I got home I sat under the tree…thinking of why she…hurt me,” Hocog said, referring to the juvenile.
At around 3 p.m., Hocog said he waited for the juvenile to come out of Kagman High School. He said he recounted to her what Gonzales told him.
The juvenile claimed that Gonzales was “just a friend,” Hocog said.
“I kept begging her not to lie to me,” Hocog said, adding that the juvenile started to get mad and began raising her tone.
Hocog said he and the juvenile continued talking about Gonzales over the phone after she arrived home. They spoke until 4 p.m.
At about 5 p.m., Hocog said the juvenile told him over the phone that she was at an Internet shop.
Hocog said he also received text messages from Gonzales who told him that he would be in Kagman within 30 minutes.
“Larry said he wanted to see for himself if it was really true that I was really [her] boyfriend,” said Hocog. He said he told Gonzales not to come to the Internet shop.
Hocog said he later saw a car pull into the parking area. The driver, Gonzales, waved at him, but Hocog said he ignored the victim.
Hocog said the juvenile also declined to come out of the Internet shop.
“When she [finally] came out…all of us gathered on the patio on a concrete pavement,” said Hocog, referring to the juvenile and Gonzales.
Hocog said he asked the juvenile, in front of Gonzales, “who did she really want to be with and who did she really love.”
“I looked at [her] and she looked like she was about to cry. I was thinking that she was feeling guilty for what she had done. She did not answer my question and instead walk back into the Internet shop,” Hocog said.
He said he told Gonzales that he was “heartbroken.”
Gonzales began asking personal questions about him and the juvenile, Hocog said.
“At that time I lost my mind and I was not thinking anymore,” said Hocog. He said he punched Gonzales.
“She admitted that she was going out with Larry and that they had sex,” Hocog quoted the juvenile as saying after she confronted her for punching Gonzales.
Hocog said Gonzales lost consciousness after falling to the ground, but “woke up” after he tapped the victim’s face.
Hocog said he left after an ambulance and police officers arrived and hid in the boonies.
Later, when the police and ambulance left, he said he “approached Larry who was still lying inside the car and began apologizing for punching him. Larry replied and told me that everything okay.”
Hocog said Gonzales told him that he did not want the defendant to call an ambulance.
Court documents regarding this case included photos of Gonzales taken by police shortly after the assault incident.
In the photos, Gonzales’ left facial area was swollen. His right eye appeared to have been injured, too.
After arriving at home that night, Hocog said the juvenile called him on the phone at about 8 p.m.
“She was telling me that she just used Larry to make me jealous and to see if I really loved her,” Hocog said.
She also asked him to check on Gonzales again. The victim’s car was still parked outside the Internet shop, but Gonzales was not inside the vehicle, Hocog said.
Hocog said two days after the incident, he and the juvenile exchanged text messages again.
The juvenile later told him that Gonzales had passed away.
According to Hocog, “[She] was blaming herself, saying that it was her fault. She said that if she did not fool me then this thing would not have happened.”
Hocog said the juvenile “begged” him not to involve her “because she was scared of her step-father.”
“She did not want her step-father to know what was going on because they did not know about it,” Hocog said.
Gonzales died of severe head injury. It was the owner of the Internet shop who called for an ambulance after seeing the victim unconscious inside his car at about 9 p.m.
