Cobb man pleads not guilty in attempted murder case
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. — A Cobb man pleaded not guilty on Tuesday morning to charges including attempted murder for a shooting that he said was a matter of self-defense in the midst of an early morning fight last week.
Hunter Christian Toles, 23, entered the not guilty plea to charges of attempted murder, assault with a firearm — specifically a shotgun — along with battery causing serious bodily injury, felony child endangerment and numerous special allegations including personally and intentionally discharging a firearm, personal use of a shotgun and inflicting great bodily injury.
He was arrested early June 7 in Cobb following the shooting, which injured a woman, authorities said.
Toles told authorities that he was being beaten up by a larger man and that he used the gun in self-defense. In his booking photo, Toles’ lips appear swollen, cut and bloody.
The District Attorney’s Office complaint names three victims: the woman who was shot, her fiance — the same man who Toles said was assaulting him — and a child who also was in the house where the fight occurred.
Toles is facing separate attempted murder and assault with a firearm charges for both of the adults, with a charge of battery causing serious bodily injury for the woman.
His defense attorney, Tom Quinn, said Toles believes he was acting in self-defense against the man who was “beating the daylights out of him and had choked him out.”
Pellets from one shotgun round that was fired in the heat of the moment hit the woman, who was behind a wall and out of Toles’ view. The fact she was hit is “a circumstance he deeply regrets,” Quinn said of Toles.
In a court appearance last week, Judge Andrew Blum set Toles’ bail at $3,025,000. As a result, Toles remains in custody at the Lake County Jail.
On Tuesday, Toles’ preliminary hearing was set for July 20, said Chief Deputy District Attorney Richard Hinchcliff.
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