Teen Admits Killing Father Inside Morris County Home

KINNELON – A Morris County 19-year-old told a judge in Superior Court in Morristown Thursday that he did in fact shoot and kill his father in their Kinnelon home earlier this year.

Travis Hofstetter, 19, didn’t give the judge a reason as to why he carried out the murder, dailyrecord.com reported, and stated he was in a “clear, lucid frame of mind.”

The teen, then 18, admitted to a dispatcher that he had murdered his father shortly after fleeing the home on Feb. 15. Police responded to the Wedgewood Drive home at 4:15 p.m. and found James Hofstetter, 57, dead from gunshot wounds, Morris County Prosecutor Fredric Knapp said.

An investigation led to a search Travis Hofstetter, who was located a short time later by the Hardyston Township Police near the Skylands Ice World on Route 23 in Stockholm, New Jersey, Knapp said.

The prosecution is recommending a 30-year sentence with no parole. Sentencing is scheduled for Jan. 27, 2016.

Patch File Photo