The first time JoAnn Hobbs saw her son after he was charged with killing his 8-year-old daughter and her young friend, he blurted out that he'd confessed to the slayings, she said.
"Mama, they broke me," she said he told her.
She believed Jerry Hobbs III when he told her he was forced to confess after 20 hours of interrogation in May 2005 — and she believes him today, she said.
After staying silent for years out of fear of jeopardizing the Zion case, she said she decided to speak up Wednesday after Lake County prosecutors were granted a second two-week continuance to investigate DNA evidence linked to another man in custody.
Hobbs' attorney also filed a motion asking for a hearing to argue that Hobbs should be released on bond. Judge Fred Foreman set a status hearing and bond hearing for Aug. 4.
For now, Hobbs, 39, remains in jail with a murder trial scheduled Oct. 6. Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty.
"He was optimistic about getting out but, after today — he's scared," said JoAnn Hobbs of Wichita Falls, Texas. "It's like they are still trying him for something he didn't do."
She has talked to her son several times weekly on the phone but hasn't seen him in two years, she said.
Hobbs said her son's public defense team has discouraged her from visiting, saying he had received death threats and that they couldn't guarantee her safety. Hobbs was kept isolated from other prisoners for more than four years, she said, spending most of his time drawing pictures and reading.
"I can understand a mother's frustration at seeing her son incarcerated for a crime that she believes, perhaps rightly, that he didn't commit," said Keith Grant, assistant public defender. "However, she and we remain united in our goal to see Jerry released."
