Court Denies Appeal For Brothers Convicted Of 2006 Murder

Two brothers serving time for a Shasta County murder have tried to get their cases appealed. A law passed in 2019 allows people to challenge their murder convictions to force prosecutors to prove that they could still be found guilty under current law. In 2006 Timothy and Robert Stayer were convicted in the kidnapping, torture and murder of 23-year-old Christopher Hoff-McCauliffe. The brothers found Hoff-McCauliffe in bed with their mother, Catherine Tuschen, in November of 2004. The Cottonwood man was beaten, poisoned, stomped on, and left to die on a boat ramp. The prosecution was assisted by the testimony of accomplices, as well as surveillance footage from a car wash where they had gone to wash the blood from the bed of their pickup and could be seen re-enacting the stomping and beating of Hoff-McCaullife. The Stayers were given two life sentences without the possibility of parole. After many hours of research, review, and testimony the court last week denied the Stayers’ petition.

-Steve Gibson