Former Cal Poly student gets 6 years, 2 months in prison for firearm shooting and possession

SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. (KEYT) – Charles Hojaboom, a former Cal Poly student, received a 6-year, 2-month state prison sentence for firearm crimes on Cal Poly's campus in 2023, according to the SLO County District Attorney's Office.

Hojaboom, 21, pleaded no contest on Aug. 27 to criminal charges of shooting at an inhabited dwelling, discharging a firearm with gross negligence, vandalism and five counts of loaded firearm possession on a college campus, according to the SLOCDAO.

Hojaboom admitted to personal use of a deadly or dangerous weapon included in his plea to the crime of discharging a firearm with gross negligence, according to the SLOCDAO.

Hojaboom also pleaded no contest to shooting at an inhabited dwelling and now stands convicted of two separate "strikes" under California's Three Strikes Law, according to the SLOCDAO.

All charges against Hojaboom in the case come from four separate shooting incidents that happened between June and November 2023, three of which happened outdoors on campus, according to the SLOCDAO.

Hojaboom fired a bolt-action rifle inside his dorm room on Oct. 27, 2023 and investigators found a bullet that travelled from his dorm through the ceiling into a separate dorm room above, according to the SLOCDAO.

No reported injuries arose during any of these shootings and no agreement between Hojaboom and the District Attorney emerged on a specific time sentence, according to the SLOCDAO.

The maximum sentence on Hojaboom could have been 11 years and 6 months but a presiding judge said she would not go further than 7 years, 6 months for his sentence, according to the SLOCDAO.

Hojaboom will now be taken to state prison for the rest of his sentence after already serving 1,472 days in county jail, according to the SLOCDAO.