Andrew Hoeft-Edenfield, left, and Christopher Joseph Wootton, right.

UC Berkeley, CA – Christopher Joseph Wootton, 21, had the world on a platter. A well-regarded nuclear engineering student at UC Berkeley, he anticipated graduation this spring. He was smart, and funny – I found a picture of Chris and his brother dressed as Mormon missionaries for HalloweenHalloween reviews, and it’s the most awesome Halloween costume EVAH. But something went bad for Chris Wootton on SaturdaySaturday reviews morning about 2:45 – he encountered Andrew Hoeft-Edenfield. And Edenfield had a knife.

Chris Wootton died on the way to the hospital of a stab wound to his chest. Nobody seems to know exactly what happened. A fight, certainly, but why? Chris was walking behind the Chi O sorority house on his way back to Sigma Pi from a party. Somehow, something he said or did – or didn’t do, or didn’t say, who knows? – set off Andrew Hoeft-Edenfield.

And Hoeft-Edenfield has a history of a hot temper, if this 2006 article about Berkeley High School is any indication.  He told a reporter then that he “hadn’t been in a single fight” since transferring to Berkeley High from another school, so obviously fighting was an issue for Andrew long before he met Chris Wootton.   I also found Andrew’s Myspace.  It’s set to private, but “Mr. Professional” is “all about business” and “wants you to be real”.

On the other hand, Chris Wootton’s Myspace is public, although his photo albums are not.  No matter; there are plenty of pictures of a smiling Chris in ready view.  He’s a frat boy, all right.  His blogs talkcandidly and unaffectedly about beer, one bar fight that he kind of started and didn’t really finish, and the day the frat boys witnessed a rooftop blowjob.  Yeah, he was a party boy – but his MyspaceMySpace doesn’t paint him as a malicious person.  Maybe he just “threw down” on the wrong guy Saturday.

And then there’s this, from September 2006:

(Lately, l’ve) been thinking alot about my (far future) children and how they might view me.  i mean they cant possibly be around me while im in my college years nor will they ever fully know what ive done, am doing now, or what im going to do in the near future.  however, what they will know is that i had my own place with my brother and one of my best friends for a full summer and that i joined a fraternity and lived in the house for at least two years… not that bad, right? well… what if my child is 15 years old, dealing with angst and entertaining rebellion because all i can do is tell him/her that “parties, drinking, drugs, sex, and staying out late are all bad and he/she can’t do it.”  Well, i laugh when i write that quote down because if my child were to know exactly what the past year of my life has included, i would lose all credibility (at least in my own thoughts)….

It’s really too bad that because of one fight – one bad decision by a young man carrying a knife – that Chris Wootton will never have that talk with his kid.

Hoeft-Edenfield is being held at the City of Berkeley Jail, charged with murder.  No bond information is yet available.

Thanks, UCat!