Probation violation: Kroboth gets six months

An extended vacation has turned into an extended jail term for convicted attempted murderer Kurt Kroboth, who was sentenced on May 2 in Albemarle County Circuit Court to six months behind bars for violating the terms of his probation.

It was Kroboth's decision to travel from his Arizona home to Oregon and attempt to see the younger of his two sons that landed him behind bars. His travel permit listed only San Francisco as a destination, something Kroboth described as a misunderstanding, claiming that he'd listed only that city since it was his intended final destination. On other trips while on probation, he previously testified, he'd made detours without incident.

In a March hearing in Albemarle Circuit Court, Judge Cheryl Higgins delayed ruling on the violation, citing a need for more information from Kroboth's Arizona-based probation supervisor.

As previously reported in the Hook, Kroboth's son, a student at the University of Oregon, called police when his father showed up unannounced outside his home in early January. Father and son have been estranged since Kroboth donned a vampire mask on Halloween night 2004, cut the phone and electricity to the Albemarle County house he'd once shared with his then-estranged and now ex-wife, and attacked her as she slept. After she fought back, Kroboth fled and was apprehended. Among items police recovered were the mask he wore, a chloroform-soaked rag, and a knife.

Kroboth, who was arrested in Arizona on January 11 and has been held in the local jail since February 20, is tentatively scheduled for release from Albemarle Charlottesville Regional Jail on June 21 after serving the required 85 percent of his sentence.