Inmate charged in 1990 Cambridge murder receives 20-year prison sentence

CAMBRIDGE, Ohio (WCMH) — A man in jail who was charged in the 1990 fatal burning of a 30-year-old man in Cambridge has received an additional prison sentence.

60-year-old Carl “Butch” Hoopingarner, who is in Belmont County jail on an unrelated murder and drug charge, received a sentence of 20 years to life in prison on June 27 for the murder of James Bradley 34 years ago, according to the Guernsey County Sheriff's Office.

Hoopingarner was initially on the sheriff's office's radar after his alleged involvement in a Colorado homicide, learning he was driving the victim's vehicle back to Guernsey County. On Feb. 20, he was found in Buffalo, Ohio, and confessed to the 1990 murder of Bradley.

In August 1990, firefighters and deputies responded to a vehicle burning outside the former Raven Cafe on Old National Road in Cambridge Township. Firefighters received reports Bradley was trapped inside the car as it was burning. Bradley was pronounced dead at the scene with the Guernsey County coroner at the time ruling it as a natural death from massive body burns.

Guernsey County Sheriff Jeffrey Paden reopened the case in 2021 after a tip the fire was not accidental. Hoopingarner was then charged with aggravated murder on March 16. He could still be granted extradition back to Colorado, where he still has a murder warrant, if a parole is granted from Ohio, per the sheriff's office.