A Kentucky jury got here down onerous on a Napa Valley man employed by a former California Freeway Patrol captain to kill her husband in a twisted murder-for-hire plot – even after the killer’s distraught youngsters begged for mercy.
Cumberland County jurors on Monday really helpful probably the most extreme penalty they may, life in jail, for Thomas O’Donnell, within the killing of Michael Harding, the estranged husband of CHP captain Julie Harding.
O’Donnell was convicted of homicide by that very same jury final Friday. The jurors may have really helpful a sentence ranging wherever from 20 to 50 years in jail, or life in jail, KCRA 3 reported.
It took the jury solely about half-hour to unanimously agree on a life sentence for the shocked 64-year-old, who was positioned in handcuffs and led out of the courtroom after the jurors issued their stunning decree.
Prosecutors mentioned Harding employed O’Donnell to kill her husband amid a nasty divorce, and introduced reams of proof to show their case over a trial that lasted weeks.
The jury heard from O’Donnell’s youngsters, who requested for forgiveness for his or her now-convicted father.
They mentioned the killer was enjoyable and the lifetime of the get together. His life was just a little chaotic, they mentioned, and he was all the time looking for his soulmate and all the time had a brand new girlfriend.
O’Donnell’s daughter mentioned he was too trusting of others.
In the meantime, the useless man’s two youngsters had traveled to Kentucky from Sacramento, to argue for justice for his or her dad.
They advised the jury that their father was a great man, regardless that the household had been by a tough patch in recent times.
The slain father left leaves behind a twin brother, his mom, his two youngsters and three grandchildren.
O’Donnell was arrested Dec. 8 at Sacramento Worldwide Airport. That very same day, Harding was arrested in Kentucky on suspicion of legal trespassing after allegedly harassing her husband’s girlfriend.
Two days later, Harding was discovered useless in what gave the impression to be a suicide.
The weird homicide trial noticed days of testimony from dozens of witnesses, together with an FBI agent who walked jurors by stunning textual content messages that confirmed how O’Donnell lured his sufferer to a secluded residence the place he was killed.
Two days earlier than the homicide, O’Donnell’s telephone was close to Harding’s Sacramento residence similtaneously hers.
Prosecutors argued that is when she employed him to kill her estranged husband.
On the day of the killing, prosecutors mentioned, Harding’s telephone was in Sacramento, whereas O’Donnell’s telephone and the pay as you go telephone have been close to the crime scene in Kentucky.
Prosecutors additionally delivered to DNA proof and ammunition used within the killing on Sept. 19, 2022, at a vacant residence on Glasgow Street in Burkesville.
“There’s no proof another person killed him,” mentioned prosecutor Jesse Stockton in his closing remarks earlier than the 12-member jury.
“All this proof factors to this novice hitman from California,” Stockon added. “Do your obligation. Discover him responsible of homicide.”
The jury’s advice for O’Donnell’s punishment is nonbinding. Decide David Williams will in the end decide the size of O’Donnell’s imprisonment.
O’Donnell will obtain about 3.5 years of credit score for time served. At 20 years, he might be eligible for parole.
