Prosecutors say a man charged with killing the husband of a California Highway Patrol captain last year did so as part of a murder-for-hire plot involving the captain and that they intend to seek the death penalty.
Cumberland County, Kentucky, prosecutors say that Thomas O’Donnell shot Michael Harding to death “in a conspiracy with the victim’s estranged wife, Julie Harding, who was found dead by suicide two days after O’Donnell was arrested in December 2022, as CrimeOnline previously reported.
According to court documents filed in Cumberland Circuit Court and obtained by KCRA, Michael and Julie Harding lived in Sacramento, where Michael ran a heating and air company. The couple bought a lakeside house in Celina, Tennessee, near the Kentucky state line, where they intended to retire. Initially, Michael Harding moved to the home, while Julie Harding continued to work for CHP and traveled back and forth.
The two became estranged, however, and Julie Harding filed for divorce in California, the document says.
Between March 9 and May 24 last year, Julie Harding “cashed out” $227,700 from the couple’s bank accounts “without the consent, knowledge, or approval” of Michael Harding.
Michael Harding was shot dead at a house in Burkesville, Kentucky, just over the state line from Celina, and his body was found a week later by realtor showing the house to a potential buyer.
Investigators said in the court documents they found dozens of phone contacts between O’Donnell and Julie Harding on multiple phones associated with O’Donnell, including 194 contacts between July 1 and September 8 on one phone alone. The documents also detail how investigators tracked the phones to locations O’Donnell was known to be at times he was there.
Additionally, the documents say, a vehicle matching the description of O’Donnell’s and one of the cell phones were tracked in Burkesville on the day Michael Harding was killed.
Other contacts between Julie Harding and O’Donnell took place after the murder.
O’Donnell was arrested on December 8 at the Sacramento airport as he was trying to board a flight for Texas. Julie Harding, on leave from her job, was arrested that day for harassing Michael Harding’s girlfriend in Tennessee. She was released from jail the same day, but on December 10, she was found dead in the front yard of the Celina house from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
In the court document, prosecutors say they intend to seek the death penalty because of aggravating circumstances: the intentional murder, the conspiracy, and that the murder was committed “for the purpose of receiving money” or for profit.
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[Featured image: Julie Harding/California Highway Patrol; Michael Harding/Clay County Sheriff’s Office]
