Hitman hired to kill CHP captain’s husband gets life sentence
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The man that a California Highway Patrol captain hired to kill her husband four years ago has been sentenced to life in prison for the killing.
Prosecutors in Kentucky, where the killing occurred, alleged that Thomas O’Donnell, 64, had conspired with CHP Capt. Julie Harding to kill her estranged husband, Michael Harding. A jury found O’Donnell guilty of the murder on Friday and gave him a life sentence on Monday.
The murder was committed on Sept. 19, 2022. O’Donnell was arrested Dec. 8 that year at Sacramento International Airport. Julie Harding died of an apparent suicide two days later.
Investigators connected O’Donnell to the crime and O’Donnell to Julie Harding using cellphone data. The data indicated O’Donnell was near Harding’s home in Sacramento two days before the murder. Harding had worked for the CHP for 22 years and, since 2018, had headed the department’s Yuba-Sutter office. She was on leave at the time of her death.
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