Thomas O’Donnell has been found guilty of murdering Mike Harding at a remote Kentucky property after prosecutors said he lured the HVAC business owner to his death as part of a conspiracy involving Harding’s estranged wife, Julie.
A jury in Cumberland County took two hours to convict O’Donnell following a five-day trial. He was sentenced to life in prison, with the possibility of parole after 20 years.
Harding, 48, was found dead in September 2022 at a vacant three-building property in Burkesville, near the Kentucky-Tennessee border. He had been shot four times, including twice in the head.
His body was discovered by David Hammersley, who had been viewing the property with his family. Investigators said Harding had probably been there for about a week before he was found.
Evidence in the Mike Harding murder
Police established that Harding had travelled to the property after receiving messages from a man calling himself James Fraser, who claimed to need a heating and air-conditioning service. Investigators later concluded that Fraser was a fictitious identity.
The messages came from a prepaid mobile phone. Location data showed the device travelling alongside O’Donnell’s personal phone in the weeks before the killing, including from the Houston area, where O’Donnell was from.
Investigators also found DNA consistent with O’Donnell on Harding’s pickup truck. The truck had been moved into a garage after the shooting.
When O’Donnell was arrested at Sacramento airport in December 2022, police said they found one of Harding’s stolen guns in his truck, together with Hornady Critical Defense ammunition. One shell casing of that type had been left at the murder scene.
Prosecutors said O’Donnell had been in frequent contact with Julie Harding, with the pair making 194 calls over a period of months. The calls stopped days before Mike Harding was killed.
They argued that Julie had a financial motive during the couple’s bitter divorce. Mike Harding had told friends that he feared for his safety and had warned that, if he disappeared or was murdered, investigators should examine his wife’s involvement.
Julie Harding had also withdrawn about 360,000 dollars from accounts connected to the couple, according to what Mike told his divorce lawyer. Investigators said they could not establish whether any of that money had been used to pay O’Donnell.
Detective BJ Burton told the court that the central conflict in Harding’s life was his divorce and the dispute over money and property. Asked whether Julie had a motive, he replied: “Correct. Yes.”
Julie Harding’s death
Police did not have enough evidence to charge Julie Harding with her husband’s murder. She was, however, arrested for criminal trespass after taking Mike’s boxer, Charlie, from a friend who had been caring for the dog.
Days later, on 10 December 2022, Julie was found dead outside the couple’s home overlooking Dale Hollow Lake. A gun was in her right hand, and investigators concluded that she had taken her own life.
A blood-stained note found near her body was addressed to Mike. It read: “I lived a good life until a year ago. Mike, you win! You got what you wanted, me in a coffin…”
Julie’s friend Kathy Rourke maintained that she had played no part in the killing. “She would never do anything cowardly or anything illegal, let alone try to kill this guy,” she said.
Mike’s children took the opposite view. His son Steven Harding said Julie had been “the true monster of all of this”, while his daughter Heather Cavalieri said her father, rather than Julie, was the victim.
O’Donnell initially told police that he did not know Julie and ended an interview after requesting a lawyer. At trial, however, his defence accepted that he had been at the Kentucky property and had helped lure Mike there.
His lawyers argued that O’Donnell had not pulled the trigger and that another man was responsible. They also highlighted that the alleged burner phone and murder weapon had never been recovered, and said there was no direct evidence Julie had paid O’Donnell.
The jury rejected that account and convicted O’Donnell of murder. Prosecutor Jesse Stockton said the verdict had finally delivered justice to Mike Harding’s family, although his children said the conviction could not ease the loss of their father.
