Hardy pleads guilty

I-40 killer Jeremy Doss Hardy pled guilty to the murders of Kent Powell of Arapaho and Billie Jean West of Lone Wolf late Tuesday morning and was assessed two life-in-prison-without-the-possibilty-of-parole sentences by District Judge Doug Haught.
He also was sentenced to four other life sentences for shooting into four semis, narrowly missing other victims, and to an additional 14 years in prison on four other counts.
All the crimes grew out of a one-night shooting spree that covered 55 miles of the interstate late the night of Dec. 15, 2015, and early the morning of Dec. 16.
Powell’s wife, Tamara, and Mrs. West’s daughter, Laura Carlucci, were questioned by Judge Haught and said on behalf of their respective families that they wished him to follow the terms of a plea agreement first proposed by Hardy’s attorneys and agreed to by prosecutors after they talked with the families.
While it does enable the 38-year-old Hardy to avoid the death penalty, district attorneys Angela Marsee of Custer County and Jason Hicks of Caddo County said it also avoids any possibility of him ever walking the streets again.
“The intention with these sentences is that Mr. Hardy will not be released from the Department of Corrections in his lifetime,” said Mrs. Marsee.
“I don’t think he’ll ever see a day outside the walls of a prison,” added Hicks. “All of us were concerned that he never step outside the walls of the prison again. This agreement accomplishes that goal.”
“He waived his right to appeal and to seek commutation or pardon, and he will not profit from his acts,” said Marsee. She said that means he cannot accept any movie or book deals.
Asked his overall feelings, Hicks said he had mixed emotions.
“What this accomplishes today, Jeremy Hardy goes to prison and will not be heard from again,” he said. “The families are not going to go through 15 years of appeals, and there’s no risk of another trial.”
“We achieved a finality we would not have been able to achieve with a trial and the years of appeals that would have followed,” added Marsee.
Asked if the current state of the Oklahoma death penalty – which has been on hold since 2008 – entered into their decision, she said, “We did consider the current state of the death penalty in Oklahoma and the future state of the death penalty in Oklahoma.”
She said Hardy’s attorneys from the Capital Division of the Oklahoma Indigent Defense System were the ones that proposed guilty pleas for his assorted crimes.
“The defense team approached us yesterday afternoon and offered a plea agreement,” she said. She said she, Hicks, Assistant District Attorney Dana Hada, and two victim advocates were all in the office working.
“We contacted the families of Kent Powell and Billie West and discussed it with them, and gave them an opportunity to sleep on it,” she said. “We met again with the families this morning. We all agreed in the best interest of justice, the best interest of the families, and the protection of the public to do this plea agreement. It wasn’t something we had thought about, but it was a proposal we were able to consider thoughtfully.”
Asked if defense lawyers Mitchell Solomon, Ben Brown and Shea Smith had proposed something like this before, Mrs. Marsee smiled and said, “In all cases of this magnitude, it is not uncommon for the defense to come through with a plea agreement. But until yesterday afternoon they had not done so.”
Questioned if she and Hicks had ever ascertained why Hardy had done what he did that night, Marsee said, “It appeared to us to be repeated random acts of road rage.
But asked if they felt he knew what he was doing when he killed the two people, Hicks said “yes” and Marsee said “absolutely.”
She also praised the work of Trooper Darrell Splawn who captured Hardy to end his spree, as well as that of Washita County Deputy Sheriff Steve Haga who walked the side of the highway and found the gun the killer had used, Special Agent Troy Morris of the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation, and Custer County Assistant DA Dana Hada who assisted in preparations for the trial that was supposed to start Tuesday.
“We would not have been able to reach this outcome without a lot of hard work from a lot of folks,” said Marsee. “It’s truly a testament to the type of law enforcement we have in western Oklahoma.”
In Hardy’s typewritten (by his attorneys) guilty plea, he gave brief descriptions of the 10 counts (nine felonies and one misdemeanor) to which he pled guilty. Besides the fatal shots into the bodies of Powell and Mrs. West, they were:
Chasing Adam Wood in an attempt to hit him with the pickup Hardy was driving, in Canadian County;
*While driving his pickup, shooting the 9-millimeter pistol he was using that night at a U.S. Foods semi and trailer driven by Joshua Morris in Caddo County;
*Shooting the pistol from his pickup at a Volvo semi and Cargo Solutions trailer driven by Abdullah Farah in Custer County;
*Shooting the pistol from his pickup at a Knight Transportation semi and trailer driven by Steven Connly in Custer County;
*Shooting the pistol from his pickup at a Puma Trucking semi and trailer driven by Mohsen Mousavi in Caddo County;
*Attempting to elude Oklahoma Trooper Darrell Splawn in Custer and Washita counties;
*Driving his pickup with a breath alcohol content of at least .16 percent (double the minimum amount for DUI);
*Engaging in a series and pattern of criminal offenses while using his pickup and gun to commit criminal acts involving multiple victims and motor vehicles in Caddo, Canadian, Custer and Washita counties. “All of my actions were part of the same scheme and formed a pattern of criminal activity,” his statement read.
The plea includes a disclosure saying that it was written by his attorneys “but they are a true and correct description of my actions and I adopt them as my own.”
It is signed “Jeremy D. Hardy” and dated Jan. 16, 2018.