MAN GETS LIFE FOR 1981 NEWLYWEDS’ MURDER
Cleo LeCroy spent 20 years on Death Row for the crime.
Cleo LeCroy, who spent 20 years on Death Row for the murder of a newlywed couple near Belle Glade nearly 40 years ago, was ordered Monday afternoon to spend the rest of his life in prison.
LeCroy was sentenced for the third time in the shooting deaths of John Hardeman, 27, and his 24-year-old wife Gail on Jan. 4, 1981. LeCroy’s family and the Hardemans were on separate camping trips at what was then known as Brown’s Farm when the murders took place. LeCroy was 17 years old at the time.
John Hardeman, the father of two young sons from a previous marriage, was hit in the face by a shotgun blast. Gail Hardeman was shot three times by a hand gun at point-blank range after she allegedly confronted LeCroy.
LeCroy was sentenced to death in 1986, but a 2005 U.S. Supreme Court decision abolished the death penalty for juveniles. LeCroy then began serving two life sentences. But in 2012, the Supreme Court ruled mandatory life terms are unconstitutional for juveniles who kill, forcing LeCroy to be sentenced again.
During re-sentencing arguments, prosecutors asked Judge Laura Johnson to again hand LeCroy double life terms. The defense requested that LeCroy, deemed a model citizen in prison according to testimony, be released to a local halfway house.
Johnson sided with prosecutors and around a dozen members of the Hardeman family who appeared at the hearing.
“The family feels like this is the best possible outcome that we can expect for a heinous, pre-meditated double murderer,” said Mathew Hardeman, who was 3 years old when his father was killed, outside the courtroom. “Although we feel the sentencing is appropriate, we feel no one wins. What the family expected to be finite sentencing has continued to be re-visited and made it impossible to heal.”
The Hardeman’s anguish may not be quite over.
James Eisenberg, LeCroy’s attorney, said he intends to file a petition within 30 days, asking Johnson to review the sentence she imposed. In a review, Eisenberg said the judge can more heavily weigh “how the client has done in prison more than what the original crime was.”
Eisenberg said LeCroy has been “the No. 1 person in the Florida prison system as far as doing well is concerned” and has only two disciplinary citations during 37 years behind bars.
There’s a “good chance” LeCroy could be released following a review, Eisenberg said.
Before announcing her sentence, Johnson said she considered testimony that LeCroy had been sexually abused and bullied as a child, but added that was “no excuse for what this defendant did.”
Alluding to a review hearing, Johnson warned the Hardemans that their “misery” might not yet be over. One Hardeman family member sighed loudly at that prospect.
On Monday, LeCroy sat in a prison jumpsuit, his hair gray and thinning.
“He’s disappointed,” Eisenberg said of his client.