Victim’s relatives share heartbreak as killer awaits new sentence

Matthew Hardeman wanted the judge to know he’s still suffering. He was 3 years old in 1981 when his dad John and stepmom Gail were shot and killed at a southwestern Palm Beach County hunting area.

That’s 37 years of missing his father at birthdays, school functions, and every other milestone along the way. This is what convicted murderer Cleo LeCroy stole from him, and that’s why he wants LeCroy to be denied a chance of leaving prison.

“I’ve been serving a life sentence,” Hardeman, who lives in St. Augustine and works as a training manager for Boeing, testified through his tears at a hearing last week. “This is not something that can heal or go away.”

He avoided eye contact with LeCroy, 54, who will be resentenced, possibly next month. LeCroy’s case is being revisited because of high court rulings opposing life terms for people who were juveniles when they committed murder.

LeCroy was 17 years and 10 months old when he robbed and killed the couple, who had been married less than a year. He was convicted at a 1986 trial and sentenced to death for Gail Hardeman’s murder.

But in 2005, LeCroy left death row after the U.S. Supreme Court abolished the death penalty for juveniles.

He has been serving life sentences for both murders, but last year Circuit Judge Laura Johnson ruled LeCroy should be returned to Palm Beach County for hearings and a new sentence.

The judge cited U.S. Supreme Court and Florida Supreme Court rulings since 2010 that have resulted in new sentences for juvenile criminals.

Life terms for youths who commit crimes other than murder are considered “cruel and unusual punishment” and a violation of the Eighth Amendment to the Constitution.

And since 2012, mandatory life terms for juvenile killers also became unconstitutional. Life sentences are still allowed when a juvenile’s crime is deemed heinous and the possibility of rehabilitation is extremely slim.

Under a 2014 Florida law, if after a hearing a judge determines life in prison is not warranted, the minimum sentence for a young killer is 40 years.