Overview
- Prosecutors told jurors the HVAC service call that drew Michael Harding to a vacant Burkesville home in September 2022 was a setup that ended with him shot multiple times inside.
- They allege Thomas O’Donnell posed as a real estate agent to get the lockbox code for the Glasgow Road house, then lured Harding there using a false name on the phone.
- Court filings cite 194 calls between Julie Harding and O’Donnell in the three months before the killing and large cash withdrawals that prosecutors say funded the hit.
- Jurors heard a recording of Julie Harding telling Kentucky State Police her husband might be on a bender, and a KSP witness testified she may have been trying to create an alibi.
- The defense says there is no proof O’Donnell fired the shots and points to a neighbor who reported seeing two men at the scene, including an unidentified driver in a small gray or silver car.