BURKESVILLE, KY — Former California Highway Patrol colleagues testified about their captain’s disturbing behavior changes before she allegedly orchestrated her estranged husband’s murder through a hired gunman in 2022.
The testimony came during the ongoing Kentucky trial of Thomas O’Donnell, 49, of Napa, who prosecutors say was hired by CHP Captain Julie Harding to kill her estranged husband Michael Harding in September 2022. O’Donnell has pleaded not guilty to capital murder charges in the shooting death of Michael Harding, 53, who was lured to a vacant Kentucky house under the pretense of an HVAC service call. Julie Harding died by suicide two days after O’Donnell’s arrest, leaving behind notes that investigators say implicated her in the murder-for-hire plot.
Retired Sergeant Brian Wittmer, who worked under Julie Harding for three and a half years in the Yuba-Sutter area, told jurors Wednesday that he noticed significant changes in his commander’s behavior toward the end of their working relationship. Wittmer testified that Harding became thinner, acted erratically, and began sharing unusual details about her personal life, including that she was dating someone from Napa and making accusations against her soon-to-be ex-husband during their contentious divorce proceedings. In September 2022, Wittmer said Harding called him screaming that Michael was found dead, but the conversation felt staged. “When I hung up the phone, I thought she wanted me to remember this moment in time,” Wittmer testified, according to KCRA.
Then-Assistant Chief Doug Lyons described receiving a similarly suspicious phone call from Julie Harding after Michael’s death. Lyons, who had just taken a new supervisory role at CHP, said he received a rambling 35-minute call from Harding despite never having met her in person. “It was 35 minutes of rambling, and I didn’t even know Julie. So that was the strange part. I never met her,” Lyons testified. When prosecutors asked whether he believed Harding might be a suspect in Michael’s killing based on that conversation, Lyons responded “Absolutely.” The California Highway Patrol confirmed that Harding had worked for the department since 1999 and served as commander of the Yuba-Sutter area office since 2018. She was on administrative leave at the time of her death.
FBI Special Agent Elizabeth Wheeler provided detailed testimony about phone records and location data that prosecutors say links O’Donnell to the murder scene. On September 19, 2022, Michael Harding was communicating with someone using a prepaid cellphone, believing he was coordinating an emergency HVAC service call to Burkesville, Kentucky. At 4:10 p.m., Michael texted the prepaid phone “35 minutes out,” to which someone replied “No worries.” The final exchange occurred at 4:16 p.m. when Michael texted “See ya soon” and received the response “Perfect.” Wheeler testified that the prepaid phone was traveling in the same areas as O’Donnell’s personal cellphone according to location data, and both phones showed three trips to Celina, Tennessee, where Michael lived, before the murder. Two days before the killing, O’Donnell’s phone data placed him in the same area as Julie Harding’s phone near her Sacramento home.
The murder occurred at a vacant house for sale on Glasgow Road in Burkesville, Kentucky, an address that investigators say was searched twice on O’Donnell’s laptop while connected to Wi-Fi at a hotel approximately one hour away. Kentucky State Police Detective B.J. Burton testified that phone records revealed extensive communication between Julie and O’Donnell, with calls occurring “almost every single day, sometimes more than once a day.” Michael Harding, who owned an HVAC business, had moved to the couple’s home in Celina, Tennessee, after separating from Julie, who remained in California. The couple was involved in a contentious divorce when the murder occurred. On the day of the killing, location data placed Julie’s phone in Sacramento while O’Donnell’s phone and the prepaid phone used to lure Michael were both near the Kentucky crime scene.
O’Donnell was arrested at Sacramento International Airport in December 2022, and Julie Harding was found dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound in Tennessee two days later. Tennessee Bureau of Investigation agents recovered suicide notes at the scene, including one that read “I lived a good life until a year ago. Mike you win. You got what wanted. Me in a coffin.” Another note stated “Don’t know how to start this but with the only thing I can. I love you all. I will not put though a trial regardless of the outcome.” The note concluded with “I can take no more. Please love my dogs as I do.” Investigators ruled her death a suicide with no evidence of foul play.
The defense highlighted significant gaps in the prosecution’s case during cross-examination of FBI Agent Wayne Johnson, who acknowledged that investigators found no evidence of payment between Julie Harding and O’Donnell to support the murder-for-hire allegations. Johnson also testified that no forensic evidence tied O’Donnell to a murder weapon in the shooting. Defense attorneys emphasized that while phone location data may show where devices were located, it cannot definitively prove who possessed those phones at any given time. Michael’s son from a previous marriage, Steven Michael Harding, testified briefly that he did not have a good relationship with Julie and that she made it difficult for him to maintain contact with his father.
Prosecutors are expected to conclude their case Friday with final witnesses before the defense begins presenting its arguments. The trial continues at the Cumberland County courthouse in Kentucky, where jurors will ultimately decide whether O’Donnell committed the murder or if the circumstantial evidence is insufficient for conviction without direct proof of the alleged financial arrangement or physical evidence linking him to the crime scene.
