NEW BOSTON, Texas-A 16-year-old Redwater, Texas, boy who shot and killed a woman in her home in January in a random act of violence was sentenced as a juvenile Friday to a 40-year term.
Phillip McBride appeared before 102nd District Judge Bobby Lockhart with Chief Public Defender Rick Shumaker for an adjudication hearing in a second-floor courtroom at the Bowie County courthouse Friday morning. McBride, whose slight stature and young features made it hard to imagine him as a killer, wore blue jeans, a striped tee shirt, cuffs and shackles to the hearing.
McBride, a down-the-street neighbor of the Hardimans, was armed with a pistol Jan. 11 when he walked up to a relative of the Hardimans who lived in a house next door to their's on Fagan Lane. The relative was able to wrestle the gun from McBride, who ran away, only to return a short time later with a Winchester 12-gauge shotgun. Inside the Hardiman's home were Brenda Hardiman, 50; her husband LaVester Hardiman; his 98-year-old mother and her nurse. Brenda Hardiman was struck as McBride fired into the house full of people he'd never met.
The Hardiman's next-door relative had left the keys in his Cadillac and McBride fled the scene in it. He was arrested after a police chase that ended in Wake Village after pfficers shot out a tire.
Lockhart told members of the Hardiman and McBride families that a psychologist's finding that Phillip McBride doesn't meet the criteria for certification to stand trial as an adult likely led to the decision by prosecutors to handle the matter in juvenile court. In a juvenile court proceeding, young offenders plead true, rather than guilty, to a finding of delinquent conduct.
Victim's family speaks to shooter
"I read the clinical psychologist's report this morning. It's probably the reason you're still in juvenile court. You did not meet the minimum standard for transfer to the adult system," Lockhart said. "Mr. Rochelle probably thought his office could not overcome that recommendation."
McBride pleaded true Friday to murder, burglary of a habitation, unauthorized use of a motor vehicle and evading arrest in a vehicle in connection with Brenda Hardiman's murder Jan. 11.
McBride also pleaded true to assaulting a guard March 8 at a juvenile detention center in Hunt County, Texas, where he was being held as his case proceeded. McBride punched a correctional officer in the face with a closed fist, Lockhart said. Bowie County District Attorney Jerry Rochelle told Lockhart that McBride had a history of fighting at school before the murder and that since his arrest he has behaved aggressively toward other juvenile detainees, behaved aggressively toward detention center staff, and has attempted to escape.
McBride's pleas of true, which include a finding that a deadly weapon was used, mean he will remain in the custody of the Texas Juvenile Justice Department until his 19th birthday. At that time he will return to court for a hearing to address his continued detention and the possibility that he will be transferred to the Texas Department of Criminal Justice Institutional Division to serve the remainder of his determinant sentence.
"You turn 19 one day before I leave office," Lockhart said. "That hearing will be before me. If this behavior continues in Hunt County, there's no doubt you'll be in TDC. There is no more room to swing on the rope son. I can promise you that."
The deadly weapon finding and plea of true to murder and an assault while in custody are likely to give the court or any parole board that might consider McBride's case in the future good reason to deny release.
After the hearing, McBride's father said he isn't sure what led his son to kill Jan. 11.
"He'd been real depressed. Having a lot of troubles. He liked to drink," the father said. "But we never expected this. My heart is broken."
Rochelle said he wishes he could have achieved certification of McBride to stand trial as an adult.
"My regret is that my office was prohibited from certifying him. This allowed him to hide behind his age to commit this horrific act. I would much rather have certified him and tried him as an adult to send a clear message to others in our community that this type of behavior simply will not be tolerated. As it stands, he was adjudicated and sentenced to 40 years, the maximum sentence for a juvenile offender," Rochelle said. "My apologies to the victim's family not only for their loss, but for my office not being able to do more. I offer my apologies to the offender's family for the loss of their son also."