NEW BOSTON, Texas-The husband and son of a Redwater, Texas, woman who was senselessly gunned down in January by an angry teen boy she didn't know, told the killer at a hearing Friday they have forgiven him.
Phillip McBride, 16, pleaded true in a juvenile court adjudication hearing to murder, burglary, unauthorized use of a motor vehicle and evading arrest with a vehicle in connection with the random shooting of Brenda Hardiman, 50, at her home Jan. 11 on Fagan Lane in Redwater. McBride pleaded guilty as well to assaulting a guard at a juvenile detention center by punching him in the face in March. At the end of Friday's hearing, Brenda Hardiman's husband, LaVester Hardiman, and her son stood across from McBride as they made victim impact statements. LaVester Hardiman is a minister at Johnson Chapel CME in Paris, Texas. He used to be a minister in Texarkana at Hopewell CME Church on Lake Drive and at St. Paul CME Church in Nacogdoches, Texas, where he met Brenda.
There was silence in 102nd District Judge Bobby Lockhart's second-floor courtroom as the two men faced their loved one's killer.
"I want to let him know, that first of all, I have no hatred in my heart for you," LaVester Hardiman said. "I stand every Sunday and preach the gospel. I admonish forgiveness. I must practice what I preach."
LaVester Hardiman said that while he has forgiven, he has not forgotten.
"There's not a day goes by that I won't remember what happened. You not only took my wife, you took a mother, you took a grandmother, you took a child from her mother," LaVester Hardiman said. "I want you to know that there will not be any retaliation on my part. I am a man of peace. I have no hatred in my heart, but sometimes I do get angry."
LaVester Hardiman said his grief lingers.
"I don't know why God allowed it. But it is his will," the grieving husband said. "They say you'll see her in the hereafter. But we don't know. I miss her in the here and now."
Brenda Hardiman's son said he has forgiven McBride out of respect for his mother.
"I was angry at first and I hated you to my core," the son said. "But my mama wouldn't want me to carry around all that hate. I forgive you. I don't hate you anymore."
As the courtroom emptied into the second-floor public hallway at the Bowie County courthouse in New Boston, McBride's step-mother approached LaVester Hardiman. The woman couldn't speak as tears rolled down her cheeks.
"It's going to be okay," LaVester Hardiman said as he reached out a hand and patted the woman's back, prompting her to wrap her arms around him.
McBride's 23-year-old sister addressed LaVester Hardiman and his family as well. The sister took LaVester Hardiman's hand as she uttered in a wavering voice, "I'm so sorry for your loss."
LaVester Hardiman replied, "Just keep praying."
McBride's father posed a simple question to LaVester Hardiman and made him a promise before the two men embraced.
"Mr. Hardiman. Mr. Hardiman, do you have a garden?" McBride's father asked. "I'm going to till your land for you."