Former colleagues detail CHP captain’s spiral before alleged murder-for-hire plot against husband
Former colleagues of a once-rising California Highway Patrol captain say they watched her spiral before her estranged husband was killed by an alleged hitman.
Retired Sgt. Brian Wittmer testified Wednesday at the Kentucky trial of alleged Napa hitman Thomas O’Donnell that Capt. Julie Harding, 49, began acting differently toward the end of their 3 1/2 year working relationship.
Prosecutors allege O’Donnell fatally shot Michael Harding, 53, in a murder-for-hire plot orchestrated by Harding, a former CHP commander. O’Donnell has pleaded not guilty to capital murder charges.
Wittmer testified, according to KCRA, that Harding got thinner, acted erratically and began sharing more about her personal life.
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In September 2022, Wittmer said, Harding called to tell him her husband was dead. He testified that the call felt exaggerated.
"When I hung up the phone, I thought she wanted me to remember this moment in time," Wittmer said, according to KCRA.
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Then-Assistant Chief Doug Lyons later took the stand and described receiving a similar phone call from Harding. Lyons said he had just taken on a new role at CHP and had become her supervisor.
"It was 35 minutes of rambling, and I didn’t even know Julie. So that was the strange part. I never met her," Lyons said.
Asked whether he believed Harding might be a suspect in Michael Harding’s killing based on that conversation, Lyons responded, "Absolutely."
FBI Agent Wayne Johnson testified that he found no evidence of a payment between Harding and O’Donnell and no forensic evidence tying O’Donnell to a murder weapon.
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Harding later died by a self-inflicted gunshot wound after O’Donnell was arrested at Sacramento International Airport in connection with Michael Harding’s death, KCRA reported.
Investigators said phone data eventually led them to O’Donnell after repeated calls between the two surfaced in Harding’s phone records.
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"There was this number that she was calling and talking to almost every single day, sometimes more than once a day," Kentucky State Police Det. B.J. Burton said.
The California Highway Patrol said in a statement that Harding was on leave at the time of her death. She had worked at the department since 1999 and had been commander of the Yuba Sutter area office since 2018.
After the couple separated, she remained in California while Michael Harding moved to the couple’s home in Celina, Tennessee. According to CourtTV, on September 22, 2022, Michael, who owned a HVAC business, traveled from Tennessee to Burkesville, Kentucky, for what he believed was an emergency service call. Prosecutors allege that the call was a setup, and he was killed at the vacant Kentucky house.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.