The verdict came quickly today for a Central Texas man accused in a murder-for-hire plot involving the matriarch of a pecan farming family.

Guilty.

Jurors convicted Bruce Harkey, 60, of capital murder on Tuesday for the death of his stepmother, Bonnie Harkey, in San Saba County. The Burnet County jury took about an hour to reach the verdict after the seven-day trial.

Harkey was convicted of hiring his stepmother’s grandson, Carl Wade Pressley, 29, and Pressley’s girlfriend, Lillian King, 26 to kill Bonnie Harkey. Bruce Harkey allegedly offered Pressley $500 to “make her gone this weekend,” with a follow-up payment of $55,000 after Bonnie Harkey’s death, one affidavit said.

“This was all about greed,” said Burnet County District Attorney Sonny McAfee, who said Bruce Harkey wanted his stepmother’s pecan farm.

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Bonnie Harkey was reported missing on March 26, 2012, after the body of her housekeeper was found at Harkey’s home in the farming community of Harkeyville, near San Saba, a town that hails itself as the “Pecan Capital of the World.”

Later that day, Bonnie Harkey’s body was found in a shallow grave in a drainage ditch nearly 200 miles east in Leon County.

One of Bruce Harkey’s attorneys, Richard Davis, said after the verdict Tuesday that he’s going to appeal the case. He said there was no evidence that linked Bruce Harkey to the killings. Pressley and King testified during the trial that Bruce Harkey had hired them, but they were not believable, said Davis.

McAfee, the prosecutor, said he thought jurors were swayed by testimony from several witnesses who said Bruce Harkey had told them that he would be out of town one weekend. That weekend turned out to be when Bonnie Harkey and her housekeeper, Karen Johnson were killed, McAfee said.

Davis said Bruce Harkey often went out of town on the weekends so it was not unusual that he was away when the killings happened.

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San Saba County Sheriff Stephen Boyd said the verdict “was just a relief for San Saba County in general.” He said he had attended the same church as Bonnie Harkey.

“She was a super sweet lady who would do anything for anybody,” Boyd said.

Pressley and King have yet to be tried. Davis said Bruce Harkey was a former police officer in Reno and also had worked as an investigator for the Texas Attorney General’s Office before he went into the pecan business.

Bruce Harkey told The Associated Press shortly after Bonnie Harkey was killed that Pressley was adopted by Bonnie Harkey’s stepdaughter. He said Bonnie Harkey took Pressley in as a teenager and supported him with “hundreds of thousands of dollars” in spending as an adult for purchases including a truck, dozens of new tires and legal expenses.

Bruce Harkey was sentenced to life in prison without the chance of parole.

Source: https://t-tees.com
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