A Napa man was convicted by a jury on Friday in Kentucky, where he was on trial for carrying out a murder-for-hire plot orchestrated by a former California Highway Patrol commander, according to multiple reports.
Thomas O’Donnell, 63, of Napa, was found guilty of murdering Michael Harding after traveling from Northern California to Kentucky to shoot him, according to KCRA and other media outlets. Prosecutors said O’Donnell had been hired by Harding’s estranged wife, Julie Harding, who at the time was a CHP captain in the Yuba-Sutter division.
At the time of the 2022 shooting, Julie and Michael Harding were in the midst of a contentious divorce, with colleagues testifying that she exhibited erratic behavior and often made angry accusations about her husband during that time…