Augusta District Attorney Jared Williams is calling it “the best possible outcome” that convicted killer Adrian Hargrove was taken off death row Friday.
Hargrove was convicted and sentenced to death in 2014 for the 2008 triple homicide and feticide of Allyson Pederson, who was pregnant and her parents, Sharon and Andrew Hartley, in south Richmond County.
Cutting and stabbing the victims many times, Hargrove dumped the 18-year-old Pederson at the New Savannah Bluff Lock and Dam and set her body on fire, according to previous reports.
After a 38-day-trial, a jury decided in less than an hour that Hargrove be sentenced to death.
In 2018, his attorneys with the Georgia Capital Defender filed a motion for new trial, citing errors in the trial. One was using peremptory strikes to eliminate 13 prospective Black jurors, which led to a jury without a single Black male, they argued.
A brief filed by the American Civil Liberties Union cited a community history of racism in support of the brief.
The case was reassigned by random selection earlier this year to Superior Court Judge Jesse Stone due to the retirement of Judge James G. Blanchard Jr.
Hargrove didn’t get a new trial, but Friday, Stone resentenced him to three consecutive life sentences without the possibility of parole, plus another life sentence, plus 55 years.
Williams said after speaking with the victims’ family, the reduced sentence was “the best possible outcome,” due to the protracted nature of death penalty cases, including the 17 years the DA’s office has spent so far.
“The death penalty is slow and provides no certainty to victims or the community,” he said. “Today’s sentence ensures justice is final, gives closure to the victims’ family and stops this murderer from ever walking free.”
Accepting the sentence, Hargrove forfeited all rights to appeal and cannot seek clemency or parole, Williams said.
Life sentence for drug trafficking
In another case highlighted by the Augusta Circuit District Attorney Friday, Augusta man Jackie Ray Beasley, 54, was convicted Tuesday and sentenced to life in prison for drug trafficking.
Beasley was charged with trafficking 227 grams of methamphetamine and possession with the intent to distribute morphine, marijuana and other drugs.
“If you are a drug user, we want to help you. If you are a drug dealer, we want you out of our community,” Williams said after the verdict.
