Feb 13 2007
Man in murder-for-hire case sentenced to 30 to 40 years
Robert Harden, who tried to hire someone to kill his wife, her father and stepmother, was sentenced to 30 to 40 years today for conspiracy to commit first-degree murder.
Under state sentencing guidelines, he will be eligible for parole after 15 years and must be released after 20 years.
According to court testimony, in a 12-minute meeting on June 17, Special Agent Michael Sackett of the FBI, posing as a Mafia hit man, asked Harden if he was “100 percent sure” that he wanted his wife, her father and stepmother dead.
“Yes, sir,” Sackett recalled Harden replying. Sackett said he then told Harden that once they parted ways, the deal was sealed.
“He realized that once he left the room, I would kill his family,” Sackett said.
Sackett left, as did Harden - and other FBI agents swarmed in to arrest him.
Harden, 36, originally was charged with three counts - one for each person prosecutors say he wanted dead. However, state law says a person should be charged with one count if the same conspiracy encompasses committing a number of crimes.
Sackett said another man brought Harden to the attention of authorities.
He told officers that Harden complained about marital problems with his wife, Amber Harden, and asked the man if he would help Harden kill her, Sackett testified.
The man told Harden that he had family in Chicago with connections to the Mafia. The two then arranged a meeting with Sackett, posing as a hit man, at the Econo Lodge at 3511 S. 84th St., Sackett said.
During the meeting, Harden provided Sackett with a map to his wife’s home in Mallard, Iowa, photos of her and her family, a layout of the house and a timetable for when people went to bed, Sackett said.
When Sackett asked what was in it for him, Harden replied that he had no money, he said.
Then it would be done, Sackett told Harden, “as a favor to the family.”
After his arrest, Harden told Sackett, now exposed as an FBI agent, that trying to hire a hit man probably wasn’t the right thing to do, Sackett said.
The only true solution, he told Sackett, would have been a divorce.
BY TODD COOPER - WORLD-HERALD STAFF WRITER - http://www.omaha.com/index.php?u_page=2798&u_sid=2330620
