A 16-year-old boy who shot and killed a Redwater, Texas, woman in January was sentenced to 40 years in a juvenile court hearing late last month in Bowie County.
Phillip McBride first walked down Fagan Lane where he lived in Redwater, Texas, with a pistol Jan. 11 and approached a male relative of Brenda Hardiman’s. The relative managed to wrestle the handgun away from McBride, but the teen returned a short time later with a shotgun which he fired randomly into the home where Brenda Hardiman lived with her husband, Levester Hardiman, and his 92-year-old mother.
All were in the home at the time, as was the elderly woman’s nurse. A bullet struck Brenda Hardiman. She died of her wound.
McBride fled the shooting scene in a Cadillac which was parked outside. The owner is Brenda Hardiman’s relative who had wrestled a handgun from the teen shortly before he came back with a 12 gauge. McBride led officers on a high speed chase which ended in Wake Village, Texas.
A psychologist’s finding that McBride doesn’t meet the standards required for prosecutors to achieve certification of a juvenile offender to stand trial in the adult criminal justice system led to McBride’s case being resolved in juvenile court.
McBride received the maximum punishment a juvenile can. In addition to murder, McBride pleaded guilty to evading arrest with a vehicle, unauthorized use of a vehicle, and residential burglary in connection with Hardiman’s death. McBride also entered a guilty plea to assault on a peace officer involving a guard McBride assaulted while being held in a juvenile detention facility in Hunt County, Texas, in March on the Bowie County charges.
McBride will be brought back before a Bowie County district judge around his 19th birthday for a hearing to determine if he will be transferred to a unit of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice to serve the remainder of his term.
