On March 12th, we reported that Fayette County Commonwealth’s Attorney Lou Anna Red Corn had ‘negotiated’ another lenient plea bargain arrangement for a murderer.
Xavier Hardin, mugshot from Fayette County Detention Center, dated June 15, 2021, and is a public record.
Lexington man who committed deadly Fayette Mall shooting reaches plea deal. Here’s why
by Jeremy Chisenhall | Friday, March 11, 2022 | 12:19 PM EST | Updated: 1:06 PM EST
The man who shot and killed a 17 year old inside Fayette Mall in 2020 has reached an agreement with prosecutors to accept a conviction for manslaughter instead of murder, according to court records.
Xavier Hardin, 21, pleaded guilty to manslaughter, assault and wanton endangerment charges in the killing of Kenneth Bottoms Jr., after reaching a plea agreement earlier this week, according to court records. Hardin, who was 19 at the time of the incident, also injured two bystanders when he fired shots inside the mall on Aug. 23, 2020.
Fayette Commonwealth’s Attorney Lou Anna Red Corn said Hardin’s plea agreement was reached through mediation and Bottoms’ family was in agreement with the plea deal. The plea agreement accounted “for the facts of the case,” Red Corn said, which included that “both the defendant and Kenneth were carrying handguns that day at the mall.”
“There were video recordings of their encounter, and the defendant raised a claim of self-protection,” Red Corn said. “Regardless of the defendant’s claim, he injured innocent persons and put others in harm’s way when (he) started shooting. This is another tragic example of why teens should not be carrying guns in the first place.”
There’s more at the original here. Naturally, what my late best friend used to call the Lexington Herald-Liberal didn’t publish Mr Hardin’s photo, due to the stupid McClatchy mugshot policy, but The First Street Journal is not bound by that!
Messrs Hardin and Bottoms had a long-standing dislike for each other, a “beef” as Lexington Herald-Leader reporter put it. In Fayette Mall, Mr Hardin is shown on surveillance video looking over his shoulders, as though worried he was being followed. Eventually Mr Bottoms and three men with him confronted Mr Hardin, and an argument ensued. One of Mr Bottoms’ friends tried to pull him away from the confrontation, but failed.
One witness testified to police that Bottoms spit on Hardin during the argument, according to court records. Another noted hearing expletives. Another said they heard Hardin ask, “You don’t think I’ll pull it out?”
As the argument intensified, bystanders started to flee, according to the video. Hardin then pulled a gun out of his waistband and fired.
In other words, Mr Hardin was not defending himself from a deadly assault, but pulled out his weapon and fired. Though Mr Bottoms was also armed, there’s nothing in the story to indicate that Mr Bottoms pulled out his gun.
According to the Fayette County Detention Center, Mr Hardin’s charges are:
- KRS §507.030: Manslaughter, First Degree, a Class B felony with a sentence of no less than ten years and no more than twenty.
- KRS §508.060: Wanton Endangerment, First Degree: Class D felony, with a sentence of one to five years in prison
- KRS §508.020: Assault, Second Degree, Class C felony, penalty at least five years to a maximum of ten years in prison
- KRS §508.030: Assault, Fourth Degree, Class A Misdemeanor, penalty imprisonment for up to 12 months.
Hardin is scheduled to be sentenced in May. He faces a maximum of 23 years in prison if his sentences are run consecutively, based on the sentencing recommendations made by prosecutors in the plea agreement. Prosecutors didn’t make a recommendation on whether or not Hardin’s sentences should run consecutively or at the same time.
Well, it’s May now, and the distinguished Mr Hardin got almost the max:
Fayette Mall shooter who killed teen, injured others gets 22 year prison sentence
by Taylor Six | Thursday, May 26, 2022 | 2:34 PM EDTThe man who shot and killed a 17-year-old inside Fayette Mall in 2020 has been sentenced for manslaughter, assault and wanton endangerment charges which he pleaded guilty to in March.
Xavier Hardin, 21, was sentenced to a total of 22 years in prison for several of his charges. He appeared before Fayette County Judge Lucy VanMeter who sentenced him on Thursday afternoon in Fayette Circuit Court. Hardin pleaded guilty in the killing of Kenneth Bottoms Jr. after reaching a plea agreement in March, according to court records.
Hardin, who was 19 at the time of the incident, also injured two bystanders when he fired shots inside the mall on Aug. 23, 2020.
Mr Hardin was credited for 619 days already served, which means that, if he serves out his full sentence, he’ll be released when he’s only 41 years old. Mr Bottoms will still be stone-cold graveyard dead.
Had Miss Red Corn not accepted a plea bargain arrangement, had charged him with murder, taken it to trial and gotten him convicted, he could be locked up for the rest of his miserable life, which would protect the citizens of Fayette County. Now, he’ll get out, at the latest, when he’s 41, and with a Parole Board which has turned violent criminals loose much sooner than they should have, Mr Hardin could get out while still in his thirties.
What will Mr Hardin learn in prison? Will he turn over a new leaf, and try to straighten out his life? Or will his natural stupidity — he shot a man dead while in Fayette Mall, a place that everyone knows is full of security cameras — lead him to be just as bad, just as much a thug, when his sentence is over? He said all of the right things, no doubt due to his attorney’s coaching, during his sentencing, but when he gets out, he’ll have no home and no job, and the odds aren’t good that he’ll be reformed into a law-abiding citizen.
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