William Gerome Hardy, 49, a 23-year veteran deputy with the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office, was shot and killed in the early morning hours of July 19, 1995. He was working an off-duty security detail at the Crown Sterling Suites on Woodcrest Place and was gunned down in the parking lot while investigating a noise complaint. Responding officers found Deputy Hardy mortally wounded with his own firearm still in its holster.

The investigation produced four arrests: Toforest Onesha Johnson, Ardragus Ford, Omar Rahman Berry, and Quintez Wilson, all charged with capital murder. Charges against Berry and Wilson were later dropped; Wilson was killed in a separate shooting in 2008. Ford was acquitted. Johnson’s first trial ended with a hung jury; at his 1998 retrial he was convicted and sentenced to death largely on the basis of testimony from one witness, Violet Ellison, who said she overheard a jailhouse phone call in which a man identified himself as Toforest and confessed. There was no physical evidence tying Johnson to the scene and alibi witnesses placed him miles away.

Subsequently it was revealed Ellison received $5,000 for her testimony, a payment that was not disclosed to Johnson’s defense. The conviction and the case overall have since drawn criticism, and prosecutors and the Jefferson County District Attorney have expressed concerns and called for a new trial. Does anyone have information about Deputy Hardy’s last assignment or the people present at the Crown Sterling Suites that night?