Murderer pleads for mercy in rap song to jury

Convicted double murderer Cordaro Hardin had one chance to make a final plea to the jury.
Instead of begging for mercy, he burst into song.

With his victims' family looking on, he used rap to argue his case.

"Where do I go from here?" he sang in court Friday. "I don't know, that's what I'm askin'. Please answer me. God, I need a little assistance. Will you be with me by my side when I leave here? Where do I go from here?"

After repeating the chorus, Hardin's rapping began again: "It's a question I can't answer - like a person who got cancer that lost all their hair, don't think they're very handsome."

When Hardin finished the nearly two-minute rap, he bent over and put his face in his hand.

After hearing from the family of both victims and Hardin's mother, a judge sentenced Hardin to back-to-back life sentences.

June Bartka, the mother of victim David Heath, asked Judge Nancy Moate Ley if she had ever heard someone rapping and singing on the stand. Ley said no.Bartka was concerned the video was going to become a hit on Youtube and wanted to do something to stop it. Earlier, Bartka had walked out of the courtroom when Hardin started singing and rapping on the witness stand because it upset her too much.

"To sing in the courtroom, that was a disgrace," Bartka said. "Was he auditioning for the jury? That song did me in."

Bartka said she is filled with anger about the murder and Hardin's unwillingness to apologize.

"You killed my son in cold blood, and I can never forgive you."

Heath's brother was more forgiving, telling Hardin and Hardin's family that everything was going to be OK.

"Your voice is OK, keep working on it," George Castrinos said. "You're going to go to heaven, keep working on it. No matter how dark you've gotten, there is a beacon of light in you."

Hardin's attorney, Bjorn Brunvand, apologized for any pain Hardin's song caused the victims' family. Brunvand said he just wanted to humanize his client.

The victims' families were upset that Hardin didn't use his time in court to apologize for the murders.

But Brunvand said that while Hardin is sorry for their loss, Hardin maintains his innocence.

Linda Hardin brought many in the courtroom to tears as she spoke to her son. She apologized to both families for their losses.

"I love you," she said to Cordaro Hardin. "I am not going to consider you guilty, and I'm not going to consider you innocent. All I ask is God to protect you."

Linda Hardin begged the victims' families for forgiveness on behalf of her son.

After the sentencing, outside of the courthouse, several of the victims' relatives and Hardin's family members embraced.

On Thursday, a jury convicted Hardin, 21, of fatally shooting two men within hours of one another in 2007 in St. Petersburg, in a crime that set the homeless community on edge.

His accomplice, Dorian Dillard, offered to plead guilty to two counts of first-degree murder in February so as not to put the victims' families through the ordeal of a jury. He received two back-to-back life sentences as part of his plea agreement.

At Friday's sentencing hearing, where a jury was tasked with recommending whether Hardin get life in prison or death, Hardin's attorney asked him whether he loves his family. Hardin said yes.

Hardin was asked whether he loves music. Again, he said yes.

Finally, Hardin was asked whether he had written a song he wanted people to hear. Hardin said yes.
And then the singing began.

An earlier version of this story had incorrect lyrics for the song.