LITTLE ROCK — A Little Rock man, arrested and charged with murder in October, now faces a second murder charge in the death of his father.
Opio Anton Hardin, 31, of 32 Loblolly Drive was charged Thursday with capital murder in the death of his father, Charlie Hardin, 70. The time and date of Charlie Hardin’s death have not yet been determined, officials said.
Opio Hardin was arrested Oct. 5 on a warrant charging him with first-degree murder in the death of Torence Nelson, 37, of Little Rock. Hardin remained in the Pulaski County jail Friday, held in lieu of $100,000 bond.
Hardin was identified by several witnesses as the man who shot Nelson on Oct. 4 after an argument at a residence at 4717 W. 22nd St., according to court documents.
Hardin was among five people in the residence at the time of the shooting, an affidavit states. He was across the room from Nelson, who was sitting in a chair listening to music on headphones before the two began to argue.
A witness told investigators that Hardin left the residence and that Nelson put his headphones on again. Minutes later, Hardin returned and fired a semiautomatic pistol at Nelson’s head “at close range,” an affidavit states.
Hardin was arrested early the next day about 10 blocks from the shooting site, police said. He was driving his father’s 2009 Toyota Tacoma and had a .380-caliber pistol on the pickup’s rear bumper and several live rounds in the driver’s seat and console, according to court documents. Homicide detectives later found a 9mm pistol, more ammunition and Charlie Hardin’s driver’s license, cell phone and American Express card, reports said.
That same day, another of Charlie Hardin’s sons, Chaka Hardin, 32, went to his father’s home at 420 E. 15th St. and reported the elder Hardin was missing, police said. A friend had last seen Charlie Hardin on Sept. 25 at the home.
When detectives checked Charlie Hardin’s home, the front door was unlocked, and two boxes inside the home had a “significant amount of blood spatter” on them, the officer’s report states.
A neighbor told investigators that he had seen Opio Hardin driving his father’s truck and that Charlie Hardin “would not let his son drive his truck due to his mental capacity,” the police report states.
The neighbor asked Opio Hardin where his father was, and he became agitated before saying he took Charlie Hardin to the hospital on Oct. 3, the police report states.
Another neighbor saw Opio Hardin moving items out of Charlie Hardin’s home and into the truck, the report said. Opio Hardin said he was cleaning up while his father was in the hospital, the report added.
Little Rock detectives checked several hospitals, but could not find Charlie Hardin.
The next time Charlie Hardin turned up was Nov. 16, when state Crime Laboratory officials identified his skeletal remains by linking evidence from toothbrushes detectives collected at his home.
The remains had been discovered eight days earlier in a wooded area in the 1500 block of Woodyard Road by two teenagers, who reported the find to the Pulaski County sheriff’s office.
After the remains were identified, Pulaski County investigators handed the case over to Little Rock detectives because Charlie Hardin was missing from the city. Police have not released Charlie Hardin’s cause of death.
Police subpoenaed Charlie Hardin’s phone records and learned that the last outgoing call was made about 1:45 p.m. Oct. 1. Just three minutes later, Charlie Hardin began receiving calls that rang unanswered, the officer’s report said.
After detectives told Opio Hardin on Thursday that they had found his father, he asked to see his dad’s photograph, the report said. Police showed him the medical examiner’s photograph, and “he began laughing” and declined to give a statement, the report states.
With Charlie Hardin’s death, the number of homicides in Little Rock for 2012 rose to 47, compared with 29 homicides at the same time last year.
Arkansas, Pages 14 on 12/22/2012