Schuylkill County President Judge Jacqueline Russell sentenced Ladell Hannon to 17½-35 years in state prison for trying to kill a Kelayres man back in 2021 with an improvised explosive device.
Hannon, a former Hazleton cop, was convicted in September of attempted murder and other charges after it was determined he planted an IED outside the home of Harrison Jordan, of Kelayres, on a December 2021 morning and ignited it.
The blast, set off by remote detonation, seriously injured Jordan, who had been seeing Hannon’s estranged wife, and caused severe damage to the neighboring area.
A jury of 12 found Hannon guilty of the charges against him.
At Friday’s sentencing hearing, Jordan read a statement prior to Russell handing down Hannon’s sentence.
“You could have decided to cut your losses,” Jordan told Hannon, looking at him directly. “You could have moved on with your life.”
Hannon was found guilty of stalking his estranged wife and Jordan while they attended classes related to their jobs as paramedics, on several occassions turning up at the Sheetz locations where they went after school. He also tracked his wife to Jordan’s apartment in Kelayres.
“Now the whole world gets to see what kind of person you are and what kind of a coward you are,” Jordan told Hannon on Friday. “We didn’t even know each other and you hated me and tried to kill me. I don’t forgive you and never will.”
Jordan’s father, David, also spoke at Friday’s sentencing hearing, mostly about his son’s character and how the incident back in 2021 changed him.
At trial, Jordan testified that he suffered serious injuries as a result of the explosion that nearly killed him. He said he has trouble hearing today and still has shrapnel from the bucket bomb in him.
Prosecutor Michael Stine argued for a stiff sentence for Hannon. He told Russell than Hannon acted with “premeditation on steroids. This is a case where there was planning. There was this transfixation with killing Harry.”
Stine also noted that at no time has Hannon publicly shown any remorse for his actions.
“He had people to lean on but chose not to,” Stine said Friday.
Russell twice gave Hannon a chance to offer a statement on his own behalf on Friday but each time, he declined. He simply said, “Thank you to the court for your time and thank you to my lawyer for the work.”
The judge, before imposing the sentence, did remark that Hannon had a clean criminal background and noted his service as a police officer and in the U.S. military.
“This was a very difficult sentence for me to determine,” Russell said. “I saw you as a relatively young man with a good background. The action was out of character. Howver, you endangered people. You endangered the community.”
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