narrator: One of Atlanta's community heroes
is assassinated in his front yard.
- It was just total disbelief
that someone would shoot him in his head on his knees.
- The whole scene gave the impression
that Mr. Porter was executed.
- The vehicle was missing,
and all of his stuff inside the Range Rover was gone.
narrator: And the killer may just be getting started.
- We realized that we have two investigations
that are crossing one another.
- She heard someone walk up behind her.
She looked around and saw a guy pointing a gun at her,
and the guy had told her to get on the ground.
narrator: But will investigators
catch this brazen criminal
before he strikes again?
[gunshot]
- That's the worst part,
because you don't know what they're capable of.
- When we went and showed the photographs
to the security guard, he said that's a person
that frequents the Darlington Apartments.
- Police assume that he still has
the murder weapon that was used to shoot
and kill Terry Porter.
And they consider him very armed and very dangerous.
[dramatic music]
* *
[sirens wailing]
* *
narrator: Atlanta has long been recognized
as a landing spot for dreamers in the Black community.
- It had always been said that Atlanta
was the "Black Mecca."
Folks were flocking here, taking advantage
of the opportunities that were here to start businesses,
to start careers, to start their lives.
narrator: But it's the city's West End
that is the historical epicenter of Black culture.
- The West End is a traditionally large
African American community.
- This was a area where there was a lot of folks
who participated in one way or another
with the Civil Rights Movement during the '60s.
narrator: While the West End's history is rich,
the neighborhood fell on hard times
in the '80s and '90s, as drugs and crime ran rampant.
- It's an area with a lot of historic homes,
and it has a lot of history there.
But it was also riddled with a lot of crime.
It wasn't unusual to see shootings happen there--
a lot of burglaries, car break-ins,
and things of that nature.
But around 2012, we started to see
a great deal of gentrification taking place in the West End.
And so it was really an up-and-coming neighborhood.
It just hadn't quite made it there yet.
narrator: But this tight-knit community is changed forever
at 6:45 a.m.,
the morning of November 12, 2012,
when a resident calls 911.
The caller IDs the victim as 39-year-old Terry Porter.
Police and paramedics race to the address
and find the victim on the ground, dead.
- When we arrived there, we saw a body
lying in the front yard.
We noticed the victim had a single gunshot wound
to the back of the head.
The victim's pockets were turned inside-out.
His wallet wasn't there, the car keys wasn't there,
which was an indication that he had potentially been robbed.
narrator: Investigators begin with looking
for ballistics evidence around the body
and in front of the house.
- Unfortunately, law enforcement
didn't observe any casings.
So, at that point, they don't know
if it's a semiautomatic weapon that's used,
which would expand a casing, or a revolver.
So that was one of the issues that presented some difficulty
in the investigation.
narrator: Faced with no bullet,
no casing, and no murder weapon,
police continue hunting for clues.
- There was a key lying on the pathway headed
towards the building itself.
So we went around the house.
We didn't see any signs of forced entry.
We tried the key,
and the key actually fit the front door.
After that, we went through the residence
and didn't find that anything was disturbed
or any signs of forced entry.
But we still believe at that point
that the perpetrator ordered Mr. Porter
to turn his pockets inside out and give up his valuables.
And so we're looking at robbery as a potential motive,
but we were still in the primary stages with regards
to the investigation.
narrator: At this point, the medical examiner arrives
to inspect Terry's body.
- The Medical Examiner's Office--
they were able to tell us that the victim
potentially had been there for a few hours.
So we were looking at the murder
probably happening somewhere around 2:30 in the morning.
And we turned Mr. Porter over.
We saw a defect over his eye.
It appears that the trajectory of the round
was back to front, because the bullet went in
through the back of his head
and came out through the front.
Mr. Porter was 6'7," which he was a very tall man.
And so that was an indication that at some point,
Mr. Porter might have been down on his knees
or even down on the ground
so that the perpetrator was able to stand
over the victim and shoot.
The whole scene gave the impression
that Mr. Porter was executed.
[gunshot]
narrator: Terry's brother Levi
who also lives at the address,
returns home after a night away
to discover a disturbing scene.
- When I arrived, one of the homicide detectives
was walking over towards the court.
What was going through my mind was, is this real?
Is it true? What's really happening?
So kind of got up out of the car
and kind of fell back down, because I'm like,
okay, now this is some real stuff.
Police asked about having any enemies.
And at the time, I couldn't identify anyone.
And that's when I knew, it's real now.
narrator: As investigators speak with Terry's family,
detectives expand their search to the surrounding area.
- We had investigators go door to door
just to see if anybody saw or heard anything
in connection with the shooting death of Mr. Porter.
There was one young lady that answered the door that said
that she heard a gunshot around 2:30 in the morning,
but she didn't look outside because she was afraid to.
- That is something that's very scary,
producing information, potentially becoming
a witness, and then having to still live
in that neighborhood and potentially be exposed
to the consequences of that.
narrator: The team continues to canvass the neighborhood,
while news spreads throughout the community
about Terry's death.
- One of the neighbors called and said Terry
had been shot and murdered.
In that moment,
I really didn't know what to do
or even how to feel.
I was like, no, no.
It was unbelievable.
* *
narrator: Back at Terry's home,
his family continues talking to detectives
about their beloved brother.
- The victim's family immediately told investigators
that Mr. Porter's black Range Rover
was not on the scene.
Also, we weren't able to find his car keys,
giving us the impression that potentially,
the perpetrator might have driven off in the victim's car.
- The vehicle was missing, and his stuff inside
of that Range Rover was gone.
- He said, my brother typically kept a pair of sunglasses
in there, along with a screen projector
and some other personal effects as well.
- I mentioned that Terry's Range Rover had LoJack on it,
and the detectives thought that that would help.
But once they actually connected the system,
everything together, realized, it wasn't working.
narrator: With the killer potentially driving
Terry's stolen vehicle, police order a statewide BOLO,
and Atlanta's Theft Task Force begins their hunt for the SUV.
- Looking for the Range Rover was the top priority,
and they had identified that that was the best way
to sort of track down anything else.
narrator: Although Terry's family has already
helped the investigation by telling them
about his missing car,
police also question them about Terry's personal life.
- All the siblings together was five of us--
originally from Lake Charles, Louisiana.
Terry was the second-oldest brother out of the family.
Terry definitely was a person
that wanted to excel in everything.
He ended up moving to Atlanta a few years
after graduating college.
And he started getting into the real-estate industry,
flipping houses or purchasing homes.
- Around 2003,
Terry Porter bought a house on South Gordon Street,
and he became an integral part of the community
in the West End.
- It was a ran-down place, and he went in and totally
fixed that place up,
because at the time, the West Side of Atlanta
was not really a good area.
narrator: Detectives learn
that Terry used his business acumen
to help the West End community in other ways as well.
- I invested my hard-earned real-estate income in building
an assisted-living home.
I stepped out on faith and followed my passion of what
I felt God called me to do.
narrator: Over four years, Terry opened and operated
four assisted-living facilities
in his West End neighborhood.
- He was well-liked throughout the community
and frequently reached out to people that were less fortunate
in the community to try to help them along in life.
narrator: With such an impressive track record
throughout the community, Levi wonders
if his brother's death was more than a random robbery
gone wrong.
- It was quite strange that his pockets was turned out
but nothing on the inside of the house was taken.
It didn't look like anyone had went in the house.
So that immediately made me think that it was
him being targeted directly.
narrator: But who would target such a cherished member
of the West End?
Investigators turn their attention back
to the scene for more clues.
- As police were scoping the crime scene,
they looked up and saw, there's a camera on that house.
Let's go talk to who lives in the house.
- The camera was there.
And so, if it was actually recording,
it might have seen or heard anything in connection
with the incident.
* *
The murder might have been in connection
with squatters living in a boarded-up house
across the street.
- Everyone kind of, like, gasped, because we're
finally getting somewhere.
- At this point, we haven't found the murder weapon.
So there's always the potential that he
still has that weapon with him
and has the ability to use it.
* *
narrator: Atlanta's historic West End is devastated
when Terry Porter, a hero of the community,
is gunned down on his front lawn.
- Terry was a community leader.
He really looked out for others.
So everybody is just emotionally
just caught up at this time and not knowing
what to do, how to react, because Terry was the leader.
narrator: During the initial investigation,
police discover a camera next door to Terry's home,
and it's directed right at the crime scene.
- We did wind up interviewing one neighbor
that had a camera pointed towards Mr. Porter's house,
but the camera was there just as a deterrent,
and it wasn't actually recording.
narrator: Unfortunately, this is the only camera
with a view of Terry's yard.
- 2012 is not like 2022,
where every door has a Ring camera.
Technology then wasn't what it is now, where everybody has
that piped into their phone and they can
see everything that goes on.
- And so we didn't have any electronic surveillance
information that we could glean to assist
with the investigation.
- They didn't have a whole lot of bread crumbs to follow.
They were looking for a 2006 Range Rover.
And in 2012, those were still kind of a dime a dozen
in Atlanta.
narrator: With the BOLO still out on Terry's vehicle,
detectives take a deeper dive into his relationships
to find out who wanted him dead.
- We learn that he's mentoring to young people
in the community.
And mentorship in the West End is extremely vital
because you have a young population there.
Most of them were unguided.
And for him to take time out of his schedule to mentor
to a lot of the young people in that community,
it meant a lot to the people there.
It was a testament to the relationships
that he had in the community and how people felt about him
in that community as well.
narrator: Detectives interview dozens of people
who knew Terry,
and everyone insists he had no enemies.
- It was a time in my life-- in 2008,
I found myself in a dark place
and was ready to just give up.
My son introduced me to Terry.
They said that they had a friend that
was opening a nursing home.
Terry offered me a job.
And at that point in time, I'm like, wow, I really don't know
anything about this, you know.
He said, that's okay, I'll take care of it.
So he sent me to school for nursing.
He kind of just took me under his wing,
taught me everything he knew.
narrator: The day after the murder, Terry's brother, Levi,
calls detectives with a possible lead.
- I mentioned to the police that there was an abandoned
house across the street, where there possibly
was some individuals that maybe have
been living inside of there.
- Victim's brother told us the murder might have been
in connection with those squatters,
because it's my understanding Mr. Porter got
into an altercation with one of the individuals that
was squatting in that particular house.
- In that area where he lived and was murdered,
that neighborhood was a historic district,
but there still stood these abandoned
homes that attracted all kinds of crime
and criminal activity.
And Terry was desperate to do something about it.
- It felt like the squatters could be a viable lead.
And so investigators went over and attempted
to try to make contact with individuals in that house,
but we didn't have much success.
We saw that some people were potentially
living inside of the house, but at that point,
no one was there.
And so we wanted to make it a point to come back
in the event that we could find someone inside of the house
squatting there so that we can kind of question
those individuals.
narrator: After searching the abandoned house,
detectives check in with the ME regarding Terry's autopsy.
- Through the autopsy, they were
able to determine that there was
one gunshot wound to Mr. Porter's head
that traveled through his body.
Because the projectile passed through,
you don't have a projectile which you could use
to determine what type of firearm was used,
the caliber of the firearm.
narrator: Investigators are back at square one.
There's still no ballistics evidence.
Terry's vehicle is in the wind,
and the BOLO hasn't produced any information
on its whereabouts.
- What they had there was a dead man with a single gunshot
wound to the back of his head, and that was it.
- And so we just need to proceed
with a sense of urgency to get the perpetrator
off the street.
And so with the way that Mr. Porter was killed,
we had that sense of urgency.
narrator: Police focus on the missing link
that could help uncover Terry's killer, his vehicle.
In addition to the Feds looking for it,
detectives also get the community involved.
- Terry Porter was gunned down in his front yard.
Porter was a well-respected businessman.
- We started putting out the still photographs
and the information about Mr. Porter's vehicle
to the community, just to see if we could drum up
more leads with respects to identifying
Mr. Porter's murder.
narrator: In addition to media blasts,
members of Terry's community
are giving out flyers and posting signs
with images of his vehicle.
The West End is demanding justice
for their friend and mentor.
Then, on November 15th,
three days after Terry's murder,
investigators catch a break.
- We got a Crime Stoppers tip on the location
of Mr. Porter's vehicle,
which was the turning point in the investigation.
- I remember when they found the vehicle.
We was at the funeral home at the time.
Matter of fact, the lights flickered
inside of the funeral home when the call came in.
I mean, everyone kind of, like, gasped,
because we finally got something.
Okay, now, we're getting somewhere.
* *
[dramatic music]
narrator: Three days into the homicide investigation
of 39-year-old Terry Porter,
Atlanta detectives finally have a break in the case.
- We received a Crime Stopper tip that a black Range Rover
was found in the back of the Darlington Apartments
in Buckhead.
- When law enforcement arrived at the apartment complex,
they found Mr. Porter's stolen Range Rover that was missing
from the homicide scene.
narrator: Police secure the scene
so CSI can process the vehicle.
Meanwhile, detectives notice surveillance cameras
pointed at the parking lot.
- And so we questioned the manager there,
and they tell us that they don't know
who was inside of the vehicle.
- They tell police that the car has been in the parking lot
for three days, but the footage gets
recorded over every 48 hours.
narrator: Which means any signs of the suspect
driving and exiting Terry's vehicle are gone.
- At this point, they're not able to be helpful
to us at all.
And so we go back to the homicide office,
and then we receive a call
from the Darlington Apartments' manager an hour later,
saying a Sergeant Ford with the Chamblee Police Department
was investigating a carjacking incident
and showed up asking similar questions to the ones
that we were asking while we were
there questioning the management
about Mr. Porter's murder.
narrator: The carjacking that Sergeant Ernesto Ford
is investigating occurred in Chamblee
just three days before Terry was killed,
and there's some eerie similarities.
- So, on November the 9, 2012,
the Chamblee Police Department was contacted
regarding a carjacking that had just occurred.
The officer on scene took the initial police report
and placed the vehicle on the system as a stolen vehicle.
Two or three days later, I met with the victim.
She proceeded to tell me
that roughly 10 or 15 minutes after 10:00 p.m.,
she had been carjacked at gunpoint.
She said as she was opening up her mail,
she heard someone walk up behind her.
She looked around and saw a guy pointing a gun at her.
And he then told her to give him
her purse, phone, personal belongings, car keys,
and asked her what bank she banked with
and her PIN number
and that the guy had told her to get on the ground.
The victim stated that she actually gave him everything
that he had asked for.
She said that the suspect then got in her car and fled.
* *
narrator: Sergeant Ford reveals a key detail
that connects the two cases.
- A day or two after I met with the carjacking victim,
her vehicle was also recovered at the Darlington Apartments.
So the fact that both stolen vehicles were located
at that apartment complex was the first indicator that this
is probably the same guy.
- We realize that we probably have two investigations
that are crossing one another.
* *
narrator: Sergeant Ford continues sharing
information related to the carjacking
with Atlanta detectives.
- The carjacking victim--
she gave a brief description of the offender.
She described him as a male that was roughly 6-foot tall,
wearing all black.
And she thought that he was a light-skinned Black male.
She said he was roughly 20 to 25 years old.
She had also told me that she had
gotten a bank statement after the robbery,
a couple days later.
And she said that someone had attempted to withdraw
money from her bank account.
There were four attempts.
The first attempt was successful,
which was 400 bucks.
The other three, they weren't successful
in obtaining the money.
The bank was able to provide me a printout that showed
the exact times, the locations where the ATM was accessed,
as well as four still photographs.
In one of the photographs, the person withdrawing money
appeared to be attempting to conceal his face.
He was wearing some sort of mask.
However, it was low enough on his chin
to where he was actually identifiable.
And that's the picture that I actually
showed the victim, who stated, yeah,
that looks like the guy that took my car and robbed me.
narrator: In the midst of talking to Sergeant Ford,
Atlanta CSI finishes processing Terry's SUV.
- Police looked through the Range Rover
and found some things that were missing,
based upon conversations with friends,
family, and coworkers.
narrator: Terry's sunglasses and screen projector
are missing from his vehicle, but the team
finds a receipt dated shortly after Terry's murder.
- The receipt was from the Texaco gas station,
so we went up to the Texaco station.
And we were able to get still photographs
from the surveillance video from there.
Right now we have an image of a potential suspect
in Mr. Porter's murder.
* *
And so we reach out to Chamblee.
We get with Sergeant Ford, and we're able to compare
still photographs.
narrator: When comparing them to the ATM images
from the carjacking case, the two teams come
to a shocking realization.
- In both the ATM surveillance footage and the still
photographs from the CCTV footage from the Texaco
station, it was a light-skinned Black male,
kind of thin, and there's a striking
similarity between the two.
And so what we wanted to do was try to get an identification
on both of them.
narrator: The similarities between the two cases
is beginning to pile up, convincing
investigators that the suspect in both is the same guy.
- It seemed that the suspect would approach people
when they weren't paying attention
to their surroundings, catch them as they were in, like,
a really vulnerable state.
And clearly, he did that with Mr. Porter
and the carjacking victim.
So that appeared to be his MO.
narrator: Now, armed with a visual of their suspect,
detectives race to find the potential killer.
- Anytime a person is able to get
away with smaller crimes, people
become more and more emboldened.
And they can become dangerous and actually perpetrate
more crimes and be even more violent in their efforts
to try to get away.
So we just need to proceed with a sense of urgency
to get those types of people off the street,
because at this point, we haven't
found the murder weapon.
So there's always the potential that he
still has that weapon with him and has the ability to use it.
- There are over 30 to 40 different transactions
on those credit cards associated with Mr. Porter.
- He had essentially gone on a spending spree.
- Crime Stoppers received an anonymous call
from a woman, who identifies the man in the crime footage.
- There's a greater sense of anticipation
that, I can't wait to figure out who this guy is.
I knew it was just a matter of time.
* *
[dramatic music]
* *
narrator: Atlanta detectives
have uncovered surveillance footage
that connects a carjacking in Chamblee
to Terry Porter's West End murder.
Now they're working to confirm whether the two cases were
committed by the same person.
- In going over evidence from Terry Porter's vehicle,
police came across a Texaco gas receipt,
and they also found footage of an African American male
using Terry Porter's vehicle and his credit card.
narrator: Sergeant Ford speaks to the carjacking victim
again to prove her attacker is Terry's killer.
This time, he shows her different pictures.
- So after I got the images from the Texaco gas station,
I showed it to my victim, and she confirmed
that that person resembled the person that took her car
and robbed her.
narrator: The carjacking victim's confirmation
is a huge breakthrough.
But detectives still can't catch a perp
without a name.
- In cases where you really need the identity of someone,
the media is the easiest way and the quickest way
to get a response.
So we contacted the news media, and a story
aired that night in hopes that someone
out there would identify him.
- Chamblee police detectives want you to take
a close look at this guy.
You see him attempting to use a Buckhead BB&T ATM
with someone else's debit card.
* *
narrator: Four days into the investigation,
as detectives wait for tips to come in,
they return to the Darlington Apartments.
- When we went and showed the still photographs
to the security guard there, he said,
that's a person that he knows as Santana that frequents
the Darlington Apartments.
- They knew him by the name of Santana,
and he lived in the apartment complex with his girlfriend.
- Ms. Daisha Robinson lived in apartment 524
at the Darlington Apartments.
And so we have what we believe is a first name
or a nickname of the potential suspect.
* *
We went to Ms. Robinson's apartment.
At this point, we're not sure if she knows anything
about Santana's activities with respect to the crime spree
that he was on, but there's always that possibility.
[knock at door]
We knocked on the door, and...
we showed Ms. Robinson
the still photographs that we had
of the individual at the Texaco station,
and she immediately identified him as the person
she knew as Santana.
narrator: And Daisha insists she doesn't
know her boyfriend Santana's real name
or where he is.
- It's kind of unusual for somebody
to frequent a particular location
and you don't actually know their identity,
and he's in your apartment consistently.
And so we also ask her if she had ever
been inside of the black Range Rover
with the Santana person.
And her immediate response was, am I going to get in trouble?
And ultimately, she admitted he picked her up
from her internship in the Range Rover.
And it was our position to get a search warrant
for her apartment to see if we could try to find
any other pieces of evidence associated
with Mr. Porter's murder.
narrator: When the search warrant is signed,
detectives search the apartment.
- As we were going through, we saw
items that could potentially belong to Mr. Porter.
We saw a screen projector.
Terry Porter's brother had told us
that he frequently kept a screen projector
inside of his vehicle.
We also saw some sunglasses.
He told us, potentially, his brother
had two pair of sunglasses inside of the vehicle.
And so we asked Ms. Robinson, do you know who
these sunglasses belong to?
She said, no, I don't.
We asked her if she knew
who the screen projector belonged to.
She said, no, I don't.
So we seize those items, and we went
back to the homicide office.
- Once you have a potential lead that could lead you
to identifying a suspect, there's a sense
of anticipation that I can't wait--you know, I can't wait
to figure out who this guy is.
I knew it was just a matter of time.
narrator: Investigators take pictures of the evidence
and send it for DNA analysis.
- Detectives show these items to Terry Porter's brother.
- They were Terry's personal items that I knew
that he had in his vehicle.
narrator: Atlanta detectives have even more proof
Santana stole Terry's vehicle.
Now the team is hot on Santana's trail,
but there's still key information
they desperately need.
- We're trying to see if we can find a real name,
so we're combing through all of our databases,
looking for someone that might fit
the description of Santana.
At this point, we have not been able to come
up with a firm identity.
narrator: With Terry Porter's killer still on the streets,
detectives continue the media blasts
and requests for information via Crime Stoppers.
* *
Meanwhile, Terry's family, friends,
and the West End community continue
to mourn their devoted leader.
- We held multiple vigils, candlelight vigils.
And we'd just invite everybody in the community to come out.
It definitely made me feel really good to know that so
many people cared for Terry.
* *
narrator: Investigators
can't make the feelings of loss go away,
but they continue working on bringing
the killer to justice.
And on November 26th, 14 days after Terry's murder,
detectives get the most significant break
in the case yet.
- We received a call from a female caller,
who stated that the person we were looking for
was named Ladarius Hardy.
We were super excited.
I felt pretty certain that this was the guy.
* *
[dramatic music]
narrator: Atlanta detectives finally have a name
for the mysterious man seen in surveillance footage
using Terry Porter's vehicle and the carjacking
victim's ATM card.
- Crime Stoppers receive an anonymous call
from a woman who identifies the man in the crime footage
as Ladarius Hardy.
- After we received a phone call
from the anonymous caller, I did a search
and actually found a Ladarius Hardy
that had been arrested
by the Fulton County Sheriff's Office.
- We looked and saw an arrest history of carjackings.
We saw aggravated assault.
We saw, like, a lot of petty crime.
narrator: They find a last-known address
in Ladarius Hardy's background report
and head to the location to question him.
- When they go to the address, a woman answers the door.
They show her a photo, and she confirms that it is
indeed that of Ladarius Hardy.
- We're feeling really good about the direction
of the investigation, because we
realize that we probably have our perpetrator
positively identified.
- Police ask the former girlfriend
if she has any idea where he is.
She tells them she has no idea where he is
and that she hadn't seen him in eight months.
* *
narrator: While they continue their search for the suspect,
Atlanta investigators strategically
build a case against Hardy by gathering
Terry's financial information.
- We had gotten information from Terry Porter's assistant
that he had a Visa card on him when he was murdered.
- They knew that there were at least
five other debit and credit cards that were missing.
And a lot of those transactions produced
corresponding surveillance video.
- We were able to determine that he had essentially gone
on a spending spree, spending money
as if he had an endless supply.
- There are over 30 to 40 different transactions
that Mr. Hardy made on those credit cards
associated with Mr. Porter.
- You ask yourself, who really does
that, without any regard for having
just murdered Mr. Porter?
* *
narrator: Altogether, nearly 1,600 was charged
on Porter's ATM and credit cards after he was killed.
But what motivated Hardy to kill Terry
if he got what he wanted?
- If Hardy had gotten the items that he was after,
there was really no reason to kill Mr. Porter, other
than the fact that he would be able to identify
him as a potential suspect in his armed robbery.
narrator: So with the evidence they have,
investigators rush to obtain a warrant
for Ladarius Hardy's arrest.
- We take out the arrest warrants,
and it's not just the arrest warrant for murder.
They take out the warrants for all the crimes
that he's implicated in--
the murder, the aggravated assault,
and the financial transactions
associated with Mr. Porter's stolen debit and credit cards.
So that warrant is registered, and it's
sent to the fugitive task unit that tracks down and locates
persons with arrest warrants, in particular persons
who are believed to be violent.
And Mr. Hardy fit that category.
Narrator: While the Fugitive Task Force
hunts Hardy down,
detectives pay his current girlfriend, Daisha Robinson,
another visit.
- We went back to Daisha Robinson's apartment,
and we show Ms. Robinson a photographic lineup.
* *
She looks at the lineup.
She said, I don't recognize anybody
in any of these photographs.
At this point, Ms. Robinson is being
completely uncooperative.
And so we bring Ms. Robinson
back to the homicide office,
and we sit down and we proceed to question
her a little bit more.
And she's still being uncooperative.
So we get arrest warrants charging her
with theft by receiving the victim's stolen property,
because the victim's stolen items
were found inside of her apartment.
narrator: Threatened with jail time, Ms. Robinson
finally decides to cooperate with law enforcement.
- Ms. Robinson finally comes clean and admits to detectives
that she had indeed spoken to Ladarius Hardy
just before they arrived, and he told her to remain quiet.
Ms. Robinson goes on to ID Ladarius Hardy in a lineup,
and she gives police his cell phone number.
* *
- We were able to track his cell phone to the location
in Conyers, which we ultimately determined
was Daisha Robinson's mother's house.
narrator: Atlanta's Fugitive Task Force sets up
surveillance outside of Ms. Robinson's mother's home.
And on December 11, 2012, Ladarius Hardy
is spotted at that location.
- Police are on extremely high alert,
because they assume that he still has the murder weapon
that was used to shoot and kill Terry Porter,
and they consider him armed and very dangerous.
- You don't really know whether or not
he's going to try to shoot it out with police or not.
- That's the worst part...
because you don't know what they're capable of.
You have no idea what their background is.
So that's bad.
Unfortunately, that's the hazard of the job.
narrator: The Fugitive Task Force
carefully approaches the home
and announces they have a warrant.
Police are allowed inside and confront the suspect,
but before taking him into custody,
the team searches the location for a murder weapon.
- We find a 9-millimeter handgun.
We also find .38-caliber bullets out there as well.
We find items that's consistent with the items that
was purchased on Mr. Porter's credit cards.
And so we seize all of these items.
Then we place Ladarius Hardy in custody.
It was a sense of relief because now we
have the ability to go back and put all of the pieces
of the puzzle together.
* *
We bring him back to the homicide office,
and we proceed to question him
about Mr. Porter's murder.
narrator: When detectives conduct
a formal interview with Hardy,
he drops a bomb
that blows the entire case wide open.
- We were all taken aback when Ladarius Hardy
admits to knowing Terry Porter prior to the murder.
* *
narrator: After searching for Terry Porter's killer
for over a month, the Atlanta Homicide Team
finally has their prime suspect, Ladarius Hardy,
in custody.
- Terry Porter was mentioning to a lot of the young people
in the West End community, and it came to our knowledge
that he actually mentored Ladarius Hardy, trying to help
him find a better life.
But Ladarius Hardy repaid him by murdering him.
narrator: While Hardy admits
he was an acquaintance of Terry's,
he doesn't confess to the murder.
- The first thing he did is separate
himself from the homicide scene
at the time Mr. Porter was shot.
- Ladarius tells detectives that an acquaintance
brought him the vehicle so that he
could take it to a chop shop.
He says they found Terry Porter's wallet inside,
and they split up the credit cards.
narrator: Investigators don't believe Hardy.
So an hour into the interrogation,
when he changes his story, it proves he can't be trusted.
- He gave a second statement where he acknowledges planning
a robbery of Mr. Porter with another individual
but not wanting it to result in a homicide
and puts it on this person.
You know, you have to be diligent,
so law enforcement did their investigation
and weren't able to corroborate
anything that Mr. Hardy said,
and ultimately, he was lying.
narrator: Not only is Hardy proven to be a liar,
but investigators have a mountain of evidence
pointing right at him.
Chamblee PD Sergeant Ernesto Ford
also tries to coax the truth out
of Hardy about the carjacking.
- We attempted to interview Ladarius Hardy.
He just absolutely refused to talk.
narrator: Even with the evidence stacked against him,
Hardy still refuses to cooperate
with law enforcement.
A month after Terry Porter was murdered in cold blood,
his killer is finally in custody.
- Ladarius Hardy killed someone
that was just trying to be a good person.
It just seems so senseless. I mean, you can't explain it.
You can't rationalize it.
* *
narrator: Even though Ladarius Hardy
maintains his innocence,
he is charged with murder, armed robbery,
aggravated assault with a deadly weapon,
and financial fraud.
- Shortly after that, we started
working with the District Attorney's Office,
and we began to move forward with prosecution.
Everything just kind of came together.
- We were convinced that it was an execution-style murder,
and the medical examiner is able to determine that
the projectile that struck Mr. Porter
entered to the back of his head.
So immediately what that tells me
is that Mr. Porter is kneeling down with his back facing
Mr. Hardy.
Mr. Porter was in a position where he was helpless,
defenseless,
and he was not a threat to Mr. Hardy.
And he didn't need to be murdered.
* *
narrator: But the case never goes to trial.
- Because of the execution-style manner
in which Mr. Porter was murdered,
that resulted in the case being noticed
for death penalty treatment.
narrator: To avoid the death penalty,
Hardy pleads guilty to murder
and receives two life sentences without parole.
- It was a bittersweet moment.
I rejoice, again, that they caught this person
and that he would no longer be a threat
to anyone else.
At the same time, the nerve, the audacity,
and I'm wondering, how could you be so heartless?
He didn't have to do it.
- Ladarius Hardy killed Terry out of envy.
He wanted exactly what Terry had.
And he wasn't getting it as quick
as he wanted it, so he decided to steal it.
- Terry Porter gave little kids the hope that, you know,
I could grow up to do these things as well,
have these businesses and achieve greatness and not
have to succumb to the things that we
see in the streets every day.
Unfortunately, Mr. Porter was murdered for trying to help
people in this community.
narrator: Ten years after his death, Terry's family
and the West End community still feel the void
created by his absence.
- Thousands have been impacted by the loss of such
a big person that had so much to give,
not just to people he knew
but to the whole city of Atlanta.
Terry is just an angel gone too soon.
Way too soon.
* *