Drug use complicated life of man killed by police in Brown County

It was bullets from police officers' guns that killed Troy Harden on Thanksgiving, but methamphetamine was at the heart of the 44-year-old's demise.

Two police officers tracked Harden to a Brown County residence Thursday to arrest him on a warrant charging him with violating his probation in Monroe County. On Nov. 12, a drug test administered by the probation department showed Harden had methamphetamine and amphetamines in his urine, police said. His probation officer alleged he failed "to provide truthful information" and missed a probation appointment and also a drug screen in October.

When officers arrived at the residence, Harden fled and eventually was subdued by a stun gun. But when he then aimed a handgun at the officers, they fired. Harden was shot twice in the abdomen and bled to death, a coroner ruled.

Back in 2007, Harden was making methamphetamine with a man named Jerry Pelfree at his mobile home west of Bloomington when Pelfree shot and killed two men, then stuffed their bodies into barrels to decompose. Harden testified against Pelfree, who was convicted and sentenced to 130 years in prison. Harden received a reduced sentence for his part in the crimes in exchange for his testimony. He pleaded guilty in June 2009 to assisting a criminal in the Pelfree case, and also to battery on a police officer, resisting arrest and carrying a handgun without a license from an incident in June 2007.

In that case, Harden got into a brawl with Bloomington police officers after he fled from a traffic stop. He hit one officer several times in the head with his fists. It took four officers to subdue him, and they discovered a .22-caliber revolver on the floor board of his Jeep Cherokee and a silver container clipped to his belt containing a grainy white powder.

Monroe Circuit Judge Marc Kellams sentenced Harden to eight years, and suspended six years. He was to spend the two years on house arrest, and was put on probation until Sept. 2, 2019.

Harden had two stints in the state prison system before that. He served nine months in 1997 after being convicted in Brown County of possession of marijuana and being a habitual traffic offender. He was sent back from March 2003 to March 2004 after convictions in Monroe County for battery and for driving after having his license suspended for life.

In August 2011, Monroe County Deputy Prosecutor Jeff Kehr and Harden's probation officer agreed Harden had complied with house arrest, was working at his father's stone company and had earned release from home detention. Harden and his lawyer signed the agreement Aug. 13, 2011, and Harden was released back to a normal life, although still on probation.

A year later, in September 2012, Monroe County Probation Officer Julie Robertson filed a petition asking that Harden's probation be revoked because he had failed a drug test: he had methamphetamine in his system. A warrant for his arrest was issued, and he found himself back in the Monroe County Jail.

In a two-page pencil-written letter to Robertson that month, with a few misspellings, Harden pleaded for a second chance. "I am sorry for not telling you all that was going on with me. I was doing so good till I reached back. I was clean for 4 and half years then I got around old so called friends again. I got week and used. I will do whatever it takes. Don't send me back to prisson. I will lose everything I got."

Harden said his father's health was bad and that he feared the loss of the family business if he could not help out at Harden Stone Co. "I am begging you. I will not do to it again. I will make you proud of me. I will stay on the wright path."

The state agreed to drop the request to revoke his probation and send him back to prison. Harden was released from jail Nov. 7, 2012, but he remained on probation.

Then last month, Harden failed his second drug test, with positive results for meth and amphetamines. The judge issued a warrant seeking his arrest, and on Thanksgiving, a phone call tipping off police to Harden's whereabouts led up to the shooting that ended his life.

This article originally appeared on The Herald-Times: Drug use complicated life of man killed by police in Brown County