Hanlon killer’s sentence piles up

Kim Smith

Friday, Dec. 1, 2000 | 10:01 a.m.

Scott Bedard sat expressionless and moot Thursday as a judge tacked an additional 60 to 150 years onto his two life sentences in the August 1997 death of Bill Hanlon, a janitorial service owner.

Bedard, who hid behind a manilla envelope during the length of the hearing, didn't react even when Hanlon's sister turned her venom on him during her victim impact statement to the judge.

Bill Hanlon Sr., a former state Board of Education member and a teacher, also testified Thursday and spoke of the toll the crime took on his family.

Bedard, 34, was convicted of first-degree murder and given two no-parole life terms in September. On Thursday, District Judge Jeffrey Sobel sentenced Bedard on an additional 13 charges relating to Hanlon's death.

Prosecutors successfully argued that Bedard killed Hanlon with one shot in the head when the janitorial service business owner surprised Bedard as he was burglarizing the Templeton Plaza offices on Rainbow Boulevard.

Hanlon's body was found outstretched holding an empty wallet on the morning of Aug. 6, 1997.

Hanlon's sister, Tammy Hanlon, said she learned after speaking with a handful of jurors that they chose not to sentence Bedard to death because the Hanlon family did not ask for the death penalty during the trial.

The jury did not know that families are not allowed to express their desires when given the opportunity to address them during the punishment phase of the trial, Tammy Hanlon said.

"I would like Scott Bedard to get down on his hands and knees and beg the same way my brother did and be shown the same disregard my brother was for his life," Tammy Hanlon said.

She also expressed her sorrow that Bedard chose to put his 13-year-old daughter on the stand to beg for his life. That is a burden no child should have to live with, Tammy Hanlon said.

Tammy Hanlon told Bedard he was a "horrible person" for doing that to his daughter and for what he did to her brother.

"All you are is a coward. And where you're going there are more cowards bigger than you and you know, I hope that one of them takes your ass out. Because that is what you deserve," Tammy Hanlon said.