Trial date set for 2008 triple-homicide suspect

By Adam Folk
The Augusta Chronicle

A tentative date has been set for the death penalty trial of an Augusta man accused of killing three people, including a pregnant teenager.

At a hearing Tuesday, attorneys for Adrian Tywan Hargrove, 33, and District Attorney Ashley Wright agreed to an Oct. 24 starting date for the trial.

Judge James G. Blanchard Jr. also heard several motions from the defense to strike the death penalty, including an argument based upon the Supreme Court's decision in the 2000 Bush v. Gore case.

Attorneys argued that this case sets a precedent of "equal dignity" for voters and, in the same vein, Georgia needed a system of standards for prosecutors to make the death penalty more uniform across various counties and among different crimes because a person's life is an even more fundamental right.

Hargrove has pleaded not guilty to kidnapping, murder and feticide. If he is convicted of the murder charge, a jury will determine his punishment -- death or life in prison without the possibility of parole.

He was arrested Feb. 9, 2008, in the stabbing death of Andrew Hartley Jr., 45, and Sharon Hartley, 46, and their daughter, Allyson Pederson, 18.

The couple were found in their Bennock Mill Road home after Hargrove's wife told police that he had arrived home with blood on his clothes.

The body of Pederson, who was several months pregnant, was found near the Lock and Dam Road, not far from the airport. It had been set on fire.( I am taking the liberty of injecting the victims name, Allyson Pederson,instead of calling her "It")

Hargrove was released from prison in 2006 after serving seven years in prison for convictions of cruelty to children and possession of cocaine.

The next hearing date was set for Jan. 20.

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