Man gets 12 years prison for his role in 2016 fatal shooting

A Bradenton man received 12 years in prison Friday morning for holding down Charles Lehnert, 31, as another man shot him dead during a drug deal gone bad.

On the evening of Jan. 23, 2016, Charles Lehnert, 31, was shot dead during a drug deal in the parking lot of lawn equipment provider Gravely of Bradenton, 5732 15th St. E.

Daniel Lee Mann and James Michael Hardy, both 24, were identified as the suspects seen in surveillance video footage in a struggle with Lehnert. Jurors in August found Mann guilty of first-degree murder as charged during the trial in which they saw the surveillance and Mann’s recorded confession to detectives in Tallahassee, where both men were apprehended.

Mann — armed with a semiautomatic .22-caliber handgun on the day of the murder — had admitted to shooting Lehnert once in the back of the head.

Hardy was set to stand trial during the two-week trial period that begins Monday. He was charged with principal to second-degree murder and was facing up to life in prison.

On Friday morning, Hardy pleaded no contest, and Circuit Judge Brian Iten sentenced him to 12 years in prison as part of a plea bargain negotiated between Assistant State Attorney Garrett Franzen and defense attorney John Baez.

“While he was clearly committing an act of violence against Charles Lehnert, that Daniel Mann took advantage of, given the fact that James Hardy never touched the gun at any point combined with the circumstances surrounding the incident and his willingness to take responsibility, we felt this was fair and just outcome for the case,” Franzen said.

There was never any evidence in the case that Hardy even knew Mann had a gun that day.

The victim’s family and law enforcement were consulted about the plea deal and did not object to the proposed outcome, Franzen added.

Following Mann’s trial, he had said he never intended to kill anyone before Iten gave him his automatic life sentence.

“So why you may express sorrow here today, the court believes that on that day you were driven by anger and executed a human being, and for that life is the appropriate sentence,” Iten told Mann.

This story was originally published September 29, 2017 at 6:47 PM with the headline "Man gets 12 years prison for his role in 2016 fatal shooting."