By Jeff Reinitz
Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier
WATERLOO, Iowa — Clinton Hardman saw the man responsible for his brother’s death for the first time Oct. 23.
Through bullet-proof glass, Hardman, his wife and 16 others peered into Arizona’s sterile death chamber and watched as Robert Glen Jones, 44, died quietly, as if in his sleep, by lethal injection.
“It seemed kind of a disappointment. It was disappointing he harmed so many families, and he could go out so humanely. For everything he did, he gets the best solution,” said Clint Hardman, 40, of Waterloo.
Authorities said Jones and another man, Scott Nordstrom, robbed the Moon Smoke Shop in Tucson, Ariz., on May 30, 1996. The gunmen killed Thomas Hardman, a Cedar Falls native who worked at the tobacco store, along with a customer. They also wounded another employee. The heist netted all of $200, according to Courier archives.
Jones, who was sentenced to death six times, had other slayings on his record.
There were the four people discovered dead weeks later, shot in the back of the head during a robbery at Tucson union hall, and there was a dead retiree in Phoenix, a crime that led to a high-speed pursuit in series of sports cars and ultimately to Jones’ capture.
There were so many victims that when it came time for Jones to die, corrections officials had to turn down some relatives who wanted to attend because the viewing gallery only held 18 people, according to media accounts.
Jones never apologized and never even glanced toward those whose lives he had upended. In his last words, he said he loved his family and friends and hoped his friends don’t end up the way he did.
“The fact that he didn’t look at the window shows he was pretty much a coward and was unremorseful for what he had done. I don’t think that shocked anybody,” Clint Hardman said.
Musical influence
Thomas Hardman was born in Wisconsin, but he grew up in Cedar Falls. He graduated from Northern University High School in 1986. He worked at The Stein tavern on College Hill and then at Co-op Records, eventually becoming shipping and receiving manager at the music store, according to Courier archives.
But music wasn’t only his job, it was his passion. He loved classical music and played string bass and cello. He did charity performances, including benefits for the Cedar Valley Humane Society, and he performed with a local alternative rock group, strumming the bass guitar for Fist Puppet, later renamed Fling.
Then in 1996, at age 28, he relocated to Tucson with his fiance, who had relatives in Arizona, said Clint Hardman.
He landed a job at the Moon Smoke Shop and only had been there about six months when the fatal robbery occurred.
According to court records, Jones and Nordstrom followed a customer inside the store, and Jones fired first. He shot the customer, Chip O’Dell, just inside of the door in the back of the head. Three employees were ordered to the floor and one, Steve Vetter, was shot in the arm and face but survived.
Thomas Hardman, who was on the other side of the store, ran to back room when the shooting started.
“Scott Nordstrom followed him, made him lay face down on the floor and shot him twice in the back of the head with a .380 caliber handgun,” according the Arizona Department of Corrections account.
The robbers then fled in a pickup truck that was waiting outside.
Union Hall
Customers arriving at the Tucson Fire Fighter Union Hall at 9:30 p.m. June 13, 1996, stumbled across a gruesome scene. Three patrons --- Maribeth Munn and Judy and Arthur Bell --- were dead inside, shot in the back of the head, according to court records. The female bartender, Carol Lynn Noel, was dead behind the bar with gunshot wounds and evidence she had been beaten.
From what investigators later pieced together, Jones and Nordstrom had entered the bar about 15 minutes earlier. Jones had the customers put their faces on the bar, and he shot them with a 9mm pistol, according to the Arizona Department of Corrections. One victim had signs of being struck in the face with at gun, and his wallet was missing.
The bartender was taken to a back room, where a safe was located. She didn’t have the combination, and she was kicked in the face, her blood splattering the locked safe. She was brought back to the bar, where Nordstrom shot her once in the back and once in the head, according to corrections officials.
Authorities estimated the loot totaled $1,300.
Break in the case
Jones was caught during the investigation into the August 1996 slaying of a Phoenix retiree, Robert Roels. Detectives had photos of people using the dead man’s credit cards. That led them to two men staying at a local motel, according to an account in the Arizona Republic.
When officers closed in, Jones and Stephen Coats led them on a chase at speeds of up to 80 mph. The pair then hot-wired a Corvette and drove to Tempe, Ariz., at 130 mph. After running out of gas in Tempe, Jones traded up for a Porsche but was captured when he crashed.
Not long after that, Nordstrom’s brother, David, who was the lookout and getaway driver in the Moon Smoke Shop crime, called a police tip line and tied them to the tobacco and union hall jobs, according to court records. As part of a plea deal, the brother only did a few years in prison.
Aftermath
Back in Iowa, Clint Hardman was 23 when his older brother died. He said the slaying tore apart his family.
“I was pretty angry back then, but my folks were always updated,” said Clint Hardman. He didn’t attend any of the early court hearings because it was expensive to travel.
In the time that followed, Jones was convicted, sentenced to death and worked his way through a series of appeals. Nordstrom was convicted, sentenced to die and won an appeal only to be sentenced to death again in 2009. TV footage of his second sentencing shows him laughing off the verdict.
“There’s too much lag time in the whole process. … There are too many chances for them, and it’s hard on a lot of family, bringing this back up 15 years later,” Clint Hardman said. Children of the slain grew into adults. Widows remarried, he said.
As Jones ran out of appeals, Clint Hardman began taking more interest in the proceedings.
On Oct. 16, Hardman attended Jones’s clemency hearing by phone. The four-hour call gave the families of Jones’s victims a chance to speak.
Hardman, a former Marine who now works in information technology, said he has always supported the death penalty.
Jones’s last meal consisted of a beefy patty with mashed potatoes and carrots. He also had two slices of wheat bread, a slice of glazed cake and washed it down with a powdered juice drink, according to the Arizona Department of Corrections.
The window in to the death chamber was blocked by a curtain when Clint Hardman and the other witnesses entered Oct. 23. A closed-circuit TV monitor gave a bird’s eye of the medical technicians who spent close to an hour trying to find a healthy vein to accept the IV needle.
At one point, Jones joked that if they untied one of his hands, he could help them insert the needle.
With the IV attached, the curtain was drawn, and the TV monitor was no longer needed.
“It wasn’t an extremely emotional thing. I didn’t see him and gasp for air. I have been dealing with this for so many years. For me, it was formality,” Clint Hardman said.
Inside the chamber, the warden read the order. An injection pump began administering the fatal drugs. After about 15 minutes a medical technician came out, looked at Jones’s eyes and said he was sedated. Another 10 or 15 minutes later, the warden declared him dead, Clint Hardman said.
Scott Nordstrom is still on death row and has some appeals left. Clint Hardman said he plans to attend his execution when it happens.