HENRICO COUNTY, Va. -- A Henrico County man has been sentenced to spend more than a decade in prison after he pleaded guilty to firearm possession, drug manufacturing, and bomb-making inside his West End home.
Police responded to 52-year-old Michael Hardy's Tuckahoe-area home in March 2022 as part of a domestic violence investigation between Hardy and his girlfriend.
Once they arrived at the Durwood Crescent home, police found drugs and explosives prompting the neighborhood to be evacuated for two days while police cleared the house.
Prosecutors showed some of what was found in the home including a mortar firework filled with nails and ball bearings, pipe bombs, improvised explosive devices, and a Molotov cocktail.
Police also found fentanyl, cocaine, crack cocaine, and text messages that contained overt messages related to drug dealing.
Prosecutors said several doors in the home were reinforced and behind one, a spring gun that would have fired when someone opened the door. They said it was able to hold a shotgun shell but was loaded with a flare round at the time.
Hardy's defense attorney didn't dispute the facts but said the spring gun was supposed to act as a flashbang.
He added that some of the bomb-making material referenced called Tannerite was commercially available and normally used in target practice and wasn't on the same threat level as other explosives like T-N-T -- and didn't pose a risk to the neighborhood.
A judge sentenced Hardy, who had faced between 5 and 110 years in prison, to 80 years behind bars. But the judge suspended 68 of those years, which left an active term of 12 years.
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