Man who killed father of five sentenced to life in prison

A Philadelphia man will spend life in prison for killing a wheelchair-using father of eight during a 2015 home invasion in Milford. 

A Kent County Superior Court judge sentenced Abdul White to life in prison on Tuesday. He was convicted of first-degree murder along with 68 other crimes by a jury in November. 

Tammy Scott, the sister of  the murder victim, 40-year-old John Harmon, told The News Journal in 2015 that three men broke into the house, in the 500 block of N. Walnut St., early in the morning of Aug. 8 and corralled Harmon and five of his kids who were staying with him at the time.

Prosecutors Lindsay Taylor and Jason Cohee said White and the others were armed with handguns and a pit bull.

The men then pistol-whipped Harmon and killed him in front of five of his children, Scott said. Harmon used a wheelchair as the result of being shot two years earlier.

White was arrested in Philadelphia and extradited to Delaware in December 2015 and was found guilty of first-degree murder, home invasion, kidnapping and multiple weapons charges. He earlier had been banned from having a firearm because of a gun conviction.

Sentencing was delayed after he argued information about the suspension of Carl Rone, the Delaware State Police firearm's expert, could be exculpatory. 

Rone was suspended from his duties in January. State police have not commented on why he was suspended or what his employment status currently is. 

Last week, a Superior Court judge ruled that White's sentencing could go forward because his sentencing does not negate his ability to challenge his conviction in the future. 

Contact Xerxes Wilson at (302) 324-2787 or xwilson@delawareonline.com. Follow @Ber_Xerxes on Twitter.