Child custody battle leads to plot to kill WilCo judge, attempted murder in Liberty Hill

LIBERTY HILL, Texas - Three people were arrested for orchestrating an attempted murder and for plotting to kill a Williamson County judge, the Williamson County Sheriff's Office said.

According to the Williamson County Sheriff's Office, on March 8, around 2:30 a.m., a teen called 911 and said his mom and her boyfriend had been shot by an intruder while they were sleeping in Liberty Hill.

No items were stolen, and it was apparent to deputies that this was not a random act of violence.

The teen's mother was shot 11 times in her chest, stomach, arms, legs, shoulder and neck. The mother's boyfriend was shot twice in his neck and arm.

RELATED: 3 arrested for orchestrating attempted murder, plotting to kill WilCo judge: WCSO

"Upon arrival, Liberty Hill police officers asked the female victim who could've shot her, and she responded that only her ex-husband was the person she would know to have done something like this," Williamson County Sheriff Mike Gleason said.

The ex-husband was identified as Clinton Harmon, 38. Gleason says this was about a child custody battle over their 7-year-old, who was not at home at the time of the shooting.

"Text messages between the female victim and Harmon indicated his frustrations over financial matters and her relationship with her current boyfriend," Gleason said.

In July, detectives got a call from Harmon's ex-girlfriend, who lives in Louisiana, concerned that Harmon and his mother, Teresa Harmon, 59, and his adoptive father, Matthew Harmon, 50, were involved in the shooting.

She told detectives about a meeting in Bastrop County last year discussing how to kill the victim and the judge presiding over the child custody case.

"Matt Harmon remarked, 'I'm just telling you, I'll do 10-20 to get that grandbaby." They discussed using fentanyl to drug the victim, obtaining her license plate number and hiring 'thugs' from Austin to carry out the crime," Gleason said.

Authorities staked out the judge's and victim's homes for weeks.

Gleason says Clinton thought he was flying under the radar for the March shooting.

"He basically plotted the route. He would not go on any toll roads, past any cameras, any type of Flock camera systems so he could gain his anonymity," Gleason said.

Little did he know the lienholder on his vehicle had a GPS tracker on it, which tracked him from Bastrop to the crime scene.

On Sept. 8, he was arrested in New Orleans trying to get on a plane. He's been charged with attempted capital murder and will be extradited to Williamson County. He is held on a $2 million bond. 

Matthew and Teresa were arrested in Bastrop for retaliation for the threats against the judge. They are being held on $1 million bond each.

"This is a you-can't-make-that-stuff-up type case. This is made-for-TV type stuff. In this line of work, everybody gets threatened with their jobs but to literally start planning out how to kill a judge, how to carry it out, how do we get the narcotics to do it, they were planning step-by-step on how to do it," Gleason said.

Gleason says there are plans to upgrade court security.

More arrests have not been ruled out.