Man sentenced to 30 years for murdering his ex-wife and keeping her body in the garage for almost a month

A League City man who confessed to killing his ex-wife and stashing her body in the garage was sentenced to 30 years in prison.

On Monday, Shaun Phillip Hardy of League City entered a plea of guilty to the charges of murder and tampering with a corpse related to the death of his ex-wife, Anne-Christine Johnson. Hardy was sentenced to 30 years in prison for murder and 20 years in prison for tampering with a corpse.

Hardy was arrested on December 30, 2016 after League City police found the body of Anne-Christine Johnson, Hardy’s ex-wife, wrapped in dark plastic and duct tape, with scented candles arranged around it in his garage.

“This has obviously consumed my every waking moment for the last three years,” said Anne-Christine’s mother Stephanie Johnson. “Now it’s just done not only done but it happened very swiftly.”

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Anne-Christine’s father reported her missing at the League City Police Department on December 12, 2016. Initially, Hardy told investigators that Anne-Christine had been picked up from his house by someone driving a white sedan. Approximately three weeks later, League City Police Department executed a search warrant on Hardy’s residence to obtain his cell phone.

During the execution of that warrant, Anne-Christine’s body was found wrapped in trash bags inside Hardy’s garage. Anne-Christine had a single stab wound to the chest that punctured her heart. Hardy gave voluntary statements to police with varying descriptions of how she died.

“He confessed to stabbing her in the heart suffocated her with a Kroger bag to watch her die surrounded her body with scented candles and poured cleaning fluid to mask the smell that’s a lot to live with,” Johnson said.

On the day of the plea, Anne-Christine’s mother, father, and sister gave victim impact statements detailing how the loss of Anne-Christine has affected them and their family.

“I think about it first thing in the morning and the last thing at night it’s in my dreams,” Johnson said. “People always tell you that you can get over something like this with time that time heals but not many mothers have to live with the knowledge of how she was murdered and before that how she was brutalized.”

The couple’s 8-year-old son Roland was at the home when his mother was murdered

“The murder probably happened late at night Roland is autistic so it’s not like he could have been spending the night at a friend’s house he was with his mom and dad,” said Johnson. “Can you imagine smelling your mother’s rotting body I can only imagine what was going on with Shaun in the house at that time.”

Hardy will be eligible for parole on the murder charge after he has served half of the sentence. He will be eligible for parole on the tampering charge after he has served a quarter of the sentence. Johnson says she will do everything she can to make sure that doesn't happen.