‘My boys lost the only uncle they ever had’

ELLIJAY — As Ed Hade looked at the woman who admitted to playing a part in killing his brother, a flood of emotions rushed through him.

He used the words “manipulative, crazy and liar” to describe Loretta Ivey. Then, he added the word he felt epitomized her most — “evil.”

Ivey, 49, of Dalton, sat impassively between her attorneys at the defense table in Gilmer County Superior Court on Wednesday morning.

“That’s the word that always comes through,” said Hade of Dalton, who appeared to give a victim’s impact statement before Ivey was sentenced in the death of John Patrick Hade, her ex-husband. “She was evil to her own family and evil to everyone who came across her path in life. I’m always going to miss my brother — this is hard.”

She pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter on Wednesday and will serve nine years in prison. Ivey was given 15 years by Judge Amanda Mercier, with nine of those years to be served in prison and the balance on probation. Mercier did not levy community service or a fine, but did set probation conditions that she have no contact with the victim’s family.

Ivey has been incarcerated in the Pickens County and Gilmer County jails since being charged with murder in May for her involvement in the death of her ex-husband and former Dalton resident John Hade, who was 53 when he died.

Ivey’s husband after Hade, Shawn Glenn Ivey, 35, pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter in Hade’s death in December and was given a 20-year sentence by Judge Brenda Weaver with 12 years to be served in prison.

Hade’s skeletal remains were discovered on Fort Mountain near the Murray-Gilmer county line in September 2010. Georgia Bureau of Investigation investigators believe Hade was killed in July or August of 2007 and his body was dumped at that time. A forensic investigation found that he died of blunt force trauma to the head.

Loretta and Shawn Ivey were each originally charged with malice murder, aggravated assault, concealing a death and abandonment of a dead body. Ivey had several prior felonies including four felonies for burglaries, possession of meth and cruelty to a child (for slapping Loretta Ivey’s daughter), as well as misdemeanors of several moving violations incurred during a car chase with authorities. Loretta Ivey has two prior DUIs (misdemeanors), according to court testimony.

The negotiated plea proceeding on Wednesday was delayed more than an hour as District Attorney Joe Hendricks and Ivey’s attorneys, Scott Kiker and Ansell Maund, conferred with Mercier and the courtroom waited for the defendant to arrive from jail. Her feet unshackled and wrists without handcuffs, Ivey was quickly and discretely surrounded by four Gilmer County Sheriff’s Office deputies in a semicircle just two or three paces away from where she sat at the defendant’s table.

Hendricks went over the “basis of the plea” with Mercier, including that Loretta Ivey’s daughter — who has “a long history of deprivation and delinquency” — was the person who mentioned to a counselor at a facility where she was staying she had witnessed a murder.

“But she gave a story later that she only heard talk between Loretta and Shawn,” Hendricks revealed. “The (Georgia Bureau of Investigation) found that she was not at the murder scene.”

He added the girl, who is not the daughter of Shawn Ivey, provided details of the “killing” to GBI agent Dustin Hamby, who was never able to locate Hade “through the records of a living person” such as Social Security number or employment history.

Hendricks repeated Loretta Ivey’s version of events, which is that she was in the bathroom of her home when she heard a cracking noise and came out to find Hade slumped over bleeding from the head and Shawn Ivey with a large rock in his hands. Loretta Ivey said she helped her husband dispose of the body because she “feared” Shawn Ivey, Hendricks continued.

Other testimony

Hendricks said Christopher Cools, the son of Loretta Ivey, testified that when he questioned Shawn Ivey regarding the whereabouts of John Hade, he responded, “We took care of John Hade.” Hendricks added that Cools testified his mother said, “We murdered him.”

Hendricks also mentioned previous testimony — heard at Shawn Ivey’s sentencing hearing — from inmates at the Gilmer County Detention Center who said Ivey had confessed to killing Hade.

“I think Shawn was the actual perpetrator,” he said, and added his sentence reflected “an extensive criminal history.”

In speaking for Loretta Ivey, Kiker called Hade’s death “tragic” and said there was “no excuse for him to be treated that way.” But he said his client brought “closure” to the case by leading investigators to the area where Hade’s body was discovered.

“Without her partnership Mr. Hade would still be out there today,” Kiker said. “Shawn Ivey placed her under considerable fear, but Loretta was the one who brought him down to his knees — and is why he is in prison.”

Kiker also said his client did not want to put her son — who is a sergeant in the Army serving in Afghanistan — through any more court proceedings as a reason for reaching the negotiated plea with the DA’s office.

Victim’s brother speaks

Ed Hade said Loretta Ivey’s own children “consider her evil and gave testimony that’s sending her to prison.”

John Hade worked construction during his approximate 30 years in Dalton, Hade said of his brother, and became partially disabled during an accident on the job.

“After 20 minutes of talking to Loretta the first time I met her I turned to my wife at the time and said, ‘There’s no hope for that little girl,’ who was around 5 years old at the time,” he said of Ivey’s daughter who was with her then. “Shawn Ivey may have used the rock to kill John, but she egged him on to do it. He’ll be sorely missed and she’s sitting there laughing about it. She probably won’t see her way out of that prison — she’ll screw up like she screwed up so many other people.”

Hendricks, who at one time called the case “bizarre,” said after court the investigation was rife with “the length of time (between Hade’s death and discovery), contradictory statements, credibility problems and logistical and procedural problems.”

“There’s not that much evidence, but it all points to Shawn,” he said. “It was a very difficult case. All the witnesses had credibility issues. Loretta Ivey manipulated the justice system and muddied the water when we were looking for hard facts. I’m disappointed we couldn’t do more for the victim (John Hade). His life was worth more than that. But I feel like we did the best we could considering the length of time.”

Tammy Hade Craft, the ex-wife of Ed Hade, told Ivey, “the Lord have mercy on your soul. My boys lost the only uncle they ever had.”

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Woman sentenced to prison for part in death of Dalton man

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