COLUMBUS, Ohio - Anthony Pardon is hoping his past can help save what future he has left.
Pardon was convicted last week of aggravated murder, rape and kidnapping of 24-year-old Rachael Anderson inside her east Columbus apartment in January 2018.
Pardon was back in court on Tuesday for the sentencing phase of his trial. A jury unanimously voted for his conviction, now they must decide if he will put to death for his crimes.
Pardon's attorney brought forth several character witnesses in hopes of painting a picture of how a child, who was raised by his grandparents and eventually went to live with his mother, changed him mentally and socially.
His attorney, Isabella Dixon, told the judge that at 16-years-old Pardon went off to prison.
"To the worst prison in the entire state of Ohio: Lucasville. This man from an abused, dysfunctional, and chaotic childhood went from that dysfunction to spend the rest of his life in prison," she said.
A year later Pardon was sent back to prison where he stayed until he was 52 years old.
Dr. Bob Stinson, a forensic psychologist on behalf of Pardon's defense team, says he spent nearly nine hours with Pardon trying to understand what shapes his morality.
He said he was given 3,000 pages of documents about his life but since he only received them Saturday he wasn't able to review all of them.
"The system failed [him]. His mother failed him, the school system failed him, the legal system failed him, " Dr. Stinson said.
Dr. Stinson told the jury after Pardon got out of prison for his conviction for being a sex offender, he never received any treatment even though he requested it.
He said over time, Pardon develops a conduct disorder that grew into an anti-personality disorder during his adult years and he was reading at a third-grade level even though he was 23 years old.
Dr. Stinson suggested the Pardon likely suffers some form of brain damage.
Franklin County Prosecutor Ron O'Brien told the jury that despite what they may hear about his upbringing, it does not outweigh the seriousness of the crimes.
"At age 53, as he made those choices as he raped, burgled, hog-tied Rachael Anderson, whatever happened in his childhood deserves zero mitigation," he said.
During the trial, Columbus police, detectives described how DNA from Pardon was found on the cords that were used to strangle Anderson and his DNA was found on her right wrist, on her inner thigh and during a vaginal swab.
Pardon is a twice-convicted sex offender. The jury also heard about his prior conviction in May 1982 of attempted murder.