Teen Sentenced To Life In Prison For Parents' Grisly Murder
WEST PALM BEACH (CBSMiami) – A teen who beat his parents to death with a hammer in their Port St. Lucie home and then threw a party has been sentenced two to life sentences with the possibility of parole.
Hadley, who was 17 years old at the time, was high on ecstasy when he beat his parents, Mary Jo Hadley, 47, and Blake Hadley, 54, to death on July 16th, 2011 then threw a house party via Facebook invites while their bodies remained in a locked bedroom, according to police reports.
The Palm Beach Post reports at the end of his sentencing hearing on Thursday, Judge Robert R. Makemson noted that the murders were premeditated, heinous and cruel and that he found Hadley was "dangerously anti-social," according mental health guidelines.
According to police documents released, Hadley told his friend that he stood behind his mother for about five minutes in contemplation before finally plunging a hammer into her head. A friend said, when Hadley struck his mother with the hammer, she screamed one final question to her son: "Why?"
When his father walked into the room, Hadley told the friend that they locked eyes before he started beating his father with the hammer, too.
The boy took his parents' cell phones away ahead of the attack so they couldn't call for help, according to his friend's account.
When it was over, the parents were dead.
Hadley spent three hours cleaning up the blood, before hosting dozens of friends. Hadley told the friend he was surprised how long the cleanup took.
The details of the killings were contained within a juvenile arrest affidavit released by the Port St. Lucie Police.
Hadley's defense attorney, Diamond Litty, was seeking two concurrent 30-year sentences with a case review after 20 years. The state wanted Hadley sentenced to life without the possibility of parole.
Since Hadley was not an adult at the time of the murders, the death penalty was off the table.
