Tracey Stanley (in orange) during a court appearance (Office of the State Attorney, Fifth Judicial District).
A Florida woman who bludgeoned her roommate to death with a hammer will spend decades in prison.
Tracey Stanley, 63, pleaded no contest to a murder charge in connection with the bloody death of her roommate, 72-year-old Andrea Kathleen Day. According to the Office of the State Attorney, Fifth Judicial District, Stanley was sentenced to 40 years in prison on Jan. 9, three months after entering her plea.
According to court documents reviewed by Law&Crime, Stanley was the one who called 911 on July 20, 2024, to report that Day was dead. When first responders arrived at the scene, they found Day's body on the floor in the kitchen, covered in a blue tarp. First responders also discovered "blood on the floor, ceiling and walls of the hallway," as well as "obvious drag marks" from the body being pulled from the hallway to where it rested in the kitchen.
When detectives from the Citrus County Sheriff's Office spoke to Stanley, she seemed willing to talk about anything but the dead body on the floor of her home, court documents said. The detectives pressed her on the subject and she asked for a lawyer.
According to the detectives, Stanley had "small scratch marks" on her face with "fresh blood." As the investigation progressed, a hammer was found that had both Day's and Stanley's DNA on it, prosecutors said. Day had been hit in the head about 20 times with the claw end of the hammer.
Authorities said that the upper part of Day's body, including her head, was found covered in three garbage bags. Day's face was in "stages of decomposition," and prosecutors concluded that she had been "deceased for a while" before Stanley reported her dead.
According to the arrest warrant, detectives were approached by a mail delivery worker who told them that Day had asked her for help evicting Stanley from the property. Stanley received that eviction notice on June 24, 2024, a few weeks before she murdered Day.
Stanley pleaded no contest to second-degree murder. She will spend the next 40 years incarcerated by the Florida Department of Corrections.