Blake and Mary Jo Hadley

Case background and investigation

Blake Hadley, 54, who worked for a local electric utility, and Mary Jo Hadley, 47, an elementary school teacher, were killed in their home in Port St. Lucie, Florida, on July 16, 2011, according to Fox News. Their son Tyler Hadley, then 17, struck them repeatedly with a hammer; later reports cited more than 70 blows.

That evening Tyler Hadley hosted a party at the house; according to Wikipedia, about 60 people attended, and a friend who went into the master bedroom during the party saw the bodies. According to Fox News, police answered a noise complaint at about 1:30 a.m., then returned at around 4:24 a.m. after receiving a tip about a possible killing. Officers found the couple's bodies in the locked master bedroom, covered with household items, and arrested Tyler Hadley at the house. A police spokesperson said he had given no explanation for the killings. He was initially charged with second-degree murder and prosecuted as an adult.

On February 19, 2014, shortly before he was to stand trial, Hadley changed his plea to no contest on two counts of first-degree murder, CBS Miami reported. Later in 2014 he was sentenced to two consecutive life terms without parole.

In April 2016, Florida's Fourth District Court of Appeal overturned the life-without-parole sentences, finding that the trial judge had not considered the correct alternative to a life sentence, in light of the 2012 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that barred mandatory life terms for juveniles convicted of murder, CBS12 reported. At the time Hadley was held at Okeechobee Correctional Institution.

At a resentencing in St. Lucie County, the defense asked for the minimum 40-year term. On December 20, 2018, the judge again imposed life sentences, as prosecutors had requested, according to CW34 and CBS12. Wikipedia describes the new sentence as life imprisonment with a review after 25 years, as provided for juvenile offenders under Florida law; CBS12 described the life terms as upheld.

After the 2018 hearing, CBS12 reported, Hadley was returned to state prison in Okeechobee, and his lawyers had 30 days to file an appeal. A relative of the couple told the station that the family had suffered lasting grief, that Mary Jo Hadley's father had since died, and that not a day passed without them thinking of Blake and Mary Jo.