FORT PIERCE, Fla. — A man who brutally bludgeoned his parents in 2011 then threw a house party might not be present at a court hearing next week to review his two life sentences that were struck down on appeal.
Tyler Hadley, 22, now incarcerated in Okeechobee Correctional Institution about 35 miles from here, is being punished for having a weapon in the shower area of the prison, and Judge James McCann of Florida's 19th Judicial Circuit Court hasn't signed an order to tell prison officials to transport Hadley to St. Lucie County for a May 19 hearing.
"I discovered a homemade weapon fashioned from a piece of metal approximately 6 inches in length, sharpened to a point with a piece of cloth wrapped around one end to be used as a handle," prison guard D. Johnson wrote in his report of the April 6 incident.
For that infraction, Hadley was ordered to spend 60 days in disciplinary confinement, living in a solitary cell with limited privileges. State prison records show Hadley also was given an additional 30 days of confinement after a disciplinary hearing found that he had 20 unauthorized absences from a teaching assistant job.
He refused to participate in his disciplinary hearings and refused to sign the violation forms, according to prison reports.
Hadley had received double life-in-prison terms for killing his parents with a claw hammer July 16, 2011, when he was 17. He avoided a trial in 2014 by pleading no contest to two counts of first-degree murder for beating Blake Hadley, 54, and Mary Jo Hadley, 47, inside their Port St. Lucie, Fla., home.
On March 2, he participated in an interview with the Dr. Phil television show. Before breaking the rules, members of Mary Jo Hadley's family who live in Port St. Lucie, including Tyler Hadley's grandmother Magdaline Divittorio and cousins Kelly Reynolds and her daughter Taylor Reynolds, had been visiting him.
"We knew what his behavior and conduct was like at the St. Lucie County Jail. He wasn't a model prisoner by any stretch," said Tom Bakkedahl, chief assistant state attorney. "That doesn't come to any surprise to me that he's obstinate, that he's not following rules."
His conduct in prison is something that the judge may consider at a new sentencing hearing, Bakkedahl said.
Tyler Hadley was the first juvenile killer to be sentenced in this area since the U.S. Supreme Court in 2012 issued its ruling in Miller v. Alabama, which barred mandatory life prison terms for minors who murder. During his sentencing, Florida passed a law that said minors convicted of capital murder still can be sentenced to life but only after a hearing to determine whether such a sentence is appropriate.
If a judge finds that a life sentence is not appropriate, the law requires the juvenile to be sentenced to a minimum of 40 years. And juveniles convicted in such cases would be entitled to reviews after 25 years.
At issue is whether Tyler Hadley is the kind of juvenile killer who never should get a shot at parole or whether McCann should cap his prison term at 40 years.
McCann's job to impose an appropriate sentence under Florida's new juvenile sentencing law could be a lot less taxing if Bakkedahl and Public Defender Diamond Litty agree to a sentence that could avoid another lengthy and traumatic legal process.
It's an idea Bakkedahl and Litty said they want to discuss.
"We don't want to put these people through any more pain than they've already been through," Bakkedahl said. "I'm prepared tomorrow to go back into court and let the court review the record and impose sentence."
Litty welcomed Bakkedahl's remarks but declined to discuss the weapons punishment.
"I am very hopeful that we can come to an agreement that spares the family the anguish of another two-week sentencing hearing, but also complies with the mandates of the U.S. Supreme Court and the 4th (U.S. District Court of Appeals)," she wrote in email. "Do not forget that Tyler admitted his guilt ... thus sparing his family a lengthy trial. He was and is very remorseful and has suffered from severe mental illness since he was a little boy. This is such a sad case on so many levels."
Follow Melissa E. Holsman on Twitter: @MHolsman
