Blake Stryker

Case record: Blake Stryker

Background

Blake Stryker was a 17-year-old high school student at Boca Ciega High School when Jennie Dianne Hartley was killed. Hartley lived next door and had babysat Stryker. Hartley rarely left her house and used “No Trespassing” signs on palm trees; she also built a wall of sand in her front yard to discourage intruders. Neighbors described Stryker’s home in the Azalea neighborhood as troubled, and residents called it troubled; police went to the house at 1218 74th St. N five times in 2004, including once to make an arrest, records show.

Hartley had two failed marriages and could not work because of back pain from a car accident when she was 19. Her parents bought the house. She did not leave windows open because she thought it might encourage intruders. Alethea Pike, 83, dog-sat for Hartley, and she said Hartley had her fears. When Hartley mistakenly received sand instead of topsoil from a construction project several years ago, she fashioned the sand into a small wall around her front yard.

Hartley’s brother, Roy Hartley, said it was “an irony I still don’t have my mind around.” Hartley’s family said she suffered from back ailments and was unemployed. She lived alone. Hartley had a daughter and four grandchildren.

Bruce Stryker, Blake Stryker’s father, said his son told him Hartley pulled a knife on him, and he said his son stabbed Hartley so many times because he went into a “psychotic blackout.” Police said they found no evidence to corroborate the father’s story, and they also said they had not established a motive. Detective Rick Shaw said, “We may never be able to pin it down,” and “Only he knows for sure and only she knows for sure.”

Bruce Stryker was described as running an Internet retail business. The same reporting said Bruce Stryker had been arrested for grand theft, drunken driving, cocaine possession and spousal battery. Blake’s mother and Bruce’s second wife, Jacqueline, died in 1997 at 33 of chronic alcoholism, according to the Pinellas-Pasco Medical Examiner’s Office, three years after she and Bruce Stryker divorced. A former football coach described Stryker as a loner; Frank Chenis, former head coach of Azalea Bulldogs Youth Football, said, “The kids would be grouped together on the sidelines, and Blake would be on the other end.”

The offence

Jennie Dianne Hartley, 47, was stabbed 50 times and left just inside her front door. Her nightgown was torn to pieces. She was slain early Saturday in her home. Police said Hartley’s body was discovered around 6 p.m. Monday inside the doorway of her home at 1226 74th St. N in St. Petersburg. Hartley’s relatives said they were relieved by the outcome when Stryker was sentenced.

Police said that late Friday night or early Saturday, Stryker slipped out his bedroom window to visit a friend. He told police he saw Hartley outside her house on his way home about 3:30 a.m. and went inside to use her bathroom. What happened next was described as unknown. Stryker’s father said Hartley pulled a knife, which his son wrested away and used to stab her while defending himself.

Prosecutors accused Stryker of stabbing Hartley just inside her home in the 1200 block of 74th Street N in St. Petersburg.

Stryker did not deny killing Hartley. Investigators said he told them he sneaked out of his house around 2 a.m. to visit a friend who wasn’t home, and that he came across Hartley outside her house around 3 a.m. Stryker said he asked Hartley for a glass of water and to use her bathroom. He said that when he returned from the bathroom Hartley made a sexual advance and produced a knife. After wrestling for the knife, he killed her with her own weapon.

Hartley had lived next to Stryker for years and had helped bury Stryker’s dog days before she was killed. Police said they found no evidence that Hartley was sexually assaulted. In discussions during court, the defense argued that Hartley made a sexual advance and that Stryker “flipped” when she did, while prosecutors denied that Hartley made a sexual advance.

Investigation

The search for Hartley’s killer began Monday evening after her mother discovered her body around 6 p.m. inside the doorway of her home at 1226 74th St. N. Anonymous tips led police to Stryker’s home at 1218 74th St. N Wednesday morning.

Police received their first anonymous call 90 minutes before Hartley’s mother found her body. The caller said “someone was dead or was going to be dead” near 13th Avenue N and 74th Street. Police later found that Stryker told several friends he had killed a woman. Detective Rick Shaw said, “At his confession, he was remorseful,” and added, “I don’t know if he was remorseful when he was telling his friends.”

The second anonymous tip came in around 8:30 p.m. Monday, and Shaw said, “and they started naming names,” declining to elaborate further. Police said the detectives hoped the tipsters would call again.

The medical examiner said Hartley had been stabbed at least 50 times. Officers arrested Stryker Wednesday. Police said Stryker threw the knife into Boca Ciega Bay and his clothes into several trash bins in Gulfport.

Detective Rick Shaw said Stryker’s confession did not include a discussion of whether Hartley was sexually assaulted. Shaw said robbery had not been completely ruled out, “but is not likely.” Prosecutors later argued that the time it took for Stryker to stab Hartley 50 times pointed to a premeditated act.

Assistant State Attorney Stephen O’Keefe told jurors during closing arguments: “It can be any length of time,” and “You can plan this for six months. You can plan it for six seconds.”

Assistant State Attorney Frank Piazza said during closing arguments: “We’re not here about why,” and “We’re here about what happened in that house.”

Arrest

Stryker was arrested Wednesday on charges that he killed his neighbor by stabbing her 50 times. Stryker confessed during police questioning Wednesday, said Detective Rick Shaw.

Stryker was transported to the Pinellas County Jail after he sat inside a police car. He told reporters at St. Petersburg police headquarters, “I don’t want to answer any questions at this time.”

Police said Stryker knew Hartley for more than a decade. Investigators declined to discuss possible motives, citing an ongoing investigation.

At the time of arrest, Stryker was on probation for misdemeanor possession of marijuana. He faced a first-degree murder charge. A report on the arrest also said he would not face the death penalty because he was 17 at the time of the murder.

Stryker initially denied involvement in the murder. His father, Bruce Stryker, told him to confess, saying the situation was “tearing apart their family,” Shaw said. After a half-hour of questioning, Stryker admitted killing Hartley, police said.

Stryker told Shaw and Detective Karl Sauer that he spotted his neighbor outside her home in their quiet Azalea neighborhood around 3:30 a.m. He told officers he asked Hartley for a glass of water, drank it, and asked to use her bathroom, after which he stabbed her 50 times with a knife. Police said he confessed to murdering Jennie Hartley, who lived next door to him.

Trial

Stryker’s first-degree murder trial took place in Pinellas-Pasco Circuit Court. On the day of opening statements, Stryker, now 19, sat behind the defense table wearing a white shirt and red tie and glasses. Prosecutors did not offer a motive during opening statements.

During opening statements Tuesday, Assistant State Attorney Frank Piazza told jurors: “The second one was on her abdomen,” and “She received 14 stabs on her back alone. ... Thirty was on top of her head. The back of her neck was 47 and 48. She was still alive at 50.”

Defense attorneys did not dispute that Stryker killed Hartley but argued the murder was not premeditated and asked jurors to return a second-degree murder or lesser charge. The defense attorneys said Stryker was sexually molested by an older female relative as a child, and that when Hartley made a sexual advance toward him that night and produced a knife, Stryker lost control and killed her with her own knife.

Defense attorney Edward Liebling told jurors: “If she’s the mother figure, that can only mean one thing: betrayal,” describing the alleged flashback. Defense attorney Serbo Simeoni told jurors: “She attempted to have sexual contact with him, and he flipped.”

During closing arguments, prosecutors denied that Hartley made a sexual advance. Assistant State Attorney Frank Piazza said: “There’s no evidence he mistook (Hartley) for his (abuser).”

The defense argued that after about the 15th stab Stryker “blacked out” and finished the attack unaware of what he was doing. Piazza said details in Stryker’s stories he told police and friends were inconsistent, including the weapon and additional statements.

Piazza described that Stryker told one friend he used his pocketknife. Piazza described that Stryker told another friend he was doing powder cocaine, looking for something, and “I stabbed her.”

Prosecutors said the time it took Stryker to stab Hartley 50 times helped point to a premeditated act. O’Keefe told jurors, “It can be any length of time,” and “You can plan this for six months.

The defense argued that if Stryker was found guilty of second-degree murder, he would face about 20 years in prison instead of life.

Sentencing

Blake Stryker was sentenced to life in prison by Circuit Judge Pamela Campbell on November 16, 2007. Hartley’s mother, Anne Hartley, 69, found her daughter’s body. Anne Hartley said, “I want every night of his life that he dreams of the scene that he caused,” and “I want him to feel the smell of decay every time he breathes. His soul is God’s business.”

Prosecutors said Stryker never denied killing Hartley, and Stryker’s sentence followed the jury’s guilty verdict of first-degree murder.

Outcome

A jury found Blake Stryker guilty of first-degree murder for stabbing his next-door neighbor 50 times in June 2006.

Other details

Stryker told police he went out of his house at 2 a.m. to visit a friend who wasn’t home. He said he saw Hartley outside her house on his way back home about 3:30 a.m. He told investigators that when he returned from the bathroom Hartley hugged him and made an advance and pulled the knife. He said they wrestled for the knife and he stabbed her.

Piazza said about the alleged sexual advance, “there’s two sides to a story,” and “You are going to get one story from Mr. Stryker. The other you’re not going to get.”

Detective Rick Shaw was quoted as describing the case as unusually brutal and said, “It was particularly brutal.” Shaw also described the effort to explain motive as not something police could necessarily do, saying, “We may never be able to pin it down,” and “Only he knows for sure and only she knows for sure.”

Roy Hartley said, “No, not yet,” when asked if the arrest brought closure.

A state attorney’s office said they may charge 17-year-old Blake Stryker as an adult on 1st-degree murder charges.