PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla., July 21 (UPI) -- Police in Florida allege a teen told a friend he took a large dose of the drug ecstasy before killing his parents with a claw hammer.
Tyler Hadley, 17, allegedly told his best friend Michael Mandell he intended to kill his parents, but Mandell dismissed the threat because Hadley had previously said the same thing, ABC News reported Wednesday.
Hadley's attorney, Mark Harllee, filed a not guilty plea on the teenager's behalf. Hadley, held in the Port St. Lucie jail, is charged with the Saturday slayings of Mary Jo and Blake Hadley.
Police said after Hadley killed the couple he threw a party for about 60 friends.
Police allege Hadley admitted to the killings, and it was uncertain what, if any, drugs he took beforehand. During the party, Hadley allegedly told Mandell he had killed his parents.
Mandell initially didn't believe Hadley, but Hadley allegedly showed him his parents' bloody bodies in a bedroom as the party continued.
Police said Hadley told Mandell "he stood behind his mother while she was at the computer and thought about killing her for about 5 minutes. Then he decided to strike his mother in the back of the head with a hammer."
Hearing his wife scream, Blake Hadley came into the room. Police said Hadley told them he stared into his father's eyes for several moments before allegedly attacking and killing him, too.
"It [ecstasy] is absolutely not known to cause violent reactions," said Julie Holland, an assistant professor of psychiatry at New York University, where she has studied the drug.
