Stacy Halferty and Eric Querrey grew up together in Derby, Iowa, a town of barely one-hundred people, fifty-five miles south of Des Moines. Stacy’s promising life ended on April 13, 1991, three days shy of her seventeenth birthday, when she was shot to death in Eric’s home. He was convicted of her murder and sentenced to life in prison.

The appropriateness of condemning the fifteen-year-old with no previous legal trouble to a life behind bars was, and still is, debated.

                                                Stacy                       Eric    

                                             Halferty                 Querrey

Stacy had told her parents she was going to see how her friend was doing after his bout with the measles. They were the only people in the home that evening.

Querrey initially told police that Stacy had awakened him after arriving at his home asking to see his sister. After saying she was not there, he said he returned to bed only to be awakened shortly thereafter by two gunshots. Upon running into the kitchen, he saw Stacy on the floor and, he claimed, a tall muscular man with long hair fleeing the scene. The intruder, Querrey contended, had shot Stacy.

Later, however, Querrey said he had accidentally shot Stacy while aiming at the man who had his arm around her neck and was dragging her away. He originally said the assailant had his back to him when he fired the shots but later said he had shot at him in self-defense after he had pointed a gun at him.

The evidence contradicted all of Querrey’s stories.

Querrey Tells Multiple Tales

Stacy had been shot once in her back and once in her head with a 20 gauge shotgun found in Querrey’s room. One spent shell casing was found outside the bedroom window while the other was retrieved from a can in his room.  Ballistics tests showed both shots had recently been fired from the shotgun and that Stacy had been shot first in the back from about an inch away and then struck in the head from approximately one-to-two feet away. Querrey had said he believed he was about seven feet from Stacy when he had fired the shots.

In addition, police found no evidence of an intruder in or near the home and nothing suggesting that Stacy had fought with anyone.

Shot At Close Range

Despite being only fifteen-years-old, Eric Querrey was tried as an adult. In November 1991, he was convicted of first-degree murder. No motive for the killing was established.

In January 1992, Querrey became one of the youngest Iowans to ever receive a life sentence without the possibility of parole. Had he been tried as a juvenile, the maximum term he could have been given was three years.

Tried And Convicted As An Adult

Eric Querrey was committed to the State Training School for Delinquent Boys in Eldora until he turned eighteen-years-old. He was then transferred to state prison.

In September 2012, following the United States Supreme Court’s overturning the mandatory life sentences of two other juveniles convicted of murder, Querrey filed a motion with the Iowa High Court to correct an illegal sentence. In 2013, they ruled in his favor and remanded his case to the district court, which imposed a life sentence with the possibility of parole after thirty-five years.

Eric Querrey is imprisoned at the Newton Correctional Facility in Newton, Iowa. He will become eligible for parole in 2027, when he will be fifty-years-old.

Querry May Soon Have A Shot At Freedom

 

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/81741518/stacy_lynn-halferty

SOURCES:

• Des Moines Register
• Iowa City Press-Citizen
• KCCI Channel 8, CBS Affiliate, Des Moines