Ashley and Tracey Humphrey Case Analysis (Murder of Sandra Rozzo)

this is dr grande today's question is can i analyze the case of ashley and tracy humphrey just a reminder i'm not diagnosing anybody in this video only speculating about what could be happening in a situation like this if you enjoyed this video please like it subscribe to my channel consider supporting me on patreon and check out my podcast on youtube bellagrande media i will put the relevant links in the description for this video so first i'll look at the background this case i'll move to the timeline of the crime then offer my analysis ashley laney humphrey was born on october 13 1982. her father was in prison at that time her mother had difficulty regulating her intake of substances ashley was mostly brought up by her grandmother ashley was a good student but she dropped out of college during her first year she started working at a cafe near tampa florida timothy alvin humphrey was born on november 15 1966 he went by the name tracy so that's the name i'll use in this video tracy was about 16 years older than ashley he accumulated an extensive criminal history throughout his life his convictions included kidnapping motor vehicle theft and aggravated assault in november of 2001 tracy would meet a woman named sandra razo she was a divorced aspiring model who was having some difficulty being successful with the modeling part they met at a nightclub called the inferno where tracy worked as a doorman and sandra worked as a bartender they entered into an unstable sexual relationship that had a few problems tracy was into rough sex and injured sandra on several occasions he was cheating on her he was manipulative the couple kept breaking up and reuniting the couple was caught by the police having a romantic interaction in their boss's mercedes sandra was furious that the police saw her naked and blamed tracy the couple continued their relationship even with all these problems but on february 22 2002 tracy allegedly beat and sexually assaulted sandra tracy was arrested that same month and charged with felony battery the police didn't have enough evidence to file any other charges tracy's trial was scheduled to begin on august 4 2003 he was facing 10 years in prison sandra stopped working at the inferno nightclub and started working at a bar called the green iguana tracy stopped working at the nightclub as well and he found a job in brandon florida as a personal trainer this is where he would meet ashley humphrey when she entered the gym to consider a trial membership in september of 2002. the relationship was casual at first each of them dated other people on their first date they went to see the movie road to perdition based on what happens eventually in the story the title must have been an inspiration by early 2003 ashley stopped working at the cafe and went to work in the same gym as tracy the two started dating exclusively the couple would move in together in march of that year tracy decided to tell ashley about his situation with sandra like the fact that he was charged with felony battery and he had that upcoming trial he told her that sandra had fabricated the whole story of assault trying to get back at him for cheating on her tracy said that if he went to prison continuing his relationship with ashley would be difficult the couple explored various options like running away together and bringing an end to their own lives tracy started cheating on ashley and she left him for a while he followed her when she went to her mother's house kind of like a stalking situation ashley reunited with him they decided to get each other's names tattooed on their backs this was their version of engagement ranks at some point one or both of them came up with the idea of killing sandra razo later each of them would say that the other person was the one who generated that idea ashley and tracy would marry on july 4 2003 now moving to the timeline of the crime on july 5 2003 the day after ashley and tracy humphrey married ashley waited outside the green iguana for sandra to get off work at 10 30 pm ashley was planning on murdering sandra in the parking lot but she fell asleep she woke up to see sandra climbing in her bmw and driving away ashley followed sandra back to sandra's residence in pinellas park florida after sandra pulled her bmw into her garage ashley approached the driver's side of sandra's vehicle sandra screamed upon seeing ashley ashley produced a 22 caliber semi-automatic pistol she pointed it at sandra and fired it eight times the bullet struck sandra and the torso the leg and the foot and one struck her in the head this was the round that was fatal sandra was pronounced dead at 1204 am she was 37 years old sandra's boyfriend discovered her at 11 15 pm he used her cell phone to call 9-1-1 the police immediately considered tracy humphrey a suspect they would pay him a visit on july 7 2003 at his apartment in brandon florida he was not at home so they left a card and tracy called them back he said that he would talk to them at the gym where he worked when they arrived he refused tracy had consulted an attorney who advised him to not talk to the police the police then spoke to ashley humphrey evidently without tracy knowing she told them that tracy was with her on the evening of the murder they had ordered pizza and had it delivered to his apartment a friend of theirs named toby white had joined them and could corroborate their alibi tracy came home when the police were still talking to ashley he interrupted her and told her to stop talking the police said that his head was turning different shades of red purple and pink he was clearly quite angry the police wanted to speak to toby white she would only speak to them with tracy's attorney present apparently tracy had told toby this was required so he was making demands about how she would interact with the police toby confirmed that she was there with tracy and ashley from 8 30 pm to 12 30 am on the night of the murder it was a fairly solid alibi especially considering that the person who delivered the pizza also saw tracy in the apartment the police felt as though tracy was such a good suspect they didn't want to give up quite yet he had a lot of motive and of course a history of being violent towards women the police pulled the cell phone data for the phones of both tracy and ashley tracy's phone was at the apartment all night but ashley's phone was in pinellas park during the time of the murder in addition the two phones had called each other several times right before and right after the murder ashley's alibi was starting to fall apart the police also found that ashley had used her credit card to purchase sandra's address from a website toby decided to come clean with the police she said that her first statement was a lie she was afraid of tracy he never threatened her physically but he was intimidating toby said that tracy had contacted her on the day of the murder and requested the alibi the police asked toby to wear a wire and she agreed she had a number of conversations with ashley and tracy but the couple was careful they didn't say anything that was overtly inculpatory the only thing the police really learned was that ashley and tracy were surprised that they had pulled the cell phone records the police spoke to the boyfriend of ashley's mother who told them that ashley had borrowed a 22-caliber ruger semi-automatic pistol claiming it was needed for protection he also said that his chinese sks rifle had been stolen this becomes important later the sks rifle is chambered in 7.62 by 39 millimeter it was originally produced in the soviet union but many were manufactured under license with the people's republic of china it's a fairly popular rifle for insurgents around the world and for hunting as far as its military use in the soviet union it was replaced by the well-known ak-47 in the 1950s ashley's credit card statements indicated she had recently been to a shooting range a person at the range stated that both ashley and tracy were there and that tracy was showing ashley how to use the ruger pistol this was a crime for tracy because he was on parole the police arrested ashley and tracy at the same time worried that if they arrested only one of them the other one would flee ashley was charged with first-degree murder and tracy was charged with federal firearms possession ashley refused to talk to the police she asked to speak with her attorney 23 times the first smart move she made in this whole story the police really wanted to charge tracy with murder they felt as though he must have been involved considering he was on the phone with ashley during the murder and he had asked toby for a false alibi they explained to ashley how tracy was really a bad guy he cheated on her with both women and men ashley seemed particularly interested in an affair tracy was having with her male hairdresser this specific affair really seemed to upset her she decided to cooperate with the authorities ashley was offered a plea deal where she would plead guilty to second-degree murder and testify against tracy once the deal was made tracy was charged with first-degree murder ashley told the police about how she had attempted to kill sandra on a prior occasion using the stolen sks rifle that i talked about before actually parked her volkswagen in an area where she could shoot sandra ashley wrapped a pair of jeans around the barrel of the rifle i guess that's because rifles hate to be out of style or to be spotted in public without pants it's hard to know which one ashley pointed her weapon at sandra and fired one round but the barrel of the weapon was pointed at the mirror of ashley's vehicle the bullet shattered the mirror sandra turned toward ashley startled by the noise but sandra did not realize someone was trying to kill her with a rifle ashley claimed that she tried to shoot sandra again but something went wrong with the magazine i think what happened here was that ashley was so focused on the scope which is mounted on the top of the rifle that she didn't pay attention to where the barrel was pointed this is somewhat common for inexperienced shooters they are looking through the scope so they're looking at something far away and they're not aware of what's happening right near them as far as the magazine causing some type of problem that would jam the weapon the sks has a hinged fixed magazine as opposed to a traditional detachable magazine although it can be modified for a traditional magazine it's actually a somewhat unusual design the magazine swings down and away from the trigger there is a release behind the magazine that is positioned close to the trigger guard it's possible that ashley hit that release by mistake like she thought she was pulling the trigger again but she was actually pulling the release what doesn't make sense here is that even if the magazine were open and the other cartridges fell out a round would still have been in the chamber after the first shot because the bolt would have cycled even if this weapon had a detachable magazine there would still be around the chamber i think it's more likely that ashley was frightened and did not want to fire the weapon again she was startled after blowing the mirror off the side of her vehicle after the attempted murder ashley and tracy set the volkswagen on fire and dumped the rifle in the woods tracy escaped custody in april of 2004 he was being transported to court in a prison van with both male and female inmates tracy managed to get out of the van and run away from the courthouse this was due to an incredible series of failures by the guards like forgetting to padlock the van leaving the van unattended after it was parked in the courthouse and trying to call for help on a broken radio instead of yelling to other guards who were nearby tracy was handcuffed in front and was wearing street clothes the only thing the guards didn't do to help him escape was to prepare a helicopter tracy was eventually discovered hiding in the woods after a nearby horse became upset and the person watching the horse stopped a deputy to tell them i think this is a poor reflection on the guards that the inclusion of the horse in this narrative increased the average critical thinking skills being applied in this escape tracy's trial did not begin until february of 2006. tracy tried to argue that ashley was the one who came up with the idea to murder sandra on february 25 2006 he was found guilty of first-degree murder the jury voted for life without parole instead of the death penalty they believed that way tracy humphrey would suffer more in addition to the life sentence he was given 15 years for the escape attempt in 2004. ashley was sentenced on march 10 so after tracy's sentencing she received 25 years she cannot apply any time earned for good behavior to that sense so she will have to serve every single day she is scheduled to be released on december 13 2028 at age 46. now moving to my analysis ashley gave an interview to pierce morgan when she was in prison during which she admitted that it was her idea to kill sandra rosso it would appear that she lied during her testimony against tracy humphrey i'm not aware of any reports suggesting her admission changed anything in this case she still has to serve 25 years and tracy is still in prison for life tracy humphrey had a reputation of being physically violent toward women being controlling and being deceptive many of his lies were designed to make him look better he told people that he had been a professional football player and underwear model a stunt double for vin diesel and tom cruise's bodyguard when i read this all i could picture was that these events occur at the same time like somebody would be looking at tom cruise and say why is vin diesel standing his underwear next to that guy tracy was six foot two 220 pounds and very focused on his physical appearance he would throw temper tantrums like a child before his escape from custody another inmate in jail reported that tracy would cry and punch a brick wall saying he could not go to prison when ashley and tracy first started dating she was very impressed with his physical appearance she described him as all man and felt very attracted to him not long after they started dating tracy became demanding controlling and violent he would beat her frequently sometimes knocking ashley unconscious at other times he would be very nice he would be charming and polite ashley was confused by this she was afraid of him but also in love with him she was worried that if she ended the relationship she would never find anyone else like him one would think that this would be a hopeful thought not a frightening thought never finding somebody like tracy humphrey would be a good thing but she viewed it as intolerable the narrative in this case that investigators believed was that ashley was essentially a victim and tracy was the mastermind behind the murder this justifies the 25 year sentence for the person who actually pulled the trigger and attempted to kill sandra on a prior occasion and the life sentence for the conspirator when considering that ashley would later admit that the murder was her idea was this outcome really justice i think justice was served and here's why tracy was extremely manipulative especially toward women he manipulated sandra ashley toby he even manipulated a female prisoner in that transport van to unlock the cage that he was in so he could escape tracy used the threat of violence as a tool of manipulation he had the motive to kill sandra when he was with ashley he had brought up all these ideas about running away and bringing an end to their lives it seems fairly clear that tracy wanted sandra to be murdered maybe he didn't say those words prior to ashley saying them but there are other ways to suggest an idea what lessons can we learn in this case this is yet another case featuring people who could not accept reality on one side of the equation there was a violent and manipulative man who would not accept the consequences for his behavior he demanded everything in relationships and gave nothing but pain and suffering on the other side of the equation there are numerous women who wanted to believe the best of him they would not allow themselves to believe that he was destructive when he had so many features they ranked as highly positive like being charming and physically attractive it just didn't make sense to them how somebody could be attractive but also not a good romantic partner they believed that perhaps they were responsible for his abusive behavior this is a case that once again involves the battle between emotions and logic it offers further evidence that emotions often are victorious in that match up those my thoughts on the case of ashley and tracy humphrey please put any opinions and thoughts in the comment section they always generate an interesting dialogue as always i hope you found my analysis of this topic to be informative thanks for watching

Channel: Dr. Todd Grande

Views: 156,945

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Id: I-xxzaHhVi0

Length: 18min 34sec (1114 seconds)

Published: Wed Jul 28 2021