The Jury in the Stacey Gray murder trial heard from the defendant himself during a taped police interrogation that was played on day two of testimony. The police interview took place on July 7th, 2015, the day Renee Eldridge’s body was found in a Valley, AL creek.
Police zeroed in on Gray as a suspect early on after multiple witnesses called law enforcement about an SUV parked on the Hopewell Creek Bridge July 4, 2015. Two of those witnesses testified in court. Henry Atkins was one of them and said he thought at the time “something just don’t look right” as he spotted the SUV with the doors open on the bridge. Atkins got a partial tag number that led police to Stacey Gray.
Prosecutors played a videotaped interview where Valley Police detective Clay Tucker, the lead investigator grilled Stacey Gray the day Renee’s body was found. “Am I being arrested?” Gray asks the detective. Tucker peppered him with questions What do you think happened to Renee? “I know she was kidnapped, that’s what her mom said. They think somebody kidnapped her and raped her,” Gray responded.
During the interview, Detective Tucker informs Gray for the first time that Renee Eldridge’s body was recovered in the creek describing her remains in graphic detail. Gray’s demeanor was calm and emotionless. At one point he laughs when the investigator tells him three witnesses put his truck on the bridge the day Eldridge went missing. “It couldn’t have been mine,” Gray said.
Detective Tucker also told Gray police found green rope in the back of his truck just like the kind used to bind Eldridge’s wrists and ankles when her body was dumped in the creek. Gray denied having that kind of rope. “You ever have somebody to break into your truck and leave some rope,” the detective asked.
The jury heard testimony from Renee Eldridge’s mother, Nancy Gray who had a romantic relationship with Stacey Gray. The two were not married they just happen to share the same last name. Nancy Gray testified Stacey Gray called her the morning Eldridge went missing. “Hey, where’s Nay Nay?” Stacey Gray asked. Nancy Gray was just arriving back to the home she shared with Eldridge and realized something was amiss, “Hold on something’s not right,” she told him but Stacey Gray said “I’ve got to go. I’ll call you back.”
It is not known if Stacey Gray will take the stand during the trial this week. Gray is charged with malice murder, felony murder, rape and kidnapping for the death of Renee Eldridge.
