An Alabama man was recently charged with the horrific stabbing death and dismemberment of his live-in girlfriend – all because she allegedly refused to have sex with him on his birthday.
Justin Fields, 38, stands accused of one count of murder and one count of abuse of a corpse over the Oct. 22, 2022 slaying and subsequent mutilation of 52-year-old Tammy Bailey.
According to online news website AL.com, Blount County District Attorney Pamela Casey said that a knife was used in both Bailey’s slaying and the abuse of her body well after the fact.
She was stabbed over 100 times.
In a recent update on the case, Blount County Sheriff Mark Moon said the attacks were committed with a survival-type knife that has an eight-inch-long blade. The victim’s body was found with one of her limbs severed, the sheriff said. Her head was discovered near her feet.
In comments to AL.com, Moon said Fields confessed to the crime.
“He admitted to my investigator everything he’d done so he was stable enough to know what he was doing,” Moon said, dismissing mental health concerns or any such history as a possible excuse. “He was frustrated because he didn’t get what he wanted.”
On the night in question, the defendant and his live-in girlfriend were out celebrating his birthday at several businesses in the Springville area before returning to Bailey’s home where they lived together.
“He had a drink of brandy and then went into his bedroom and was playing guitar,” Moon said. “He decided he wanted to have sex, so he went into her room and propositioned her. She refused him, and, according to his statement, it frustrated him, and he stabbed her in the chest.”
According to the sheriff, Fields told investigators he blacked out, went into his own room, and fell asleep. When he woke up the next morning, he allegedly said he thought he was having a bad dream and went on to stab his girlfriend over 100 additional times.
“We’re pretty sure she was dead on the first blow,” Moon added. “When he went back in there the next day, she had not moved.”
Fields then allegedly called his father, admitted to doing “something horrible” and expressed a desire to die by suicide. The defendant’s father then called a neighbor and family member of Bailey’s. That woman showed up at the front door where the brutal death occurred – but Fields refused to let her in.
“He tells her what’s inside is terrible and she doesn’t want to see it,” Moon told AL.com. “She calls 911.”
Blount County sheriff’s deputies were originally called in response to what had been a presumed shooting.
When performing the welfare check, they discovered the worst.
“The two investigators and the crime scene tech, who was one of my patrol lieutenants that responded to the scene, they probably had close to 100 years combined experience in law enforcement and they said this is the worst thing they’ve ever seen,” Moon told Birmingham ABC affiliate WBMA. “[T]hose are images, mental images that you will never be able to erase.”
The defendant was taken into custody at the scene.
One deputy arrived at first.
“The offender tells him, on the body cam, that I have done something bad, there’s evidence in the house, and if you go in, then you’ll see it’s bad,” Moon said in comments to Birmingham FOX affiliate WBRC.
The first responding deputy then told the defendant that he was going to be handcuffed for both of their safety because the deputy had got a bad feeling from that introductory discussion.
“That’s okay,” Fields allegedly said. “You’re going to arrest me anyway.”
[image via Blount County Sheriff’s Office]