Cartersville Residents Get Life Sentence For Killing Housemate

Two Cartersville residents convicted in the 2013 murder of their housemate will spend the rest of their lives in prison.

Steven Mark Eller was sentenced to life plus 15 years while Tammy Lynn Murphy was given a life plus five-year sentence in the killing of 47-year-old Danny Lamar Gravely. Both were sentenced on Tuesday by Bartow County Superior Court Judge Suzanne H. Smith.

Prosecutor Sharon Fox initially requested both defendants be given a life without the possibility of parole sentence, but Judge Smith did not grant that motion.

In March 2013, Gravely was found dead in the bed of his truck on Red Top Road with a single gunshot to the head.

The case was initially by Emerson police and the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, but the Bartow County Sheriff’s Office got involved when investigators discovered the crime occurred in the sheriff’s office’s jurisdiction.

According to The Daily News Tribune, investigators believed an argument at the home where Eller, Murphy and Gravely all lived at the time led to the shooting.

Both defendants were found guilty in a jury trial on Aug. 28. Eller was convicted of malice murder, felony murder, aggravated assault, concealing a death and possession of a firearm during the commission of a crime. For her part, a jury convicted Murphy of felony murder, aggravated assault and concealing a death.

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