PALM BAY, Fla. – The trial starts this week for a man deputies say burned and dismembered a woman he was dating in a well-known, undeveloped part of Brevard County, where a total of four people were killed within a year.
The state attorney’s office said jury selection could start Wednesday in the trial of Daniel Stearns.
Two years ago, sheriff’s deputies said Stearns, 35, shot Nancy Howery, 44, and then burned and dismembered her body in the Compound.
When he was arrested, Howery’s friend, Yascara Tom, told Palm Bay Community Correspondent James Sparvero a lot more about Stearns’ and Howery’s relationship.
Tom said they were dating and had an argument over Stearns not making special plans for Valentine’s Day.
[WATCH: Woman remembers friend whose remains were found at Palm Bay Compound]
Then, Howery was reported missing when she didn’t pick up her kids from school.
“He’s a monster,” Tom said in a 2023 interview. “I wish he wakes every single morning and thinks, ‘I never will marry. I never will raise kids.’ That’s what I want.”
Between 2022 and 2023, two more stories about people killed in the Compound sparked an ongoing conversation about developing the blighted land.
Unlike Stearns, two young men, including Jamarcus Simpson, 20, are still waiting for their trials for the murders of TJ Anthony, 16, and Jeremiah Brown, 14.
[WATCH: Palm Bay discusses future of troubled ‘Compound’ neighborhood]
Meantime, there was a resolution in the case of Nick Mitchell’s death.
Last year, Renee Lemos and her boyfriend, Robert Lanning, were each sent to prison for 18 years.
Stearns was charged with second-degree murder and faces a maximum sentence of life in prison if convicted.