An Auburndale man pleaded no contest to the murder of his girlfriend last year, court records showed.
Andrew Ridgeway, 47, was arrested in February 2025 after Auburndale police said he “savagely” murdered his girlfriend, Stacy Ann Powell, 48.
According to an affidavit filed on February 10, 2025, Powell was shot many times, slashed, and battered in the face, rendering her unrecognizable. According to investigators, Ridgeway wrapped her body in plastic and duct tape and concealed it in his garage under moving blankets.
“It was a brutal attack, so much so that we had to wait until this afternoon to get an identification on her because we recovered her body [Thursday] evening,” Auburndale police chief Terry Storie stated at a press conference in February.
On January 9, 2026, Ridgeway retracted his not guilty plea and instead entered a plea of no contest to charges of second-degree murder and tampering with physical evidence. He was then found guilty.
Court records reveal that he was sentenced to 35 years in state prison for the offense.
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