Stacey Storey, Animal Torture Video Distribution, Virginia 2022

NORFOLK, Va. – Stacey Storey, 49, an Alabama woman, has pleaded guilty to conspiracy to create and distribute animal crushing videos.

According to court documents, Storey and her co-conspirators administered and were members of private online chat groups on an encrypted messaging platform to fund, view, distribute, and promote videos depicting the torture, murder, and sexually sadistic mutilation of juvenile and adult monkeys.

Between at least Aug. 22, 2021, and July 7, 2022, Storey received hundreds of electronic payments from co-conspirators to fund, among other things, the creation of new animal crush videos by videographers outside the United States.

Storey and others had direct communications with a co-conspirator in Indonesia who hired the videographers. Storey and others routinely directed and paid for the creation of the videos, including directing the videographers on how to torture the animals.

On or about June 21, 2022, Storey distributed a video to the online chat groups depicting the torture of a juvenile monkey using a jar of ants and sodomy with an object, causing the monkey’s death.

Co-conspirators Michael Macartney, 51, of Chesapeake, Jeffrey Radtke, 61, of Bloomington, Minnesota, and Drexel Venero, 30, of Rockville, Maryland, have also pleaded guilty. Macartney was sentenced on Oct. 1, 2024, to three years and six months in prison. Radtke faces up to five years in prison and is scheduled to be sentenced on Feb. 13, 2025. Venero is scheduled to be sentenced on April 22, 2025.

Storey is scheduled to be sentenced on June 10 and faces up to five years in prison. Actual sentences for federal crimes are typically less than the maximum penalties. A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.

Source: https://www.justice.gov/usao-edva/pr/alabama-woman-pleads-guilty-conspiring-create-and-distribute-sadistic-animal-torture