Briley Turner (Monroe County Jail).
The Indiana woman accused of attacking a man with a tool normally used to help patch damaged tires has officially been charged with murder after her alleged victim died in the hospital.
As Law&Crime has previously reported, Briley Turner, 25, allegedly beat Michael Hodge, 36, with a bat and stabbed him repeatedly with a “tire plug tool” on Aug. 18. The violence occurred in an apartment in Bloomington, where police found Turner covered in blood and lying on a couch.
She initially claimed self-defense, saying to police: “I had to defend myself, dude.”
But investigators didn’t buy it, saying instead that evidence at the time pointed to attempted murder.
Now, following Hodge’s death on Sept. 11, Turner has indeed been charged with murder, according to online court records.
According to the Bloomington Police Department, music was blaring at the Kinser Flats apartment where Hodge was beaten in a bathroom with a baseball bat and stabbed multiple times.
A probable cause affidavit obtained by Law&Crime said that cops found a bloody kitchen knife, a “black-handled tire plug tool with a metal spike on it,” and a baseball bat in living room, the bathroom, and the kitchen, with the bat left leaning against a wall.
“During officers initial observations of the bathroom, it was determined that there was a bloody plastic handle to a kitchen knife with the metal knife portion missing near the bathtub. Additionally, there was a bloody black-handled tire plug tool with a metal spike on it located on the floor nearest to the sink,” court documents obtained by Law&Crime said. “Lastly, in the main living room of the apartment, to the right of the main door, was a bloody baseball bat leaning against the wall.”
Hodge had told police that Turner attacked him unprovoked when the two “were about to take a shower together,” documents said.
“After being struck with the baseball bat, [the victim] advised Briley began stabbing him all over his body,” the affidavit said. “[He] stated he tried to grab the knife as Briley was stabbing him in an attempt to stop the incident but only sustained a cut to his hands. [He] stated that there was no argument or reason for the attack.”
Turner, for her part, allegedly had a completely different version of events: that Hodge tried to put “stuff down my throat” and that she had no choice but to defend herself.
Cops noted that Turner had “numerous bruises covering her legs and on her sides,” but concluded that these “appeared to be older due to the multiple colors of purple and yellow” and that there were “[n]o new injuries appeared to be observed” from the day of the attack.
Turner was described as acting erratically, at times hyperventilating, and “repeatedly ma[king] jerking motions with her extremities and loud moaning and whimpering noises” when investigators tried to ask her questions.
At the scene, Turner had allegedly claimed Hodge “tried to get me.”
“He f—ing tried … he f—ing held me down, and he tried to put that stuff down my throat,” Turner allegedly said. “I don’t know what he put in my throat, and I had to defend myself, dude. I tried to defend myself.”
Court records reviewed by Law&Crime show Turner was facing a pending burglary of a dwelling case that stems from an Aug. 6 incident and that she faced several drug possession cases in recent years, including for meth.
Monroe County prosecutors had initially charged Turner with aggravated battery and attempted murder.
Court records indicate that Turner has a pretrial conference scheduled for Oct. 7 and a trial date set for Feb. 10, 2025.
Matt Naham contributed to this report.
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