John Jefferson
Briley Turner (Monroe County Jail).
A 25-year-old Indiana woman who claimed she beat a man with a bat and stabbed him repeatedly with a knife and a “tire plug tool” in self-defense when he was expecting to shower with her could be in deeper trouble, as the victim in the case has died weeks later.
Court documents say Briley Shayne Turner did not dispute that she attacked 36-year-old Michael Hodge on Aug. 18 at an apartment in Bloomington, where she was found by police covered in blood and lying on a couch before she claimed “I had to defend myself, dude.” But investigators said the totality of the evidence instead pointed to attempted murder. With Hodge’s reported death at a hospital on Sept. 11, it’s possible that Turner may face a murder charge next.
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.”
When cops walked in the door, they claimed to hear the victim and Turner yelling “help,” adding that the suspect was lounging on a living room couch “next to her phone, covered in blood,” as the victim lay “on the bathroom floor with multiple stab wounds” to his chest, rib cage, neck, quad, and “upper right buttock,” with part of the knife “broken off inside of [his] body.” He also had a broken arm, documents said.
Hodge 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.”
More Law&Crime coverage: Instead of showering together, woman allegedly stuns man with bat and breaks off blade in his body in unprovoked 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.
Up to now, Monroe County prosecutors have charged Turner with aggravated battery and attempted murder. But charges may be upgraded to murder now that Hodge’s death has reportedly been ruled a homicide.
Turner was set to have a pretrial conference on the morning of Oct. 7, her birthday.
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