(Editor’s note: Video in player above is an interview done before Melissa Turner’s trial started.)
TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA) — A former cosplay model was convicted of second-degree murder on Friday in connection with her boyfriend’s death in 2019.
Melissa Turner was on trial in Tampa, accused of killing her boyfriend Matthew Trussler in their Hillsborough County home. A jury found her guilty as charged Friday evening.
Deputies found Trussler dead at the couple’s Riverview home on Oct. 18, 2019 after Turner called 911 to report that he was unresponsive. Turner was arrested the next day.
In an exclusive interview with 8 On Your Side’s Chip Osowski’s last week before her trial started, Turner did not deny she fatally stabbed Trussler but claimed she acted in self defense.
“And then he turned me around and he had his hands around my throat. And my right hand was sliced open and I used my left hand and I could feel the knife that he had. It was on the counter,” Turner said. “And that’s when I picked it up because he wouldn’t stop. I thought he was going to kill me. And that’s where the stab in his back came from.”
The trial moved quickly – it started Monday with jury selection and opening statements. The jury started deliberating Friday morning and returned the verdict hours later.
Among the evidence presented to jurors during the trial was a recording from a Nest video camera that captured audio of a woman yelling “you stay down,” “so f***ing die” and “I hate you.”
Before the trial started, the state had offered a plea deal of 25 years in state prison. Turner’s attorney John Trevena declined that offer and countered with five years in prison. The state said no to that counter offer.
Turner could now face life in prison.
