By Carl Keith Greene / Staff Writer
At the end of a two-day trial, the jury found Michael McQueen guilty of murder in the death of Christina Hodge, his nine-year companion, and recommended a 32-year sentence.
Commonwealth’s Attorney Jackie Steele opened the second day of the trial in Laurel Circuit Court presenting evidence from witnesses who testified they had heard McQueen say he might kill Hodge.
Opening the day, Barbara Brickleman, from whom McQueen had bought a puppy several years earlier, testified.
Two weeks prior to the shooting, which was on Oct. 2, 2008, McQueen had visited her and told her, “He was going to blow the b----’s brains out,” Brickleman said.
Brickleman said McQueen told her Hodge was stealing money from him.
On cross examination, McQueen’s lawyer Doug Benge asked if Brickleman had notified law enforcement. She told him she had notified them this past December.
Jeff Sweeney was next on the stand. He told Steele he last saw McQueen on Tuesday before Hodge died the following Thursday.
That afternoon, Sweeney said he was visiting the McQueen/Hodge home on Haley Ridge Road north of London.
He was at the kitchen table talking with McQueen and Hodge entered the kitchen from the bathroom to get something to drink, Sweeney said. She got it and McQueen told her to get out of the room.
McQueen, Sweeney said, told him that Hodge was stealing from him.
Steele asked if there was a weapon in the room and Sweeney told him it was on the kitchen table.
There was no cross examination.
Carl Hodge, Christina’s father, testified about the last conversation he had with his daughter the night before she was killed.
At about 10 p.m. she phoned him, he said. “She called and said she was leaving home” with friends.
Carl Hodge said she told him, “she was tired of ‘this s---’ and she was leaving.”
On cross examination, McQueen’s other lawyer Stephen Charles sought more information. Carl Hodge told Charles his daughter had told him she was leaving the next day.
Mike McQueen’s brother, Scott, testified about arriving at his parents’ home near the home of Hodge and McQueen about two hours after the shooting.
He said when he found his parents and brother, they were “shaken up.”
Scott McQueen said he spoke with his brother, whose clothing was stained with blood.
Mike McQueen told Scott about how she had left a note that she was leaving and he found her in a wooded area near their home sitting near a tree.
Scott said Mike told him he was trying to pick her up from the ground and had a “gun in his hand that went off.”
In a video recording of interrogation the day of the incident, shown to the jury on Monday, Mike McQueen said the pistol was in his waistband and apparently went off on its own.
On cross examination by Benge, Scott said, “Mike was upset, wanted to kill himself.”
Sheriff’s Detective Tommy Johnston was called as a witness by Steele. Johnston brought all the evidence that had been collected at the scene of the incident.
It included a white blanket. Mike McQueen said Hodge had been wrapped in the blanket when he was trying to lift her when the gun fired. There was no blood on the blanket.
Other items were presented, including a note that Mike McQueen said was a suicide note, pill bottles, a cigarette butt that was tested for DNA and the bag containing clothing on which Mike McQueen had rested her head after she was shot.
It contained a cellular phone, a white hand towel, a white sheet, a pink bathrobe and make-up.
The final witness in the case was Robert Sturgeon, Hodge’s step-son.
He said the last time he had seen Hodge was as he boarded the school bus the morning of her death.
Sturgeon said he had been told earlier by Mike McQueen that Hodge was stealing from him.
The night before her death, Sturgeon and Hodge had stayed up late after Mike had left at about 11:30 p.m. Sturgeon testified, “She said she would try to leave.”
He and Sturgeon had a conversation the next morning, Sturgeon testified. Before he boarded the bus, Sturgeon said Mike told him, to the effect, “You tell your mother to stop stealing from me or I’ll make her face look like she’s not human.”
The state rested its case, as did the defense without calling witnesses.
The jury was out just under two hours and came back finding McQueen guilty of murder.
In the penalty phase of the trial the jury recommended 32 years in prison.
The sentence will be imposed March 19.
