Warren Woman Sentenced for Killing Daughter

Wkbn.com

February 20, 2012

A Warren woman will spend at least 15 years behind bars for killing her young daughter.

Joy Hodge, 29, was sentenced Wednesday morning to 15 years to life in prison by Trumbull County Common Pleas Judge Wyatt McKay.

Hodge was convicted in December on charges of murder, child endangering and felonious assault in the September 2011 beating death of 15-month-old A'nana Brantley. The toddler was found in an upstairs bedroom at the Transylvania Avenue S.E. home where she lived with Hodge.

She will be eligible for parole after 15 years behind bars and will be on probation for three years following her release.

"Just her smile, wanting to see me every time I come in the room her face would just light up. That's the most thing I can remember about her," said the child's father, David Brantley.

Brantley spoke in court before Hodge was sentenced, saying that he is not mad at Hodge and still loves her.

"These two people, my daughter and her mom, both of these people just got taken away from me so there is nothing I can do that I'm happy or can celebrate about. It's just something I am going to have to live with the rest of my life," he said.

Hodge's aunt, Pamela Hawkins, still believes someone else killed A'nana.

"Joy is innocent. There is not a doubt in my mind there is more to this story and we will find it, we will not give up," Hawkins said.

But Trumbull County Assistant Prosecutor Diane Barber said Hodge did kill her daughter.

"Twelve people heard the case and unanimously found her guilty of everything she was charged with," Barber said.

Previously, police said Hodge didn't help them find the killer, and intentionally misled investigators.

Hodge could get released in 15 years, but her attorneys are already planning to appeal the sentence.

Warren Woman Found Guilty of Killing Daughter

Wkbn.com

December 14, 2012

After deliberating for about 90 minutes, a Trumbull County jury found a Warren woman guilty Friday of murdering her daughter.

Joy Hodge, 29, was convicted on charges of murder, child endangering and felonious assault in the September 2011 beating death of 15-month-old A-nana Brantley. She will be sentenced next month and could face up to life in prison.

The toddler was found in an upstairs bedroom at the Transylvania Avenue S.E. home where she lived with Hodge. Prosecutors told the jury during closing arguments on Friday that Hodge beat A'nana to death and tried to cover it up.

"It was a joint effort between the Warren Police Department, the prosecutor's office and others to make sure that we could present this case effectively to the jury," said Trumbull County Assistant Prosecutor Diane Barber.

"It took the entire detective division to unravel it cause we were being misled by the convicted individual here, several different directions. She would tell us one thing and then tell us something else so it really took all of us to straighten out and come to the conclusion, which was that she did this," said Warren police detective Wayne Mackey.

Coroner testifies in trial of mom

Verdict could came today

By Christopher Bobby - TribuneChronicle.com

December 14, 2012

WARREN - When Detective Wayne Mackey was questioning Joy Hodge about the beating death of her 15-month-old daughter in the fall of 2011, he described it as ''one explosive moment.''

''It looked like it happened sometime after you got home. And it looks like something went wrong,'' Mackey told Hodge, who is charged with murder and child endangering in the death of A'nana Brantley, who was found dead in her second-floor crib on Transylvania Street S.E. Sept. 6, 2011. The child was found bruised and cold to the touch about 1:30 p.m.

Mackey said the child's brain was swollen to the size of an adult's, and the back of the head was like ''mush."

The mother, who faces more than 15 years behind bars, was being interviewed by Mackey on video that was played Thursday for a jury of nine men and three women.

Assistant county prosecutor Diane Barber rested her case Thursday and defense attorney Matthew Pentz is expected to call a few witnesses today, which means jurors could get the case today.

Common Pleas Judge W. Wyatt McKay is hearing the case.

While Mackey spent considerable time with Hodge trying to piece together a timeline of the 2011 Labor Day weekend, it was testimony later Thursday from Trumbull County Coroner Dr. Humphrey Germaniuk that fixed the toddler's time of death from 1:30 a.m. to 5:30 a.m. the day the child was found.

During that time frame and according to testimony, Hodge arrived home after leaving the child alone to go with friends to a local bar for a night of karaoke.

Hodge, 29, said she came home sometime between 12:30 a.m. and 3 a.m. that day.

She has insisted throughout the trial that she didn't kill her youngest of four children. She claims she gave A'nana a sippy cup at 8:30 a.m. that day and found the child dead five hours later - a theory that Germaniuk discounted with his explanation of the stiffness of the child's body along with pooling of the blood in the body that had occurred.

While Germaniuk showed slides of his autopsy, Hodge looked away from the slide screen, staring at the floor instead.

The toddler's father, David Brantley testified Thursday that he got a call from Hodge shortly after midnight that day, wanting him to come back to her home.

Brantley said he didn't go.

Then, about 2:30 a.m. he got another call from Hodge saying she was taking A'nana to the hospital with an ear infection.

Brantley said that when he called the next day the girl's body had already been discovered.

Hodge admitted to a private investigator who helped with the case more than a week after questioning by Mackey that she ''popped'' or struck the child, an admission that triggered her arrest. She has remained in Trumbull County Jail since.

Mom admits hitting child

Maintains innocence in toddler’s death

By Christopher Bobby - TribToday.com

WARREN - Repeatedly insisting that she didn't kill her 15-month-old daughter, Joy Hodge did admit to striking the toddler more than once on the leg and on her mouth.

Hodge told William Evans, a private investigator and polygraph expert from Akron, that her youngest daughter upset her by biting her near the collarbone, and another time she got into the cleaner or detergent kept under the kitchen sink.

Evans took the stand Wednesday while prosecutors played audio recordings of Hodge from Sept. 15, 2011.

''I popped her one on the leg,'' Hodge says on the recording, as well as admitting to the punishment on the mouth.

But at the same time, Hodge continued telling Evans it had to be someone else who actually killed young A'nana Brantley, who was found dead in her second-floor crib on Transylvania Street S.E. on Sept. 6, 2011.

At one point Hodge, 29, even tried to convince Evans that someone with a key to her home most likely entered the house and stole banana pudding she had made for a Labor Day party and then killed the child.

Trumbull County Coroner Dr. Humphrey Germaniuk ruled homicide after discovering multiple blunt force traumatic injuries on the head, face and neck along with a lacerated liver. He is scheduled to testify later and give his estimate of the time of death. The child was found bruised and stiff inside the crib.

Hodge has remained in Trumbull County Jail since her arrest and faces more than 15 years if convicted on charges of murder and child endangering.

Evans was working with Warren police detectives in questioning Hodge as a suspect nine days after the death. And at the end of an interview that lasted more than an hour, Evans told the woman that police would be arresting her.

Hodge cried and wailed, ''I don't want to go to jail. I didn't do it. No. No.''

''Why am I going to jail for something I didn't do?'' Hodge cried out as Warren Detective Wayne Mackey read her her Miranda rights.

Mackey will continue his testimony today and explain to a jury of nine men and three woman about other interviews he did, weeding out would-be suspects that Hodge initially said could have killed her child.

''I think this might have been something that got out of control,'' Evans told Hodge on an audio tape that was played for the jury in the courtroom of Judge W. Wyatt McKay.

''What caused you to lose it? Was it the Long Island iced tea? What triggered it?'' Evans asked on the recording, referring to Labor Day evening when Hodge apparently left the baby alone to go with friends and sing karaoke at a local bar.

''If I'm guilty of anything, it's going out,'' Hodge cried at one point on the recording.

''There is a difference between accidental and intentional. I don't think you meant to kill anyone. I think you convinced yourself you didn't do it,'' Evans told Hodge.

Testimony is scheduled to continue today.

Trial of Mother Accused of Killing Daughter Begins

Wkbn.org

December 11, 2012

The trial of a Warren mother accused of killing her 16-month-old daughter in September 2011 started on Tuesday.

Opening statements were made and witnesses are being called today to testify in the murder trial of Joy D. Hodge, 29, of Transylvania Avenue S.E.

Hodge is facing charges of murder, felonious assault and felony child endangering.

Hodge was indicted nine days after police found her daughter, A’nana Brantley, dead in an upstairs bedroom Sept. 6, 2011.

The indictment said she “recklessly abused” the child and caused her death “as a proximate result of committing or attempting to commit a first or second degree felonious assault or child endangering."

Mother Indicted in Daughter's Death

Wkbn.com

November 16, 2011

A 28-year-old mother has been indicted for the murder of her 16-month old daughter.

The Trumbull County grand jury on Wednesday indicted Joy Hodge on charges of murder, felonious assault and endangering children. Police said Hodge caused serious physical harm to the toddler before they found her dead in the Transylvania Avenue home in September.

Preliminary autopsy results show she died of blunt force trauma.

Warren Mom Arrested in Death of Baby Girl

Wkbn.com

September 16, 2011

A Warren woman faces charges in connection with the death of her one-year-old daughter.

Joy Hodge, 28, 1535 Transylvania Ave. S.E., Warren, was arrested just before 4:30 p.m. Thursday on a charge of felonious assault in the death of 16-month-old A'nana Brantley Sept. 6.

According to the warrant for Hodge's arrest, Hodge is accused of causing serious physical harm to her daughter. Police were called to her home on Sept. 6 to reports of a deceased baby in an upstairs bedroom. Police then found Brantley.

Hodge was arraigned Friday and issued $500,000 bond. She'll be back in court Sept. 22, and further charges could be filed after Brantley's autopsy is complete.

No further information is being released on the investigation or the circumstances of Brantley's death.