Cosplay Model Melissa Turner Stabs Fiancé To Death After Drunken Brawl

Melissa Turner, a cosplay model, was charged with a single count of second-degree murder by the State Attorney's Office for the 13th Judicial District just days after she was stabbed in Oct. 2018.

Turner, 29, was accused of killing her lover Matthew Trussler, 25, in their Hillsborough County home and was on trial in Tampa. On Friday evening, a jury convicted her guilty as charged.

On Oct. 18, 2019, deputies discovered Trussler dead at the couple's Riverview home after Turner called 911 to report that he was unresponsive. The next day, officers arrested Turner.

In an exclusive interview with 8 On Your Side's Chip Osowski last week before her trial began, Turner did not deny stabbing Trussler to death 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 per WFLA.

"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."

Reports said the trial progressed rapidly as Monday jury selection and opening remarks took place. The jury began deliberating on Friday morning and decided several hours later.

Meaww said Turner, who testified on Thursday, sobbed as she remembered Trussler waking her up in the middle of the night after a long day of drinking and arguments.

When a fight broke out, she claimed her boyfriend choked her and pushed her across a counter before grabbing a knife. Turner testified in court that she was frightened Trussler would kill her.

As a result, when he placed the blade down to strangle her again, she snatched it and stabbed him in the back.

A clip from a Nest video camera caught audio of a woman saying "you stay down," "so f***ing die" and "I hate you."

John Trevena, the suspect's lawyer, claims the tape "manipulated" Turner's remarks. But he later conceded that Turner did it.

"Expert testimony from our audio/video expert Bruce Koenig [is] that the Nest video/audio recording from a neighbor across the street was manipulated in select areas to amplify the volume to make it sound like Ms. Turner was screaming much louder and the portions wherein the alleged victim is speaking are completely inaudible," Trevena told Law & Crime. "Further, there are the issues of self-defense and heat of passion."

Officials are asking why the accused waited four hours to report her boyfriend's murder before changing her story just hours after deputies got on the site and saw her covered in dried blood, according to Law & Crime.

Hillsborough County Fire pronounced Trussler dead on the spot. The county's Chief Medical Examiner later discovered the victim had a defensive wound in his right forearm. According to Dr. Mary Mainland, Trussler also had a severe cut on his upper bicep, a massive wound in the middle of his back, a little cut on his right shoulder, and a large wound in the middle of his back.

The state had offered a plea deal of 25 years in state prison before the trial began. Trevena turned down the offer and retaliated with a sentence of five years in prison. That counter-offer was rejected by the state.

Turner could potentially spend the rest of her life in prison.