A 37-year-old Indiana man is facing decades in prison after a jury found him guilty of killing his girlfriend with a single gunshot to the head inside her home three years ago.
A Monroe County jury convicted Bryce Michael Leighton of one count of murder in the death of 48-year-old Tara Langley, prosecutors confirmed to Law&Crime. Circuit Judge Mary Ellen Diekhoff presided over the trial.
The case began at 1:30 a.m. on Nov. 4, 2023, when deputies with the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office and emergency medical personnel were sent to Langley’s home in the 5900 block of E. State Road 45 for an unknown disturbance.
When they arrived, first responders found Leighton outside with blood on his clothes and hands, yelling incomprehensibly about his “baby,” an Indianapolis-based Fox affiliate reported, citing a probable cause affidavit.
Deputies then found Langley’s body in the home’s attached garage, with blood pooling around her head. Nearby, they found an “AR-15-style rifle” and a “civilian-style stun gun/Taser.”
A neighbor told investigators they had called 911 to report a suspicious person after hearing a man yelling outside well after midnight. Investigators described the home as being in a “general state of disarray, with broken furniture, appliances and glass throughout.”
Leighton was taken in for questioning and was reportedly “hysterical and hard to understand,” deputies wrote. Asked what happened, he said he was “having flashbacks,” began crying and said: “My baby, oh God.”
He later claimed he shot Langley in self-defense, saying he had been trying to leave the home when “she came at me.”
According to the affidavit, Leighton described Langley, his girlfriend of seven years, as drunk and mean, and said she was often cruel when she drank. He also claimed her drinking and bad behavior had worsened in recent months.
Leighton said he and Langley were arguing and he was packing his things to get away from her aggressive behavior when she used a Taser on him. He said he had warned her before not to use it on him.
“Leighton said she [Langley] turned the stun gun device and when it first popped, ‘everything went into a blur,’” police wrote in the affidavit, according to the Lexington Herald-Leader. “I asked him if the gun was in his hands at that time and he said yes,” the affidavit continued.
Leighton previously spent several years behind bars over a 2010 incident in which he was intoxicated and driving a stolen car when he caused a head-on collision that killed cabdriver Gwendolynn Sanders, 31, at the scene.
The Monroe County Prosecutor’s Office said Leighton will be sentenced in December.