Charlee Worley, 3, and Tyler Worley, 7, were stabbed to death by their mother, Brandi Worley, while they slept in their Darlington home in November 2016.
Montgomery County Prosecutor Joe Buser leaves the courtroom carrying his case records after Brandi Worley was sentenced for the murder of her two children.
Brandi Worley arrives Monday afternoon at the Montgomery County Courthouse. Montgomery Circuit Court Judge Harry Siamas sentenced her to 120 years in prison for the stabbing deaths of her two young children in 2016.
A Darlington woman will spend the rest of her life behind bars for stabbing her two children to death so that her then-husband wouldn’t gain custody of them in divorce proceedings.
Brandi Worley, 31, was sentenced to 120 years in prison on two counts of murder Monday in Montgomery Circuit Court.
Worley murdered her 7-year-old son, Tyler, and 3-year-old daughter, Charlee, in the family’s Darlington home on Nov. 17, 2016 — exactly a week before Thanksgiving. She then called 911 to confess.
Dressed in beige prison garb and with her feet shackled, Worley sat quietly as Judge Harry Siamas handed down the punishment. She did not speak during the hour-long hearing, except to answer yes-or-no questions from the judge.
Siamas sentenced Worley to 55 years on the first count for Tyler’s murder and 65 years on the second, representing Charlee’s. The sentences will run consecutively.
Worley will get credit for time already served on the first count. She was not fined and does not have to pay court costs because she can’t afford them.
Handing down his ruling, Siamas said the community was at a loss with why the children were killed.
“Sometimes there is no explanation and this is one of those cases,” he said.
Nearly a dozen family members watched in the courtroom as prosecuting attorney Joe Buser called Jason Worley, the ex-husband, to the stand.
“For me, those children were my life,” the software engineer said softly.
He described Tyler, who was a first grader at Sugar Creek Elementary, as a “very loving, energetic” boy who loved sports.
“He was one those who could walk in to a room of strangers and walk out with 20 new friends,” he said.
Charlee, who had started dance and gymnastics lessons just before her death, had a sassy personality and loved dressing up and getting her hair braided, her father said.
Jason told his wife he wanted a divorce two days before the killings. The next morning, Brandi took the children to spend the day with her mother and look for a job. The couple had talked with Tyler about the impending divorce but were waiting to tell Charlee.
When Jason got off work that afternoon, the family went to Charlee’s dance practice in Crawfordsville and returned home for supper. Brandi then left for Walmart, saying she needed pipe cleaners for Tyler’s school project.
Prosecutors say she bought a knife instead, hiding the weapon in Tyler’s bedroom. The couple played with the children on a Murphy Bed in the living room until Jason put the children to bed.
Returning to the living room to find Brandi asleep on the Murphy Bed, he went for a walk before going downstairs to sleep.
Later awakened by screams, Jason scrambled upstairs to find his distraught mother-in-law in the kitchen. Brandi Worley was in the living room.
“That’s when I heard [Brandi] say, ‘Now you can’t take my children from me,’” Jason said.
When asked what sentence he would like handed down, Jason said, “All I care is to never see her again. Out of sight and out of mind.”
While Jason was still asleep, Buser said, Brandi woke up Tyler for a “sleepover” in Charlee’s bedroom and retrieved the knife. She then went to wake up her daughter.
Once in Charlee’s room, Brandi straddled Tyler and stabbed him repeatedly. At one point, Buser said, Charlee woke up and asked Brandi what she was doing. When Brandi answered “nothing,” Charlee fell back asleep.
Brandi then turned the knife on Charlee. Autopsies showed the children sustained multiple stab wounds.
After attacking the children, Brandi began attempting to take her own life.
“She was more adept killing her small, sleeping children than killing herself,” Buser said.
Defense attorney Mark Inman said it was difficult to find a motive for the killings. Unlike other cases when parents murder their children, he said, there was no history of abuse in the home.
Inman, who began representing Brandi about a month after the killings, said she only showed emotion during their first few meetings in jail.
“That’s the only way she can deal with it at this point,” Inman said. “She doesn’t know why she did it.”
Siamas reviewed Brandi’s 911 confession and psychiatric exam, police body camera footage, detective’s interviews, the children’s autopsies and statements from family members before the sentencing.
Buser asked for the sentences to be longer than the advised 55 years for murder.
Speaking to reporters after the hearing, Inman applauded Buser for not seeking the death penalty.
“He could have done that, and I think for various reasons it wasn’t a death penalty case and it made it easier to resolve,” Inman said.
