Georgia Man Facing Murder Charges After Allegedly Concealing HIV-Positive Status from Wife Before Her Death

• A Georgia man was indicted by a grand jury on murder charges as prosecutors and family claim he did not disclose his HIV-positive status to his wife Denise, who was a cancer survivor
• Denise died in 2022, days after she was diagnosed
• “At any time, he could have told her and given her the right to make the decision to stay with him,” Denise’s daughter said

A Georgia man is now facing murder charges as prosecutors and loved ones claim he intentionally did not disclose his HIV-positive status to his wife, a cancer survivor.

On Monday, April 21, Cleveland Broadie of Rockdale County was indicted by a grand jury on charges of malice murder and felony murder in connection with the 2022 death of his wife, Denise Broadie, according to CBS affiliate Atlanta News First.

Denise, who was 65, died two days after she was diagnosed with AIDS, according to both Atlanta News First and Fox 5 Atlanta, as prosecutors allege it was a result of Cleveland’s “reckless conduct.”

Cleveland has already pleaded not guilty to the reckless conduct charges. He has not entered a plea for the malice and felony murder charges, per Atlanta News First.

The pair wed in 2014, three years before Denise was diagnosed with breast cancer for the first time in 2017, according to both outlets. After she went into remission, the cancer returned in 2019, per Atlanta News First. The cancer eventually cleared once again following years of treatment, but Denise remained sick — with new tests ultimately leading to a 2022 AIDS diagnosis shortly before her death on April 2, 2022, according to Fox 5 Atlanta.

Cleveland, now 62, was later charged with three counts of reckless conduct in 2023, after other women came forward, with investigators claiming at the time that he was aware of his HIV-positive status and had been taking medication for it since 2006, per a previous report from Atlanta News First.

Following Cleveland’s initial charges, Denise’s family continued to push forward with an investigation, as Fox 5 Atlanta notes, by hiring private investigators to look into his past and prove he was aware of his HIV-positive status.

Per Rockdale County Jail’s online records, Cleveland was initially arrested in July 2023 and booked again on April 16 of this year over the new arrest warrant/indictment.

Karen Young, Denise’s daughter who described her mom as a family matriarch with a heart of gold, told Fox 5 Atlanta that she believes there was “malice” in Cleveland’s actions. “At any time, he could have told her and given her the right to make the decision to stay with him,” she said. “Not that she would have.”

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Previously speaking with Atlanta News First in 2023, Young — one of Denise’s three daughters — recalled her mother having “untreated, undiagnosed HIV for at least five years,” and her “decline” being “so rapid” during her second bout with cancer, which impacted her lungs.

“If he would have just gave her that one courtesy, just to tell her to test herself for it and that could’ve been it and she got treatment for it,” Young said at the time. “It’s almost like God kept her alive so we could know what was really killing her.”

According to the outlet, which cited her death certificate, she died from pneumonia and respiratory failure “due to Human Immunodeficiency Virus-Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome.”

The family is now encouraging others to be tested for sexually transmitted diseases.

PEOPLE has reached out to the Rockdale County District Attorney for comments and updates on the case.