A Georgia man, Cleveland Broadie, has been indicted on malice and felony murder charges after allegedly failing to disclose his HIV-positive status to his wife, Denise Broadie, a cancer survivor.
Prosecutors claim his actions led to her 2022 death just two days after she was diagnosed with AIDS. The Rockdale County case centers on what officials describe as Cleveland’s “reckless conduct.”
Cleveland has pleaded not guilty to reckless conduct but has yet to enter a plea on the malice and felony murder charges tied to his wife’s death.
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He and Denise Broadie married in 2014, three years before she was first diagnosed with breast cancer. Though she went into remission twice, her health continued to decline, ultimately leading to a 2022 AIDS diagnosis — just days before her death on April 2, which prosecutors link to Cleveland’s alleged failure to disclose his HIV status.
Cleveland, 62, now faces multiple legal battles as more allegations emerge. Originally charged with three counts of reckless conduct in 2023 after several women claimed he hid his HIV-positive status, investigators say Broadie had been taking HIV medication since 2006.
His late wife’s family intensified efforts to seek justice by hiring private investigators to prove he knowingly exposed Denise Broadie.
Cleveland was first arrested in July 2023 and booked again on April 16, 2025, following his recent indictment in the murder case.
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.”
In a 2023 interview with Atlanta News First, Young revealed her mother unknowingly lived with untreated HIV for at least five years. She described Denise’s rapid health decline during her second fight with cancer — especially as it spread to her lungs — as devastating and unexplained at the time.
“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.”
Denise Broadie’s family is urging the public to get tested for sexually transmitted diseases in the wake of her tragic death.
