WAYNE COUNTY, IL — A Wayne County judge on Monday approved a motion allowing a 25-year-old defendant access to a computer while he’s in custody on charges he murdered his 15-year-old girlfriend in 2014.

Brodey Murbarger was arrested in October 2020 after a Wayne County Illinois grand jury indicted him for the 2014 murder of Megan Nichols.

He’s charged with three counts of first-degree murder, two Class X felony counts of home invasion to commit a sex offense, and Class 3 felony concealment of a homicidal death. According to the indictment, Murbarger strangled and suffocated Nichols to death on July 3, 2014, and later buried her body in a shallow grave in a rural part of Wayne County. Her whereabouts remained a mystery for three years until human remains were found on December 26, 2017.

Murbarger’s attorney filed the motion last week asking the court to allow his client access to either a computer or electronic tablet while he remains in the Wayne County Jail. The judge on Monday granted the motion but ordered the device be wiped clean, have no other software installed other than needed for viewing of discovery in the case and that no one other than Murbarger be allowed to view that discovery. The Wayne County sheriff will set the hours the defendant will have access to the device.

Brodey Murbarger has been held in the Wayne County Jail since his October 2020 arrest in the case. His bail is set at $300,000.

In addition to pleading not guilty to the charges against him, Murbarger has demanded a jury trial before February 4.