A Mesa man was sentenced to 15 years in prison Tuesday for stabbing his girlfriend 22 times during an attack that her two young sons witnessed and helped stop. Tyler Riddle, 36, pleaded guilty to aggravated assault and two counts of child abuse in connection with the August 2025 attack on Erin Hume, a 36-year-old mother of two, inside their Mesa home.
According to court records cited by 12News, Hume's 9-year-old son led responding Mesa police officers to the backyard, where they found her bleeding. Officers also discovered bloody footprints, signs of a struggle, and a 5-inch kitchen knife inside the home, along with visible facial bruising and swelling on both of the boys. As reported by FOX 10 Phoenix, it was the 12-year-old who first called police, telling dispatchers his mother was bleeding and her boyfriend was still inside the home.
Children Say They Woke to Screaming
Per Fox 10's reporting, the two children said they woke to screaming and saw Riddle punching their mother, and that Riddle struck both boys in the face when they tried to intervene and help her. Mesa police later found the woman covered in blood with multiple stab wounds, including a laceration to her throat, according to the Maricopa County Attorney's Office. The relationship between Riddle and Hume had become abusive over time, per the same office.
Riddle originally faced charges including attempted second-degree murder following his arrest in August 2025, before a plea deal resolved the case this month with his conviction on Class 3 dangerous aggravated assault and two Class 4 child abuse counts, 12News and the Maricopa County Attorney's Office reported. Under Arizona Revised Statutes § 13-704, a Class 3 felony designated as a dangerous offense carries a mandatory prison term of five to 15 years for a first-time offender, with probation legally unavailable — meaning Riddle's sentence represents the statutory maximum for the charge, according to the Arizona State Legislature.
Victim Addresses the Court
At Riddle's sentencing this week, Hume addressed the court directly, saying Riddle “showed absolutely no mercy” and believed stabbing her 22 times would end her story — but she told the court she was standing alive to speak for herself and her children, according to the Maricopa County Attorney's Office. In a September 2025 interview from her hospital bed, Hume had also credited her sons with saving her life, telling 12News the boys' actions during the attack made the difference between life and death.
Maricopa County Attorney Rachel Mitchell said the children's bravery and the quick response from Mesa police helped Hume survive and ultimately find peace knowing Riddle was held accountable. Mesa Police Chief Dan Butler said the sentence was just and that officers' fast action helped keep Hume safe, adding that domestic violence can escalate from emotional manipulation to near-lethal physical violence.
A Pattern Playing Out Across Maricopa County
Butler's warning reflects a trend regional officials have been tracking closely. Data from the Arizona Coalition to End Sexual and Domestic Violence shows 71 people were killed in domestic violence-related homicides across Arizona in 2025, with 70% of those deaths occurring in Maricopa County, according to figures published by Maricopa County during Domestic Violence Awareness Month. That marked a rise from 2024, when ACESDV documented 61 domestic violence fatalities statewide, 56% of them in Maricopa County.
Research cited by the National Domestic Violence Hotline indicates survivors of intimate partner abuse attempt to leave an abusive partner an average of seven times before succeeding, with the period immediately surrounding an attempt to leave posing the highest risk of lethal violence, according to OHSU. Hoodline has covered a similar Mesa stabbing this year, part of a broader local pattern of violent domestic incidents across the Valley, including a Phoenix case in which a man was charged after setting his ex-girlfriend on fire and a Glendale stabbing that left a woman critically injured.
The National Domestic Violence Hotline can be reached at 1-800-799-7233 or by texting START to 88788, and provides support 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year.
