Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, January 28, 1994 TAG: 9401280238
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: LAURENCE HAMMACK STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
The jury convicted Turner of first-degree murder and set his sentence at life in prison.
Turner, 40, never denied shooting William Dale Hartman five times after a 70-mph chase ended in the parking lot of a shopping center nearly two years ago.
But in pleading not guilty by reason of insanity, Turner maintained he was a mentally disturbed man driven out of his mind during a feud in which Hartman burglarized his home and threatened to kill him.
A psychologist testified that Turner was unable to control himself when he opened fire on Hartman's car as they sped down Riverland Road side by side.
Prosecutors, however, suggested that Turner's insanity defense was a ploy to avoid prison. "He was not faking being mentally ill, but he was faking being insane," Commonwealth's Attorney Donald Caldwell said.
In his Southeast Roanoke neighborhood, Turner was known as "Crazy Eddie" because of his long criminal record and often erratic behavior caused by a manic-depressive disorder.
Preparing for a possible outburst in the courtroom, authorities lined three sheriff's deputies shoulder-to-shoulder directly behind Turner when the jury's verdict was read.
But Turner took the news calmly, and later thanked Judge Clifford Weckstein for giving him a fair trial.
With Turner admitting from the beginning that he killed Hartman, his four-day trial in Roanoke Circuit Court focused on his state of mind the night of April 3, 1992.
A psychologist described Turner as a mentally ill construction worker who considered the world a "combat zone" and himself a soldier of fortune fighting for survival.
Eileen Taylor testified that while Turner may not have been insane in the classic sense - unable to distinguish between right and wrong, or unable to comprehend the nature of his actions - he was temporarily insane.
Citing the same "irresistible impulse" used in the Lorena Bobbitt trial, Taylor said Turner was unable to control his actions at the time of the offense.
An irresistible impulse is a sudden and unplanned act of violence triggered by a traumatic event - in Turner's case, supposedly his belief that Hartman was trying to kill him during the car chase.
Psychologists testified during the trial that an irresistible impulse is something the defendant would have done even if there was a police officer at his elbow.
"I submit to you that even if [Turner] had Janet Reno at his arm the night of April 3, 1992, it wouldn't have stopped him," defense attorney Jonathan Apgar told the jury.
In his closing arguments to the jury, Apgar recited a litany of Turner's bizarre behavior in the days before the shooting:
After his Piedmont Street home was broken into, Turner barricaded the doors and windows and stocked it with weapons, but still claimed Hartman had been inside because he could smell him. When he reported the burglary of his home, police said, Turner seemed most upset about the theft of two guns and a Nazi dagger.
Turner said he could see snakes writhing on his front lawn, and once said he saw the shadow of the devil.
Turner sometimes identified himself with Adolf Hitler and the PLO, and believed he had to engage in guerrilla warfare in the "combat zone" of society.
Despite all that, Caldwell called three psychologists to testify that in their opinion, Turner was legally sane and did not experience an irresistible impulse.
Earlier testimony had shown that Turner spotted Hartman near Turner's apartment the night of April 3. In a statement to police Detective N.W. Tolrud, Turner said Hartman began to chase him down Riverland Road Southeast.
But a witness said it was Hartman who was being pursued when the two cars roared into the Jamestown Plaza parking lot.
The witness said he saw shots fired from Turner's car as shoppers in a grocery store dove for cover. Hartman's car then struck a van. Police found him dead from five gun shots to his face, neck and side.
Hartman, 30, was not armed. Turner told police he saw him holding his hand up as if he had a gun.
Minutes after the shooting, Turner went to the Roanoke Police Department to report a shooting.
If the jury had found Turner not guilty by reason of insanity, he would have been committed to a psychiatric hospital for an indefinite period. If that had happened, Caldwell said, Turner might have spent just as long in a psychiatric ward as he will in prison.
Turner did not testify.
In a rambling statement to Judge Weckstein after the jury had left, he requested release on bond, but later concluded: "I'm just mental as hell."
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by CNB