Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, May 28, 1995 TAG: 9505300095
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MIKE MATHER LANDMARK NEWS SERVICE
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
The typewriter had been within Turner's reach on the floor outside his cell in the hours before his execution Thursday by lethal injection.
After Turner's death, the typewriter was taken by his attorney, Walter Walvick, to Walvick's hotel room. There, according to Walvick, the loaded .32-caliber revolver was found in a secret compartment. Two Virginian-Pilot reporters and Walvick's wife witnessed the discovery, which prompted a Department of Corrections investigation.
That investigation ended Saturday.
``Based upon all the information and evidence that has been made available to us, we find no substantiated evidence to support the attorney's allegations,'' Corrections Director Ron Angelone said in a written statement.
Saturday, Walvick denied there was a hoax or that he had made false statements.
``This is the bottom line: A loaded revolver with 12 extra shells was in the reach of a man who was scheduled to die,'' Walvick said by phone in Richmond. ``That means people's lives were at risk, and the Department of Corrections has a security problem which needs fixing.''
Walvick said Turner had told him to examine the typewriter after the execution. And during an interview Tuesday, two days before the execution, Virginian-Pilot reporter Laura LaFay said Turner hinted to her he had a weapon. LaFay said she had no reason to believe such a claim at the time.
``He never said anything directly,'' LaFay said. ``Everything he said was oblique. He thought the room was bugged.''
LaFay said she dismissed the talk as grandstanding by a man known for his elaborate cons. ``When he said what he said, I just couldn't imagine it could possibly be true,'' she said.
Turner, who spent 15 years on death row, was Virginia's longest-serving death row inmate. He was executed for the 1978 murder of a Franklin jewelry store owner during a robbery attempt.
At Mecklenburg Correctional Center in 1984, he helped orchestrate the largest death row breakout in U.S. history, but he was not among the six inmates who escaped. Last year, Turner was transferred from Powhatan Correctional Center after prison officials found a hacksaw and other prison-made weapons in his cell.
In his statement, Angelone said everyone involved in the incident was interviewed, except The Virginian-Pilot reporters. Newspaper officials declined to allow the reporters to be interviewed.
``Our position is that information of any relevance or credibility was in the newspaper,'' Cole C. Campbell, editor of The Virginian-Pilot and The Ledger-Star, said Saturday. ``There is a strong public interest in the newspapers' not being perceived as extensions of state agencies. We don't provide state agencies information we haven't provided the public. Our basic interest is to inform the public, not to do the legwork of state agencies.''
According to the written statement, the Department of Corrections based its conclusion, in part, on these findings:
nTurner's fingerprints were not found on the gun, the extra stash of bullets, or the bag that contained the bullets.
The typewriter was X-rayed when Turner arrived at Greensville, and no gun was found inside. If the gun was ever in the prison, officials said, it was brought from outside. Only Turner's attorney and legal staff had full access to the inmate.
Walvick didn't inspect the typewriter in front of prison officials when he took it from the facility, breaking ``the chain of custody of the evidence that would have proven that the gun really was in the facility at that time.''
Walvick said the typewriter case was sealed with packing tape by corrections employees, and he was in a hurry to leave the building after the emotionally exhausting execution of his longtime client.
Turner, if his aim were to embarrass corrections officials, would have told more reporters about the typewriter. That conclusion, according to the statement, is based on ``people that knew him.'' Those people weren't identified.
Walvick called Emporia police when he discovered the gun, but he did not immediately call corrections officials.
Walvick said he promptly reported the gun to police and that he has cooperated fully with the Corrections Department.
Corrections officials wouldn't say why Walvick hasn't been charged with making a false report to police. Walvick said he wasn't aware of any pending charges against him as of Saturday night. An Emporia police supervisor didn't return a phone call.
``The Department of Corrections has all but accused me of perpetrating an elaborate hoax,'' Walvick said. ``That is not so, and I will deal with that allegation at the proper time and place. In the meantime, may I respectfully suggest that Department of Corrections officials take a long, hard look at security, no matter how embarrassing it may be.''
by CNB