Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, July 1, 1995 TAG: 9507030025
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH LENGTH: Medium
``I would hope that she would be remembered for her compassion, for her love of life, her many interests,'' Delores Evans said of her daughter Jennifer, whose body was found Tuesday in a Newport News park.
Meantime, two Navy men accused of killing Jennifer Evans, a 21-year-old honor student at Emory University in Atlanta, had initial court appearances before General District Judge John B. Preston, who read the charges of murder, abduction and sexual assault against them.
One of the suspects, Billy Joe Brown Jr., 23, of Morrow, Ohio, asked for a court-appointed attorney.
The other suspect, Dustin A. Turner, 20, of Bloomington, Ind., was represented by Virginia Beach attorney Michael I. Ashe, who asked Preston for an order requiring police to preserve all physical evidence in the case.
``We're convinced it will corroborate our client's innocence,'' Ashe said after the brief court proceeding. He would not elaborate.
Both suspects - Navy SEAL trainees assigned to the Little Creek Naval Amphibious Base in Virginia Beach - were brought into court for back-to-back arraignments.
They are being held without bond. Preston set bond hearings for Wednesday.
Authorities found stolen military ordnance during a search Thursday of Turner's Indiana apartment. Officers removed 41/2 pounds of plastic explosive, blasting caps, fuse igniters, boosters and smoke grenades, said Lt. Ron Hill, a Navy spokesman in Norfolk.
Navy investigators will try to determine where the material was stolen, Hill said.
Evans, of Tucker, Ga., disappeared early June 19 from an oceanfront area bar that she and two friends had visited. The friends left briefly for coffee; when they returned, Evans had vanished.
Her friends said she last was seen talking with a Navy man who told her he was a SEAL, the service's exclusive commando organization.
Police subsequently located the man, who turned out to be Turner, with the help of an artist's sketch. Although Turner initially was ruled out as a suspect, police said he was questioned again when inconsistencies were discovered in what he first told investigators.
Authorities said Brown also was at the bar that night. The two men were described by police as friends.
A state medical examiner using dental records made a positive identification Thursday of Evans' body, said Lewis Thurston, a city police spokesman. Authorities said the body was partially decomposed when it was found, and the cause of death was tentatively given as ``criminal violence.''
Delores Evans, at a news conference with her husband, Al, said the family was grateful to police and the community for all their efforts and compassion.
Volunteers, both locally and friends of the family who came to Virginia Beach from Georgia, distributed fliers to businesses during the search for the missing woman.
``There is simply no limit to the thanks that we offer,'' Evans said.
Keywords:
FATALITY
by CNB