Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, July 5, 1995                   TAG: 9507050064
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C-4   EDITION: METRO  
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH                                  LENGTH: Medium

MOTHER SAYS SON DIDN'T KILL STUDENT, WAS JUST WITNESS

``Mom, I need to talk to you,'' Dustin A. Turner told her, ``because I have some problems down here. You are probably going to read some things in the newspaper that are unbelievable, and they are not true.''

``He told me he was a witness to a murder, and my heart stopped beating a moment,'' Summitt said. ``I thought, `Oh my God.'''

Police believe her son was more than a witness. The next day, Turner was charged with the abduction, murder and sexual assault of Jennifer L. Evans, 21, a pre-medical student at Emory University in Atlanta. She was buried Saturday.

Evans, vacationing in Sandbridge, had been missing for eight days before police found her body in a Newport News park.

Authorities also arrested Turner's roommate, Billy Joe Brown Jr., 23, of Morrow, Ohio, on the same charges as Turner.

Both are Navy SEAL candidates at the Little Creek Naval Amphibious Base in Virginia Beach. Both are in jail; they have bond hearings scheduled for today.

Turner's mother spoke Monday about the charges against her son she says aren't true.

``I know in my heart he is innocent,'' said Summitt, 47 and an elementary school teacher. ``I can read him 100 percent. And he is innocent of those charges.''

Virginia Beach police spokesman Mike Carey said the charges speak for themselves. ``We believe Mr. Turner was an active participant in the crime,'' Carey said.

Turner gave his attorney, Richard Brydges, this account of the murder:

Turner and Evans went to Turner's sports car, parked outside an oceanfront hotel, to listen to music. They had met earlier in the evening of June 19 in the hotel bar.

Moments later, Brown barged into the car and got into the back seat, upset after an argument with a former girlfriend at the bar.

Suddenly, Brown killed Evans, according to Turner. Detectives say she was strangled.

Turner told Brydges he couldn't stop Brown because the attack happened so quickly. Brown then sexually assaulted the corpse, Turner told Brydges.

Brown has denied requests for interviews.

Police said Turner failed to report the crime and helped conceal it. He and Brown drove Evans' body to a wooded area in Newport News and dumped it, burying the corpse under branches, police said.

When questioned by detectives several days later, Turner lied, saying he left Evans in the bar. Only when Turner was confronted with his inconsistencies did he tell police a more truthful version of what happened, police said.

According to a search warrant affidavit for Turner's car, Turner asked a friend for a condom shortly before leaving the bar, telling the friend he was going to have sex.