ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, September 6, 1996 TAG: 9609060047
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH
SOURCE: Associated Press
Former Navy SEAL trainee Dustin A. Turner was convicted Thursday of abducting and murdering a Georgia college student vacationing in Virginia Beach.
A Circuit Court jury deliberated 8 1/2 hours over two days before returning verdicts of first-degree murder and abduction with intent to defile against Turner, 21, of Bloomington, Ind.
Turner bowed his head slightly when the verdict was read, while his mother and sister sobbed. Turner declined an offer from the judge to make a statement.
The family of the victim, Jennifer L. Evans, sat quietly.
Evans' father, Al Evans, told reporters later that the verdict ``brings some relief because we've always been very concerned about the safety of other young people. This is a very violent world we live in.''
``We feel like justice was done,'' said Delores Evans, the victim's mother. ``We're just mainly glad that this step is over and we're going to try to put together our lives again.''
A sentencing hearing will be held Friday. Each charge carries a penalty of 20 years to life in prison.
Turner testified that a fellow SEAL trainee killed Evans, but that he helped dump her body in a Newport News park 30 miles from the Virginia Beach nightclub where she was last seen alive.
During closing arguments Wednesday, prosecutor Robert Humphreys disputed Turner's testimony that he and Evans were talking in his car in the nightclub parking lot when a drunken Billy Joe Brown got into the back seat and suddenly killed Evans by snapping her neck.
``The theme that has run through the defendant's involvement in Jennifer Evans' murder is sex, lies and more lies,'' Humphreys said.
He said Turner and Brown liked to have group sex with the same woman and planned to have a threesome with Evans after they met her at the club.
Turner realized that Evans wasn't interested and decided to pursue her on his own, Humphreys said. But Brown insisted, got into the car and choked Evans until she lost consciousness, the prosecutor said.
Turner then drove to a back street in Virginia Beach, where the two men began to molest Evans and strangled her when she awoke and struggled, Humphreys said.
Humphreys also said even if Brown actually strangled Evans, Turner was still guilty of murder because he was a participant.
Defense attorney Richard Brydges said the only crime Turner committed was being an accessory after the fact.
Turner led police to Evans' badly decomposed remains nine days after she disappeared.
Brown, of Dayton, Ohio, was convicted of murder in June and sentenced to 72 years in prison. He blamed Turner for killing Evans, a 21-year-old premed student from Emory University in Atlanta.
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