THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, July 4, 1995 TAG: 9507040379
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MIKE MATHER, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH LENGTH: Medium: 100 lines
Linda Summitt's phone rang June 27 at her home in Bloomington, Ind. The call changed her life.
Her handsome, blond, 20-year-old son stationed at Little Creek for SEAL training was on the line.
``Mom, I need to talk to you,'' Dustin 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, however, believe her son was more than a witness. The next day, Turner was arrested and charged with the abduction, murder and sexual assault of 21-year-old Georgia college student Jennifer Lea Evans.
Evans, vacationing in Sandbridge, had been missing for nine days before police found her body. They charged Turner, and his roommate, Billy Joe Brown Jr., 23.
Both men were Navy SEAL candidates. Both are in jail.
On Monday, Turner's mother spoke about the charges against her son, charges she says aren't true.
``I know in my heart he is innocent,'' said Summitt, a 47-year-old elementary school teacher. ``I can read him 100 percent. And he is innocent of those charges.''
Turner's attorney, Richard Brydges, also said his client is not guilty.
``If they (Virginia Beach detectives) think he did what they have charged him with, they are mistaken,'' Brydges said.
The detectives disagree.
``The investigators feel at this point the charges speak for themselves,'' police spokesman MikeCarey said. ``We believe Mr. Turner was an active participant in the crime.''
Evans was buried Saturday after a funeral in her hometown of Tucker, Ga. The congregation was asked to pray for the accused men and their families.
``I am really sorry, from deep in my heart, for what happened to Jennifer,'' Summitt said. ``I know she was a special young lady. I'm really sorry. I know in my heart Dusty didn't do this.''
In a jailhouse conference with his attorney, Turner told Brydges this is what happened:
Turner and Evans went to Turner's Geo sports car parked at the Radisson Hotel at 1900 Pavilion Drive to listen to music. They had met hours earlier in the hotel's first-floor club, The Bayou. Evans had scribbled her vacation-cottage phone number on a bar napkin.
Moments later, Brown barged into the car and got in the back seat, upset after an argument with a former girlfriend in the bar. Suddenly, Brown killed Evans, according to Turner.
Detectives have said she was strangled.
Turner told Brydges the attack happened so quickly that he couldn't stop Brown. Then, Turner told Brydges, Brown sexually assaulted the corpse. Brown has denied requests for interviews.
Police said Turner not only failed to report the crime, but also helped conceal it. He and Brown drove Evans' body to a wooded area of Newport News Park and dumped it, burying the corpse under twigs and branches, police said.
When questioned by detectives several days later, Turner lied, saying he left Evans in the bar. The detectives initially believed him.
Only when Turner was confronted with inconsistencies in his statements did he tell police a different version of what happened.
``There is no question that (going to police) was the right course of action, but he didn't do that,'' Brydges said. ``He should have. It was an error in judgment.''
His mother said of her son: ``I know he had guilty feelings about it.''
She said her son feared Brown, and that is the main reason he didn't go to police.
She described Turner as ``every parent's dream,'' and said ``everyone who knows him, loves him.''
Turner was a multi-sport athlete in high school and was a junior deacon at their church, Summitt said. His father and his stepfather each served in Vietnam. Turner joined the Navy so he could be a SEAL.
He nearly drowned once during the rigorous and dangerous training, and he was bumped back two classes because he suffered stress fractures in his legs.
He was stationed at Little Creek for the final stages of training. His mother said the Navy instructors spoke highly of her son.
He is scheduled for a bond hearing Wednesday.
``I'm sorry about what happened, and I know he is sorry,'' Summitt said. ``He wishes he could change things.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color photo
Linda Summitt, left, insists her son, Dustin Turner, above, is
innocent.
``I can read him 100 percent,'' she says. ``And he is innocent of
those charges.''
Photo
Dustin Turner, a 20-year-old blond described by his mother as
``every parent's dream,'' was a multi-sport athlete in high school.
He appears here in a family photo.
KEYWORDS: MURDER SEX CRIME STRANGLING
ARREST by CNB