THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT  
              Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: Thursday, May 16, 1996                 TAG: 9605160387
SECTION: LOCAL                    PAGE: B5   EDITION: FINAL  
SOURCE: BY JON FRANK, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH                     LENGTH: Medium:   70 lines

CORRECTION/CLARIFICATION: ***************************************************************** Dustin A. Turner is charged with murder and abduction in the death of Jennifer L. Evans. Last year he was also charged with attempted rape and penetration with an animate object in connection with Evans' death. Those two charges were dropped Nov. 2, 1995, at a preliminary hearing. A MetroNews story Thursday said incorrectly that Turner was still being charged with all four offenses. Correction published in The Virginian-Pilot, Friday, May 17, 1996, page A2. ***************************************************************** JUDGE PROHIBITS CAMERAS FROM BEACH MURDER TRIAL

A Circuit Court judge on Wednesday refused to allow cameras in the courtroom for the trial of a Navy SEAL trainee charged with murdering a Georgia college student in Virginia Beach last June.

The trial of Billy Joe Brown, 23, is scheduled to begin Monday. Brown and fellow SEAL trainee Dustin A. Turner, 21, are accused of killing 21-year-old Jennifer L. Evans.

Judge Ann Bonwill Shockley said Wednesday she decided to keep cameras out of Brown's trial because Brown's attorney objected to their presence, and because Brown is accused of sexual crimes in addition to murder.

Shockley explained that the state law that applies to cameras in court specifically requires judges to rule for exclusion when both of those elements exist.

``I believe it is my responsibility to exclude them,'' Shockley said.

Brown and Turner are charged with murder, abduction, attempted rape and penetration with an animate object. Turner is scheduled for trial June 25 before another judge.

Rebecca Deloria, an attorney who represented local television station WVEC at Wednesday's hearing, said the decision apparently will not be appealed. In addition to local television, Court TV had expressed an interest in televising Brown's trial, and The Virginian-Pilot has requested that newspaper photographers be allowed in court.

Shockley on Wednesday also denied a motion by defense attorneys to suppress incriminating statements made by Brown to police last June.

Shockley said none of Brown's rights were violated when he first told police at FBI headquarters in Richmond that he helped kill Evans, and then revised his statement and told police that he was not there when she died but helped dispose of her body. Brown, Shockley said, was not in custody when he made the first statement, and volunteered the second statement without police prodding.

Shockley delayed a decision on whether to grant a change of venue until after jury selection begins next week. Shockley said that if too many jurors have been adversely affected by publicity on the trial, the motion for change of venue motion may be reconsidered.

Brown's attorney Andrew Sacks said jury selection could take several days and the trial could last a week. Sacks also promised to produce a mystery witness who, he said, will testify that it was Turner, not Brown, who killed Evans.

``There is going to be a very unusual turn or twist to this trial,'' Sacks promised in court.

Evans' body was found in a wooded area near a Newport News biking trail on June 27 after Turner told police he and Brown had disposed of the body there. She had been missing for more than a week after disappearing from a Virginia Beach nightclub June 19.

KEYWORDS: MURDER CAMERAS by CNB