THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, June 4, 1996 TAG: 9606040299
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY JON FRANK, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH LENGTH: 140 lines
The fate of Billy Joe Brown is today in the hands of a jury, whose task is to decide whether the SEAL trainee helped kill a Georgia pre-med student during a violent three-way sexual encounter last June or whether he instead was a victim of a misunderstood code of honor.
The difference for Brown, 23, is profound. A guilty verdict would mean one of two things: up to life in prison for a conviction of first-degree murder, or up to 12 months in jail for a misdemeanor conviction of accessory after the fact.
It all hinges on whether the 12-member jury believes that, as prosecutors charge, Brown helped abduct 21-year-old Jennifer L. Evans from The Bayou nightclub last June 19 and then held her arms and legs while his fellow SEAL trainee and swim buddy, Dustin A. Turner, choked her to death.
Or did Brown come upon Turner in the parking lot of The Bayou only moments after Turner crushed Evans' throat during a quick, rough-sex episode in the front seat of Turner's Chevrolet Geo?
In that scenario, according to defense attorney Andrew Sacks, Brown mistakenly followed a military code that he thought forced him to protect Turner, the man who had helped him survive some of the toughest training that the armed forces can dish out.
``This man put the loyalty of friendship ahead of truth,'' Sacks told the jury during his closing arguments on Monday. ``He considered his swim buddy the most important thing in the world.''
But Prosecutor Albert Alberi called the SEAL code of honor nothing more than a ``mutual security pact'' that allowed Brown and Turner to concoct an elaborate batch of lies that they stuck to for more than a week last June.
The two SEAL trainees, Alberi said, agreed that ``We will keep the story secret. You won't rat on me and I won't rat on you, and together we'll tough it out.''
Initially, both denied any involvement in Evans' disappearance. Both said they left The Bayou together.
But the lies began unraveling when they were taken to FBI headquarters in Richmond for separate polygraph tests on June 27.
Turner, who was 20 at the time, broke first, blaming Evans' murder on Brown.
Brown then made two statements to police that have been at the center of his murder trial.
He first said Evans was ``passed out'' in Turner's car when he came upon the couple in the parking lot of The Bayou. He and Turner, Brown said, decided to have sex with the Emory University student and drove to a residential street. There they began undressing her, laying her back in the car with the seats down.
Evans, Brown told police, awakened twice, and both times she was choked back into unconsciousness by Turner. Each time Brown held her hands down and sat on her legs.
The two members of Little-Creek based SEAL Team Four then drove to Newport News, where they dumped her body in a wooded ditch.
Brown told his second story 90 minutes later, again to Virginia Beach detectives who had traveled to Richmond to interrogate the men.
This time Brown said he came upon Turner and Evans in the nightclub parking lot just as Turner was jumping out of the car. When Turner told his friend to ``Hurry, dude, get in,'' he jumped into the car to find Evans unconscious in the back seat. According to Brown, Turner said, ``I think I f------ killed her.'' Brown then told police that he told Turner to ``just drive.''
As they were driving, Brown said, he began fondling the corpse, something he admitted to police was ``pretty sick.''
At this point the two stories converge, with the two SEAL trainees driving to the Newport News park where police found Evans' body late on the afternoon of June 27.
Brown told both stories during the two-week trial, which has included testimony about a group-sex orgy at a California SEAL training facility that has spurred an investigation by the Navy.
``The bottom line boils down to: Do you believe the statement given by Billy Joe Brown . . . which incriminates him in so many ways?'' Commonwealth's Attorney Robert Humphreys told the jury during closing arguments Monday afternoon. ``Or do you believe the statement and testimony given by him that is so self-serving?''
Humphreys said the case against Brown and Turner revolves around their obsession with having three-way sex with single women the two men picked up.
At least five witnesses, three of them other members of SEAL teams based at Little Creek, testified during the trial that Turner and Brown often talked about and sometimes engaged in group sex. The men referred to it as ``tag-team sex,'' Humphreys said, and they were determined to pursue it whether they could find willing participants, or not.
``Dustin Turner and Billy Joe Brown had sex on the mind and planned to have sex with Jennifer Evans, or any woman, whether they agreed to it or not,'' Humphreys said.
One of the witnesses, SEAL Team Four member Julio Fitzgibbons, testified on the first day of the trial that moments before Evans disappeared from the Oceanfront bar, Turner told him that he was ``going to go have a threesome.'' Fitzgibbons said Brown looked at him when the comment was made and smiled.
Alberi said prosecutors believe that both men were capable of applying incapacitating choke holds on victims. One of the men, he said, used a choke hold on Evans in Turner's car outside The Bayou.
``One of those two guys incapacitated Jennifer,'' Alberi said. ``She didn't pass out; she was incapacitated.''
From there, Alberi said, prosecutors believe Evans was killed in the way that Brown first admitted to in Richmond: Turner strangled her while Brown pinned her down.
But Sacks said the evidence strongly supports Brown's second story.
Testimony from Brown's former girlfriend, Kristen Bishop, supports the theory that Turner, who numerous witnesses said was the aggressor in The Bayou last June, wanted Evans to himself. He arranged for Bishop to give Brown, who said he had consumed about 50 glasses of alcohol that day and night, a ride home.
``Billy Brown was not on Dustin Turner's mind that night, except to ditch him,'' Sacks said. ``This was Jennifer Evans and Dustin Turner, nobody else.''
He called Brown's first story ``a fabrication in a moment of tension'' that was given to police to deflect attention from Turner, who Brown told police he loved like a brother and would be willing to take a bullet for.
Turner, Sacks said, did not share Brown's loyalty.
``I hope you won't let Dustin Turner destroy another life,'' Sacks told the jury. ``Don't let Dustin Turner get the last laugh.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color photo
Awaiting the jury's verdict
Graphic
Photos
The Virginian-Pilot
DEFENDANT: Billy Joe Brown Jr.
CODEFENDANT: Navy SEAL trainee Dustin A. Turner.
VICTIM: Jennifer L. Evans.
THE CRIME: Brown, a Navy SEAL trainee, is on trial in the
abduction and death of Evans, a pre-med student from Atlanta who
died last June while vacationing in Virginia Beach. She was last
seen alive leaving an Oceanfront bar.
CHARGES AGAINST BROWN: Murder, abduction and attempted rape.
PENALTY: Up to life in prison.
WHAT HAPPENED MONDAY: In closing arguments to the jury,
prosecutors said Brown had incriminated himself in a plot to kill
Evans and and should be convicted of first-degree murder. The
defense argued that Brown should be acquitted, that he happened upon
a crime perpetrated by Turner and, because of a Navy SEAL code of
honor, tried to help protect Turner. The jury is to begin
deliberations today.
KEYWORDS: MURDER KIDNAPPING TRIAL
TESTIMONY STRANGULATION by CNB