THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, August 25, 1996 TAG: 9608260656
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY JON FRANK, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH LENGTH: 111 lines
Almost three months ago, Navy SEAL trainee Dustin A. Turner exercised his Fifth Amendment privilege a half-dozen times when called as a witness in the first-degree murder trial of his former SEAL swim buddy, Billy Joe Brown.
The trial eventually spawned a Navy investigation into SEAL training procedures and featured lurid testimony about Brown and Turner and their penchant for three-way sexual encounters. It ended with Brown convicted of first-degree murder, attempted rape and abduction with intent to defile.
But on the stand, Turner refused to say anything about Brown or about how the victim - 21-year-old Georgia pre-med student Jennifer L. Evans - died in the early morning of June 19, 1995.
That won't happen again. When Turner goes on trial this week in Evans' abduction and murder, he will take the stand in his own defense.
``And he'll make a good witness,'' predicted Turner's lawyer, Virginia Beach attorney Richard G. Brydges.
Brydges said that Turner will say Brown killed Evans with a quick, commando-style choke-hold in a sudden, unexplained burst of violence while the three sat in Turner's car parked in the lot of The Bayou, a Virginia Beach nightclub.
According to Turner, he and Brown then dumped Evans body more than 30 miles away in a Newport News City Park ravine.
That is what Turner told police just before he and Brown were arrested more than a year ago while completing the last phase of SEAL training, which is among the most rugged in the military . Had they finished the commando training, Brown, 23, and Turner, 21, would have become part of Little Creek-based SEAL Team Four.
Turner's story came out during intense questioning by Virginia Beach detectives at the FBI field office in Richmond on June 27, eight days after Evans disappeared.
After first denying any involvement, Turner admitted that he played a role in Evans' disappearance. But he denied any role in her death.
Turner then led authorities to Evans' body.
``He told them, `I'm going to take you where we put the body. But I didn't kill her. Brown killed her,' '' Brydges said.
Brydges believes that because Turner's story remained consistent once he admitted some involvement, it will help convince jurors that Turner's version of how Evans died is the truth.
That could result in Turner being convicted not of first-degree murder, which carries a potential life sentence, but of some lesser offense, such as an accessory after the fact in Evans' death or manslaughter - both of which carry much smaller potential penalties.
Brown, who was sentenced to 72 years in prison and was fined $63,000, changed his story at least three times during interviews with police.
With each story, he increased Turner's responsibility and decreased his own.
Brown first denied any knowledge of how Evans died. But when informed that Turner had cracked, Brown began painting Turner as the bad guy.
He told police Turner picked up Evans at The Bayou early in the morning of June 19 with the intention of involving her in a three-way sex act with Brown. Brown said he had consumed more than 50 alcoholic drinks in the hours leading up to Evans' death.
With Evans passed out in Turner's car, Brown said, the SEAL trainees took the Emory University student to a back street in Virginia Beach and tried to have sex with her.
When she resisted, Brown said, Turner strangled her while Brown held her down.
Brown then changed his story, telling Detective Al Byrum that Turner killed Evans in his car in the nightclub parking lot before Brown walked up to the car. Then, Brown said, he helped Turner dispose of the body.
Brown testified during his trial that his close relationship with Turner, and the military code of honor that SEALs are taught to respect, explained why he lied to police.
Brown said he was trying to protect Turner, whom he said he loved like a brother.
Prosecutors pursued Brown's first account of Evans' death as the truth.
They also produced five witnesses - including three other SEALS - who testified that Brown and Turner made it their ``hobby'' to pick up women and engage them in group sex, or ``tag-team sex.''
Evans, who was vacationing in Virginia Beach with friends when killed, was the last of these women. When she resisted the sexual advances of the two SEAL trainees, prosecutors said, she was killed.
Brydges also is banking on Turner's All-American good looks and open manner, which promises to be a stark contrast to the dark, brooding, almost menacing presence that Brown displayed to the jury during most of his trial.
But picking a jury may be harder for Turner's trial.
Judge John K. Moore has said that he will move the proceedings if an impartial jury cannot be seated by Thursday.
Complicating jury selection are several factors, at least one of them unique to this case, according to police.
Following the discovery of Evans' body, the Virginia Beach Police Department led a drive to establish a scholarship fund at Emory University to memorialize the slain student.
Thousands of fliers and posters were printed and distributed throughout the region, and two golf tournaments were planned.
Officers with the police department testified at a pre-trial hearing that the publicity generated for the scholarship fund was unprecedented.
Also, hundreds of missing-person posters with Evans' picture were circulated during the week between her disappearance and the discovery of her body.
The case also generated a $26,000 reward for information leading to the discovery of Evans' whereabouts.
Brydges, though, is most worried that potential jurors in Hampton Roads have already been overexposed to stories of three-way sex, drunken SEAL trainees and twisted military honor codes to be objective about Turner.
``My main concern is what will they remember from the Brown trial,'' Brydges said. ILLUSTRATION: Color photo
At his former buddy's trial, Turner refused to testify about how
Evans died.
KEYWORDS: MURDER RAPE SEX CRIME TRIAL by CNB