THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1997, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, January 23, 1997 TAG: 9701230307
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY JON FRANK, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH LENGTH: 125 lines
Dustin A. Turner was formally sentenced to 82 years in prison on Wednesday, 19 months after he and fellow SEAL trainee Billy Joe Brown murdered vacationing Georgia college student Jennifer L. Evans after abducting her from a Virginia Beach nightclub.
Judge John K. Moore told the 21-year-old Turner that he was accepting the jury's recommendation, made in September, because ``the court is unable to find any factors or circumstances that would justify modifying that sentence.''
Turner, dressed in his jailhouse-orange jumpsuit and looking thin and drawn, accepted his sentence calmly, but told Moore he was not guilty of murder and that his version of how Evans died at the hands of his co-defendant was ``the absolute truth.''
Turner also invoked the memory of the murder victim.
``If Jennifer could come down here today, she would testify that I had nothing to do with it and I had nothing to do with killing her,'' Turner told the judge.
Moments before, Turner's mother, Linda M. Summitt, pleaded to Moore for mercy.
``I am truly sorry,'' Summitt told the court and the family of Jennifer Evans, who had gathered in the courtroom. ``If I could (take Jennifer's place), I would gladly do it.''
Turner's prison term - 45 years for first-degree murder and 37 years for abduction with intent to defile - is 10 years longer than the one given to Brown, 24, following his trial in June.
Neither defendant is eligible for parole under current state law. Although he could eventually be released under the state's geriatric release program, Turner's 82-year term and Brown's 72-year term amount to virtual life sentences.
``He got what he deserved,'' said one of the jurors who sat in judgment of Turner last summer and attended the formal sentencing on Wednesday. ``We all felt he was more guilty than Billy Joe Brown was.''
The woman juror, who asked not to be identified, explained that she and her fellow jurors never believed Turner's claim that he was innocent of strangling Evans, and that he only helped his friend Brown dispose of Evans' body after Brown strangled her.
``All of us were convinced of his guilt,'' the juror said. ``He was the one who befriended the girl and did not protect her. He took her in his car and did not tell authorities.''
Turner's sentencing ended what Commonwealth's Attorney Robert J. Humphreys called a ``horrible chapter'' in the history of Virginia Beach that ``touched the community'' like no other, in part because it involved people who represented the region's two biggest industries - tourism and the military.
Evans, a 21-year-old Emory University pre-med student, disappeared early in the morning of June 19, 1995, from The Bayou nightclub, where she had gone with two female friends with whom she was vacationing at Sandbridge.
Her disappearance spawned a massive manhunt. Fliers were distributed bearing her photograph and televised appeals from Evans' parents were broadcast throughout the region.
The search came to an end when Evans' body was found near a wooded trail in Newport News City Park on June 27, 1995.
Turner led police to the body after breaking down during an interrogation session at FBI headquarters in Richmond, where Virginia Beach detectives went to interview both Turner and Brown. Brown was arrested that day; Turner was arrested the next day.
The two SEAL trainees, assigned to SEAL Team 4 at Little Creek, were at Fort A.P. Hill near Richmond to complete the final phase of SEAL training. Brown, a native of Dayton, Ohio, and Turner, a native of Bloomington, Ind., had been buddies since first meeting months earlier at a SEAL training facility in Coronado, Calif.
Their relationship, however, had an odd twist. During both trials, other SEALs testified that Brown and Turner, both of whom were married, made a hobby of picking up women and engaging them in three-way sexual encounters. They called it ``tag-team sex,'' and they practiced it throughout their travels across the country while completing their SEAL training program.
According to testimony in both trials, on the night that Evans disappeared, Turner told another member of SEAL Team 4 at The Bayou that he and Brown were going to ``get a threesome going'' with Evans.
During his trial, Turner admitted that he and Evans left The Bayou together, but he claimed that he wanted to be alone with Evans and tried to arrange for Brown to get another ride home.
Brown, Turner said, surprised Turner and Evans by coming upon them while the couple sat in Turner's car in The Bayou parking lot. Brown got in the car and suddenly reached into the front seat and snapped Evans' neck with a commando-style choke hold, Turner claimed.
Turner admitted driving to Newport News City Park and helping Brown dispose of the body.
Brown claimed that Evans had already passed out in Turner's car when he arrived, and that the two SEAL trainees took Evans to a secluded Virginia Beach street where they attempted to rape her. When she kept awakening, Brown claimed, Turner choked her and Brown held her legs. Eventually, Brown said, Evans remained unconscious and the two men disposed of the body in Newport News.
Both initially lied about knowing what happened to Evans when questioned by Virginia Beach Police and agents of the FBI.
That Turner eventually gave in and led police to Evans' body should have resulted in him getting a lesser sentence, said Turner's attorney, Richard G. Brydges, on Wednesday.
``Billy Brown would never have cooperated,'' Brydges said. ``He would never have taken them to her body. ``To give this young man more (time) who was in the wrong place at the wrong time, is unconscionable,'' Brydges said.
Brydges blamed the ``avalanche of publicity'' generated by the case for the long sentence that his client received.
``The jury was stampeded because of the publicity,'' Brydges said. An appeal is planned, he said.
Delores Evans, Jennifer's mother, said after the sentencing that it ``was a relief to get this part of it over with.'' She thanked the city of Virginia Beach for the verdicts and sentences that will put her daughter's killers behind bars for life.
``We leave here today with a lot of love in our hearts for Virginia Beach,'' Delores Evans said. ILLUSTRATION: [Color Photos]
HUY NGUYEN
The Virginian-Pilot
Delores and Al Evans, left, listen to the sentencing Wednesday. They
were relieved to have the case come to an end and thanked the city
of Virginia Beach for the verdicts and sentences.
Jennifer L. Evans, left, a Georgia college student, was murdered in
June 1995. Dustin A. Turner, in court Wednesday at right, and Billy
Joe Brown were convicted of the killing, and Brown was sentenced to
72 years in June. Wednesday, Turner received an 82-year sentence.
HUY NGUYEN
The Virginian-Pilot
KEYWORDS: RAPE MURDER TRIAL SENTENCING