THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, July 7, 1995 TAG: 9507070351
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY JUNE ARNEY, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH LENGTH: Medium: 70 lines
Billy Joe Brown Jr., one of the two Navy SEAL trainees charged in the killing of Jennifer L. Evans, told police during interviews that he was not responsible for the crime and blamed his co-defendant.
A Virginia Beach detective on Thursday revealed in court two accounts by Brown in which Brown says that his roommate, Dustin A. Turner, 20, of Bloomington, Ind., is the killer.
The testimony came during a bond hearing for 23-year-old Brown, of Dayton, Ohio.
Brown and Turner had been assigned to the Little Creek Naval Amphibious Base.
In the first version, Brown said that he, Turner and Evans were in Turner's car on June 19 when Turner started undressing the woman and she resisted. Brown said he helped hold her down, but Turner began choking her, according to testimony by Detective J.T. Orr.
A few hours after describing that version of events to Orr, Brown gave a second version, saying he wasn't in the car when Evans was killed. He said he approached the car after his ride fell through and saw Evans in the back seat with blood coming out of her mouth. He said Turner motioned him to get in.
Assistant Public Defender Randall Clark, Brown's court-appointed attorney, says the second version is the correct one.
Police asked Brown if he needed or wanted anything after he gave the second statement. Brown told them he could use ``a beer and a babe.''
General District Court Judge William C. Bunch Jr. denied bond for Brown, who faces charges of murder, abduction and sexual assault in Evans' death. Clark said he will appeal his client's bond hearing next week. No date has been set for that appeal or for the preliminary hearing.
Evans, 21, vanished after she met Turner at The Bayou nightclub in the Oceanfront area on June 19 and left with him. The body of the honors pre-medical student at Emory University was found June 27 in a wooded area of Newport News Park.
Richard G. Brydges, representing Turner, on Thursday asked that his client's bond hearing be continued. No date has been set for that hearing, in which Turner faces the same charges as Brown. Brydges described Brown's version of events as ``unadulterated lies.''
He said his client has maintained a consistent account to police since initially denying that he left the bar with Evans.
``Dustin Turner had nothing to do with it,'' Brydges said after Thursday's court hearing. ``The only time he touched that girl was when she asked him to give her a hug on the way to the car.''
Turner has said he left the bar with Evans, then went back and told Brown that he planned to spend some time with Evans and suggested that Brown find another ride home.
Evans and Turner then walked back to Turner's car to listen to music. Shortly afterward, Brown walked up and got in the back seat, Brydges said. That's when the killing occurred, he said.
Brown has a history of violence against women, according to Ohio police reports.
In 1990, when he was 17, Brown assaulted his 14-year-old wife in front of Huber Heights police, and then fought three officers when they tried to arrest him, according to the report. He was charged with domestic violence and three related offenses. ILLUSTRATION: Color photo
Billy Joe Brown Jr.
KEYWORDS: MURDER STRANGLING ASSAULT SEX CRIME
ARREST by CNB