THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, June 7, 1996 TAG: 9606070438
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A8 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY JON FRANK, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH LENGTH: 42 lines
On June 19, 1995, an intoxicated Billy Joe Brown reached over the front seat of Dustin A. Turner's car and, using a choke hold he had learned during SEAL training, squeezed the life out of Jennifer L. Evans.
That's the theory Virginia Beach attorney Richard Brydges will use to convince jurors that Turner, his client, is innocent of murder.
``She died instantly in the car, in the parking lot, at The Bayou,'' Brydges said on Thursday. ``We have medical evidence that will indicate that.''
About the choke hold that Brown used to bring instant death, Brydges said, SEALs are ``trained to do that.''
That is a very different story than the one prosecutors used to obtain a conviction against Brown, 24, who was sentenced to 72 years in prison on Thursday.
Commonwealth's Attorney Robert Humphreys told jurors that Brown and Turner drove an incapacitated Evans from The Bayou to a back street in Virginia Beach where the two men partially undressed her. When Evans awakened, Turner strangled her while Brown held her down.
Humphreys would not comment Thursday on Turner's trial, scheduled for Aug. 26, except to say that ``it's a different case, a different defendant and different evidence.''
Brydges said he would be happy with the Turner trial staying in Virginia Beach as long as a jury can be chosen that has not been influenced by the media attention given the Brown case.
There are other significant differences in the cases of the two SEAL trainees that should help his client, Brydges said.
``My client has always told the same story,'' Brydges said. ``And my client took police to the body. Brown would never have done that.''
He said Turner lied to police, in part, because of a SEAL camaraderie he felt for Brown. He helped dispose of Evans' body, Brydges said, because ``he was frightened and desperate, but it was an egregious error in judgment.''
KEYWORDS: MURDER KIDNAPPING STRANGULATION
ARREST by CNB