THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, August 27, 1996 TAG: 9608270271
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY JON FRANK, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH LENGTH: 54 lines
Jury selection moved swiftly Monday in the first-degree murder case of former Navy SEAL trainee Dustin A. Turner, dampening concerns that the trial might need to be moved out of Hampton Roads because of extensive pre-trial publicity.
Fifteen jurors were named for the jury panel by late Monday afternoon. Twenty-four are needed before attorneys can begin trimming that number to 12 jurors with two alternates.
``This is the quickest jury-selection process that I can recall,'' said prosecutor Robert Humphreys. Jury selection will continue this morning.
Turner, 21, is the second SEAL trainee to be tried for the June 19, 1995, slaying of 21-year-old Georgia pre-med student Jennifer L. Evans.
Billy Joe Brown, 24, was convicted June 5 of first-degree murder,abduction and attempted rape. He was sentenced to 72 years in prison and fined $63,000.
Circuit Court Judge John K. Moore said last week that he would move the Turner trial if a jury could not be chosen by Thursday. Moore said extensive media attention devoted to the murder of the Emory University student could make choosing an impartial jury difficult.
Evans disappeared from The Bayou, a Virginia Beach nightclub, in the early morning of June 19, 1995. Her body was discovered eight days later in a wooded ravine in Newport News City Park.
Turner led police to her body, saying he and his SEAL Team Four swim buddy disposed of the body after Brown killed Evans with a choke hold in a car in The Bayou parking lot.
Brown told two stories. He first claimed that Turner strangled Evans as Brown held her down when she refused to engage in a three-way sexual encounter in Turner's car. He later told police that when he came upon Turner and Evans in Turner's car in The Bayou parking lot, Evans was already dead. He then said he helped Turner dispose of the body.
Although nearly every potential juror questioned Monday admitted to having heard about the case, most said they had not formed an opinion about Turner's guilt or innocence.
But several were dismissed because they conceded they were convinced Turner was at least partly responsible for Evans' death. One said her opinion was influenced by what she had learned about SEALs from her husband, who is in the Navy. She said SEAL team members stick together, no matter what.
``If someone is going to go into a group like this, they have to be willing to have no morals and no conscience,'' she said. ``Knowing what I know about the SEAL mentality, even though they were trainees and not full-fledged SEALs yet - and Mr. Brown was found guilty - I would think that Mr. Turner could be guilty of at least a portion of it.'' ILLUSTRATION: Dustin A. Turner led police to the body of Jennifer L.
Evans.
KEYWORDS: MURDER TRIAL JURY SELECTION by CNB