The courts have spoken, and former Navy SEAL trainee Dustin Turner remains locked up for a 1995 slaying that a Dayton man has confessed to committing alone.
Not content to let the Virginia Supreme Court have the final word, a Richmond filmmaker and former Navy special warfare operator is putting the final touches on a documentary contending Turner is innocent and portraying the state’s judicial system as either flawed or outright corrupt.
“Dusty’s story has been exactly the same from the first time I interviewed him,” J.D. Leete said in an interview. “I have no doubt he’s telling the truth.”
Leete makes the case for Turner in “Target of Opportunity: The US Navy SEALs and the Murder of Jennifer Evans.” The documentary will be shown for the first time at a Richmond theater Thursday night. A screening is set for Turner’s hometown of Bloomington, Ind., on Aug. 4.
Turner is serving an 82-year prison sentence for the slaying of Evans, a vacationing 21-year-old Emory University pre-med student he met at a Virginia Beach nightclub. Another former SEAL trainee, Billy Joe Brown of Dayton, was convicted in a separate trial and is serving 72 years.
Brown originally blamed Turner for the killing, but changed his story in 2003 and said he alone strangled Evans. A judge found Brown’s confession credible, and a divided panel of the Virginia Court of Appeals exonerated Turner. But the panel’s decision was overturned by the full appeals court and the Virginia Supreme Court, exhausting all of Turner’s appeals. A clemency petition is pending with Gov. Bob McDonnell.
Leete said his primary goal is to educate the public about what really happened on June 19, 1995, in the parking lot of The Bayou nightclub and how the case was handled by police, prosecutors and the courts. He said all the evidence supports the story Turner has told from day one: that a drunken and belligerent Brown climbed into the backseat of Turner’s 1990 Geo Storm, reached over the front passenger seat and strangled Evans. Turner admits helping Brown dispose of Evans’ body in a Newport News park.
“If people think he should be in prison for the rest of his life for driving away, so be it,” Leete said. He would be happy if his film prompted the public to rally behind the clemency bid — an outcome Turner’s mother, Linda Summitt, also would welcome.
“I hope it will help people see the injustices that went on during the trial and after the trial, and how things were turned around to fit the needs of the judicial system,” Summitt said.
Evans’ mother, however, views the documentary as a slanted denial of what the courts have determined to be the truth.
“The Virginia Supreme Court ruling was such a relief to have behind us, and we hoped and prayed it would be smooth sailing from here on out but I guess that’s too much to ask for,” Delores Evans of Tucker, Ga., said in a telephone interview. She said that she turned down an invitation to be interviewed for the documentary because she expected it would portray Turner as a victim.
“There was a precious, bright woman with a bright future ahead of her, but they don’t care to mention that,” she said. “That’s the real tragedy.”
The Virginia attorney general’s office did not respond to a request for comment.
About the Author