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District Judge Roger Young ruled that the original detective in the case had changed his interpretations of the evidence and with more than 20 witnesses either dead or unable to testify in the 35-year-old case, the couple could not present a fair defense and question witnesses. who claim to have given incriminating testimony.
The judge barred prosecutors from ever bringing charges against the couple again.
The boy’s father said Friday that if they focused on them wrongly to begin with, they would never be able to properly grieve and the real killer would likely never be known.
“I feel like they made a very bad case from the beginning,” said Victor Turner, father of five-year-old Justin Turner.
“I’m glad it’s over, but we’ll really never know too much now. All I wanted was to catch the person who did this.”
Justin Turner was found dead in a closet in a camper behind his home in Berkeley County in March 1989. He had been strangled.
Investigators immediately thought the murder scene was staged and caught his father, Victor Turner, and stepmother, Megan Turner, in lies, Berkeley County Sheriff Dwayne Lewis said at a news conference in January announcing murder charges against both of them in the cold case.
Megan Turner was also charged with murder in 1990, but a grand jury declined to indict her.
Megan Turner said the suspicion surrounding her following the death of her stepson was overwhelming. She was afraid to speak to anyone, fearing that her words would be twisted by the police, determined to convict her unfairly.
“It’s been over 30 years,” Turner said, crying.
“We couldn’t say anything. The investigation, when it started, everything went wrong … if we said anything, they tried to turn it against us.”
Sheriffs determined to solve the case had tunnel vision depending on assumptions and poorly collected evidence, defense attorney Sean Kent said at a news conference Friday.
“One sheriff after another whispered rumors into the mind of the next. And then the next person would say it, and the next person,” Kent said.
“This case is not based on any evidence. It is based on hearsay and innuendo.”
After the couple was arrested, the Virginia Law School Innocence Project sent Kent evidence that serial killer Richard Evonitz was stationed on a U.S. Navy ship in nearby Charleston at the time of the murder.
The evidence and the method used in the boy’s case were consistent with three other child abductions and murders in Virginia that Evonitz was connected to, Kent said.
Evonitz killed himself when police captured him in 2002. His body was cremated, likely making it impossible to match his DNA to evidence in the South Carolina case and further hampering Turner’s ability to defend himself.
The detective who investigated the case in 1989 was rehired by the Berkeley County Sheriff’s Office in 2021 to review unsolved cases.
He testified that investigators were able to determine that small fibers from a ligature found in the home shortly after the boy’s disappearance matched those found on the boy’s shirt.
Kent said the use of a microscope should not be considered new evidence.
When they arrested the couple this year, deputies changed their theory of how the boy was killed, saying he was strangled with a dog collar attached to a leash instead of just the leash.
The new theory came only after deputies bought a collar and tested it on a mannequin, attorneys said.
The judge pointed out that the collar and dog would have been available in 1989, but not now. The collar has not been found since, even after detectives dug up the dog’s remains, the defense said.
Justin Turner’s body was found two days after he was reported missing as investigators arrested the couple citing strange statements and behavior such as Victor Turner entering the camper while a television camera captured him and seconds later saying he was found the body among the many cabinets and drawers in the camper.
The couple asked officers what might happen if a family member hurt the boy, and others said Megan Turner had suggested a big fight with her stepson before he died, and she had won.
Having more than 20 witnesses used to build the case in 1989 who cannot testify today is not fair to the couple, the judge ruled.
“This is circumstantial evidence that depends in part on allegedly incriminating statements made to third parties. The absence of these witnesses for cross-examination would be highly prejudicial to the defense,” Young wrote.
Prosecutors said they had no reason to challenge Young’s ruling and complained about mistakes investigators made 35 years ago in collecting and preserving evidence.
“It is rare for prosecutors to say there was nothing more they could have done to conduct a more thorough investigation, but in this case we know Sheriff Lewis and his team of investigators did everything possible to find the truth and justice.” , attorney Scarlett Wilson wrote in a statement.
Other family members of Justin Turner released an unsigned statement through prosecutors saying the justice system failed him.
“Based on the overwhelming evidence, those responsible for Justin’s death had the chance to face justice here, but instead chose to remain silent and face God’s final justice for eternity!” the statement read.
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