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Turner jury: Prosecutors didn't prove their case
Journal photo by Jennifer Rotenizer
Wendy Turner, daughter of Kirk and Jennifer Turner cries after the verdict is read in the case agaisnt her father Kirk. Kirk Turner, was found not guilty by reason of self defense on Friday August 20, 2009.
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Published: August 21, 2009
Updated: 08/21/2009 03:00 pm
MOCKSVILLE
The jury foreman in the first-degree murder trial of Kirk Turner said today that prosecutors failed to prove their case.
"They (the prosecutors) threw stuff against the wall, to see if something would stick, and we felt nothing stuck," jury foreman Landon Potts said.
The Davie County jury of eight men and four women today found Turner not guilty by reason of self defense. Turner was charged with first-degree murder in the death of his estranged wife, Jennifer Jean Wittwer Turner.
Turner was accused of slashing his wife's throat with a pocketknife Sept. 12, 2007, in the shop building on their property at 627 Jack Booe Road, just north of Mocksville.
Prosecutors said in closing arguments that Kirk Turner killed his wife over a pending divorce and an alienation-of-affection lawsuit that his wife had filed against his girlfriend, Tondja Woods Colvin, that would have pushed him to the brink of bankruptcy.
Defense attorneys argued that Turner killed his wife after she stabbed him twice in the left thigh near the groin with a 7-foot-long Viking-like spear.
Had he been convicted of first-degree murder, Kirk Turner, a dentist with a practice in Clemmons, would have faced life in prison without the possibility of parole. Jury deliberations began about 10 a.m. yesterday after more than two weeks of testimony.
After the verdict was read, Turner hugged his attorneys and supporters.
Turner also gave a short statement thanking the jury for its service, and he said it had been a hard 23 months.
His daughter, Wendy, left the courtroom in tears and declined comment.
In a statement given later, Wendy Turner called the verdict "a distinct failure of justice.
"The women of Davie County," the statement said, "should be scared. Let us not forget this woman Jennifer Turner."
Gwen Elizabeth Kennedy, who is Jennifer Turner's sister and the executor of her estate, has filed a wrongful-death lawsuit against Turner.
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