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Turner jury to resume deliberations this morning
Jurors ask to examine evidence from the 2-week trial, including the pocketknife involved
Journal Photo by Jennifer Rotenizer
Kirk Turner reads a Bible that he brought to Davie Superior Court.
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Published: August 21, 2009
MOCKSVILLE
A Davie County jury will return this morning to try to reach a verdict in the case of Dr. Kirk Alan Turner, who is charged with first-degree murder in the death of his estranged wife, Jennifer Jean Wittwer Turner.
If convicted of first-degree murder, Kirk Turner, a dentist with a practice in Clemmons, would face life in prison without the possibility of parole. Jury deliberations began about 10 a.m. yesterday after more than two weeks of testimony.
Turner is 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 Wednesday 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 Wednesday 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.
Judge W. Erwin Spainhour of Davie Superior Court told the jury that in addition to first-degree murder, it also could consider two lesser charges: second-degree murder and voluntary manslaughter.
The jury could also find Turner not guilty by reason of self-defense. To do so, it would have to determine that Turner believed that his life was in danger and that there were circumstances the night of Sept. 12, 2007, in which a reasonable person would have feared for his or her life, Spainhour said. The jury would also have to determine that Kirk Turner was not the aggressor and that he did not use excessive force, Spainhour said.
For a verdict of first-degree murder, Spainhour told the jury, prosecutors have to prove several things:
□ That Kirk Turner intended to kill his wife with a deadly weapon and that he did it with malice.
□ That Turner's actions caused his wife's death.
□ That he acted with premeditation and deliberation.
□ That he did not act in self-defense and was the aggressor.
Second-degree murder is an unlawful killing with malice but without premeditation and deliberation, Spainhour told the jury.
Voluntary manslaughter is unlawful killing without malice, premeditation or deliberation. It could be a killing done in the heat of passion, meaning that the defendant's state of mind was so violent that it overwhelmed reason, Spainhour said. That charge also includes a possibility that Kirk Turner killed his wife in self-defense, but prosecutors have to prove that Turner was the aggressor and that he used excessive force in defending himself.
Prosecutors have said that Jennifer Turner's stab wounds were so deep that they cut her cervical spine. Her carotid artery, jugular vein and trachea were also cut, prosecutors said.
They argued that Kirk Turner was not attacked by his wife, and either inflicted the wounds himself or had help from Greg Smithson, a longtime friend who was with him that night. Prosecutors argued that Turner staged the crime scene to cover up the murder.
Turner testified earlier this week that his wife had pointed a "horizontal silver thing" at his legs, referring to the spear. He said his wife made a reference to his "pretty parts" -- which Turner described as a derogatory term that she used for a birth defect on his genitalia. He said he has hypospadias, a defect in which the urethra opens at a spot other than at the tip of the penis.
Defense attorneys say that Turner pulled out a pocketknife that he was known to carry and killed his wife in self-defense.
The jury paused in its deliberations to ask to see evidence, including a deposition that Smithson gave, the spear, the pocketknife and a portion of testimony from Capt. J.D. Hartman of the Davie County Sheriff's Office.
At one point in the afternoon, Kirk Turner took a Bible out of his coat pocket and read it while prosecutors and defense attorneys worked to get evidence to the jury.
The jury had a lunch break and then another break in the afternoon. Just before 5 yesterday, jury members sent a note saying that they wanted to go home for the day. Spainhour called for a recess until 9:30 a.m. today.
■ Michael Hewlett can be reached at 727-7326 or at mhewlett@wsjournal.com.
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