BOND SET AT $1M FOR DENTIST CHARGED WITH KILLING HIS WIFE DEFENDANT DESCRIBED AS COMPASSIONATE MAN; PROSECUTORS CALL HIM ANGRY COUPLE WERE ESTRANGED: INFIDELITY ALLEGED

Attorneys presented starkly different versions yesterday of Kirk Alan Turner, the Clemmons dentist charged with murder in the death of his wife, Jennifer Jean Wittwer Turner, last year.

Prosecutors described a man so angry with his wife over a hotly-contested separation and a lawsuit against a woman that she alleged had an affair with him that he slit his wife's throat with a pocketknife.

Defense attorneys submitted 55 letters of support from people who described Turner as a deeply compassionate man who often called his dental patients after hours to make sure that they were doing OK.

More than 40 people showed up to support Kirk Turner yesterday, including his 21-year-old son, Gilbert Richard Turner. He also has a 22-year-old daughter.

"He's a conservative man, a Christian man," said Joseph Cheshire, one of Kirk Turner's three defense attorneys. "He's a solid American man."

Prosecutors announced yesterday that they would not ask for the death penalty on the charge of first-degree murder.

In considering the death penalty, prosecutors said they had been looking at two aggravating factors laid out in state law: that the crime was "especially heinous, atrocious and cruel," and that it was committed for pecuniary gain.

But prosecutors said they had insufficient proof of those aggravating factors.

If convicted of first-degree murder, Turner could spend life in prison without parole.

Judge Kimberly Taylor of Davie Superior Court set Turner's bond at $1 million. Prosecutors had asked for a bond of $1.5 million, and defense attorneys had sought a bond of about $500,000.

In addition to criminal charges, Turner is also facing a wrongful-death lawsuit that was filed by Jennifer Turner's sister, Gwen Elizabeth Kennedy. She is the executor of Jennifer Turner's estate.

Kirk Turner, 50, was indicted for first-degree murder on Dec. 13, three months after Jennifer Turner's body was found in a shop building on the 35-acre property at 627 Jack Booe Road that the couple once shared. They were married for more than 20 years before separating in 2006.

Kirk Turner filed for divorce on July 31, 2007.

Assistant District Attorney Greg Brown said that Kirk Turner brutally killed his wife. The autopsy, he said, showed two gashes across Jennifer Turner's throat, both severing the windpipe.

One cut went all the way through to her spine, he said, and she also had a blunt-force injury to her head and defensive wounds on her left palm. A pocketknife was found beneath her body, and Brown said that it was similar to one that Kirk Turner was known to carry.

Defense attorneys argue that Kirk Turner killed his wife in self-defense. They allege that Jennifer Turner attacked her husband with a spear, stabbing him in the thigh and groin area.

Brown contended that those wounds could have been self-inflicted, but Turner's attorney said that would have been impossible.

Terrie Lynch was among a handful of people who came to the hearing yesterday in support of Jennifer Turner. Lynch sobbed as Brown described Jennifer Turner's wounds, and she said afterward that it was hard to hear details of how her friend died.

Anne Gould, another friend of Jennifer Turner's, was also a patient of Kirk Turner's. She agreed that he was a wonderful dentist, but she said that Jennifer Turner was afraid of her husband.

"The amount of damage he did to her body was horrendous, and that needs to be remembered," she said.

Cheshire again and again turned the court's attention to the degree of support for Kirk Turner, saying that he has never seen such strong support for a murder defendant in his 35 years of practicing law. Friends and co-workers he talked to said that Turner was a pillar of the community, Cheshire said, and a dedicated dentist who provided free dental work to soldiers preparing to go overseas.

But Brown pointed out that none of the defendant's supporters had said much about Jennifer Turner, except that she was his estranged wife.

Not one of those letters of support mentioned that Kirk Turner was in "financial warfare" with his wife, Brown said, or that she had accused him of infidelity.

"The state is dealing with a defendant who slit his wife's throat," he said.

Cheshire said that it might take a while to raise the money for the $1 million bond because Turner's assets are tied up in the divorce.

If he is released, he would not be allowed to leave the country and he would be required to get permission from the district attorney to leave North Carolina. He also would be on electronic monitoring for at least a month.

Prosecutors tentatively scheduled a trial for June 2.