MOCKSVILLE - Jennifer Turner's blood was found on the pocketknife that prosecutors say Dr. Kirk Alan Turner used to kill her, according to testimony today in his murder trial in Davie Superior Court.
Her blood was also on the tip and handle of the 7-foot Viking-like spear defense attorneys have said Jennifer Turner used to stab her estranged husband in the groin area.
Kirk Turner, who has a dental practice in Clemmons, is on trial on a charge of first-degree murder in the death of his wife, Jennifer Jean Wittwer Turner.
She was found dead Sept. 12, 2007, in a shop building at the couple's house at 627 Jack Booe Road, just north of Mocksville. Her throat had been slashed.
Prosecutors have argued that Kirk Turner was so rattled by a divorce and a lawsuit that his wife had filed against his girlfriend, Tondja Woods Colvin, that he killed his wife with a pocketknife.
Defense attorneys have argued that Kirk Turner was defending himself after his wife attacked him with the spear, stabbing him twice in the left thigh near the groin. Kirk Turner had bought the spear.
Jennifer Leyn, a former agent with the State Bureau of Investigation, testified that blood found on the pocketknife matched Jennifer Turner's DNA.
The blood on the tip and handle of the spear had two distinct types of DNA, but the dominant type matched Jennifer Turner, Leyn said. She said Kirk Turner could not be excluded from having contributed to the other DNA found in the blood sample.
Blood found on Jennifer Turner's left and right leg, the top of a box found near her body, and a section of her shirt all matched Kirk Turner's DNA, Leyn testified. Kirk Turner's DNA also matched blood samples taken from the concrete floor near Jennifer Turner's feet and next to a Corvette that was parked in the first part of the shop building, Leyn said.
Karen Morrow, a special agent with the SBI, testified that the length and width of an impression found on Kirk Turner's shirt matched the blade of the pocketknife.
Under cross-examination, Morrow said that she couldn't say that the pocketknife definitely made that impression, only that it could have been made by the knife. She said that the length and width of the impression matches up with the length and width of the pocketknife.
In other testimony today, Capt. J.D. Hartman of the Davie County Sheriff's Office said that Jennifer Turner had changed the locks and the security codes in the house at the time of her death.
Under direct examination by Assistant District Attorney Rob Taylor, Hartman also said that Jennifer Turner had a call to her cell phone on Sept. 12 that came in at 4:42 p.m. Anne Gould, a friend, called Jennifer Turner on her land line at 6:10 p.m. that day. Those were the only calls Jennifer Turner got that day on both her cell phone and her land line, Hartman said.
Hartman said under cross-examination that Jennifer Turner had changed her e-mail to "hatekirk." In a quick redirect, Taylor asked Hartman what Kirk Turner's computer-screen name was.
Hartman said it was "daddyrat."
Judge W. Erwin Spainhour dismissed the jury at about 12:30 yesterday afternoon. The trial will resume at 9:30 a.m. Monday.
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