The wife of a prominent dentist who is accused of killing her two years ago told her daughter that her husband threatened her and she was so afraid of him that she locked herself in her bedroom with a baseball bat nearby, according to testimony yesterday in Davie Superior Court.
Dr. Kirk Alan 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 the 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 a 7-foot-long Viking-like spear, stabbing him twice in the left thigh near the groin. Kirk Turner had bought the spear.
Kirk Turner went to the house twice after Jennifer Turner filed a lawsuit against his girlfriend and tried to persuade his wife to drop the lawsuit, said the couple's daughter, Gwendolyn "Wendy" Elizabeth Turner, yesterday. She said her mother told her that Kirk Turner had said that there were three ways to stop the lawsuit -- Jennifer Turner could drop the lawsuit, reconcile with her husband or die.
Her mother was afraid of him, said Wendy Turner. Jennifer Turner told her that he had said that there was more than one way to end a marriage.
"She would hunch over," Wendy Turner said under direct examination. "She would be very shaky and scared. Her eyes would have tears in them. She thought he was going to kill her."
Jennifer Turner also had what she called a "safe place" in the house on Jack Booe Road, said Harriet Phillips, a real-estate agent Jennifer Turner hired to help her find property for a small horse farm. Phillips also became a friend.
Phillips said she learned about the "safe place" -- which was Jennifer Turner's bedroom on the main floor -- during a tour of the house. There was a "Do Not Enter" sign over the door, Phillips said. A baseball bat was beside the bed. Wendy Turner also saw the "safe place" and said that her mother carried her cell phone and pepper spray everywhere she went because she was scared that Kirk Turner might hurt her.
Jennifer Turner believed Kirk Turner had broken into the house at least twice after he had moved out, Phillips said.
Ron Lean, who was Jennifer Turner's therapist, said that during his first session with her, Jennifer Turner sat on the edge of the seat, spoke in a trembling voice and was tearful. They developed a safety plan in which she would never allow herself to be alone with Kirk Turner and to stay with a friend if things between her and Kirk got intense, Lean said.
Jennifer Turner also locked herself in her bedroom for months because she was so scared of Kirk Turner, Lean testified. Only in the last couple of months before she died did Jennifer Turner start to venture outside the bedroom, Lean said.
He also testified that Jennifer Turner told him that her husband had belittled and emotionally abused her during their marriage. But under cross-examination, Lean said that Jennifer Turner never mentioned any physical abuse.
Yesterday, Wendy Turner described her father as a man who pushed her and her brother to further their education. She graduated in 2007 from Elon University and is currently in law school.
But she has talked to her father only three times in the past three years, ever since she found out her father cheated on her mother. And she calls him by his first name because of her father's affair.
"It was hard to call him ‘Dad' after what happened," she said.
Testimony in the trial is scheduled to resume at 9:30 a.m. today.
■ Michael Hewlett can be reached at 727-7326 or at mhewlett@wsjournal.com.
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