Closing arguments end; Turner case goes to jury

In closing arguments yesterday, prosecutors and defense attorneys gave starkly different versions of how Dr. Kirk Alan Turner killed his estranged wife, Jennifer, with a pocketknife nearly two years ago.

Prosecutors say that Turner slashed his wife's throat and tried to make it appear that she had attacked him with a spear. Defense attorneys said that Turner killed his wife after she stabbed him with the spear in the left thigh near his groin.

Turner, a dentist with a practice in Clemmons, is on trial in Davie Superior Court on a charge of first-degree murder in the death of his wife, Jennifer Jean Wittwer Turner. On Sept. 12, 2007, she was found dead, her throat cut, in the shop building of the couple's house at 627 Jack Booe Road, just north of Mocksville.

The closing arguments came after more than two weeks of testimony and a day after Kirk Turner took the stand in his own defense, which legal experts consider to be a rare move for a murder defendant.

Prosecutors said that Turner slashed his wife's throat twice because he was angry over a pending divorce and an alienation-of-affection lawsuit that his wife had filed against his girlfriend, Tondja Woods Colvin.

Jennifer Turner's stab wounds were so deep, prosecutors said, that they cut her cervical spine.

"What this case is about is sex and money," Greg Brown, an assistant district attorney, said in his closing argument. "He had money, and he had lots of sex with his girlfriend."

In their closing arguments, prosecutors said that the man who was with Kirk Turner the night that his wife died may have helped stage the crime scene to make it look as though the Turners had struggled.

Greg Smithson testified that he had heard Kirk Turner scream, and saw him bleeding outside the shop building. He said that when he went inside and found Jennifer Turner's body, he used a phone in the shop building to call 911. He performed CPR on Jennifer Turner, he said, until paramedics arrived.

But Brown pointed out that no blood was found on the phone that Smithson said he used. Also, Smithson had no blood on his hands, and there were no bloody handprints on Jennifer Turner's chest where Smithson would have performed CPR, he said.

Brown said that Smithson's footprints weren't found near Jennifer Turner's body, and that there was no blood on Smithson's face or shirt.

Based on the sequence of events before the 911 call, Brown said, Kirk Turner and Smithson would have had time to stage the crime scene and stab the defendant to make it appear that Jennifer Turner had attacked him with the spear.

Smithson has not been charged in connection with Jennifer Turner's death. District Attorney Garry Frank declined to comment on why Smithson had not been charged.

Defense attorney Brad Bannon argued that the physical evidence showed that Turner killed his wife after she stabbed him with a spear, as Turner has contended all along.

Jennifer Turner, Bannon said, got the spear from the corner of the shop, leveled it at Turner, aimed it at his groin, and thrust the spear at him.

Turner responded by reaching into his pocket, pulling out his pocketknife, and started fighting for his life, Bannon said.

"That scenario is the simplest explanation for what happened in that room," Bannon said. "There is no other combination of evidence that supports any other theory."

Joe Cheshire, one of the defendant's attorneys, said that prosecutors have not proved first-degree murder, but have simply thrown up a number of theories about what happened, including that Kirk Turner's wounds were self-inflicted.

Cheshire said that some of the eight male jurors who had hunted deer know how tough it is to pierce the skin.

"You know you don't penetrate the skin and it's easy," he said.

Even though prosecutors have tried to convince jurors that Turner was upset about losing money in his pending divorce and a lawsuit against his girlfriend, Cheshire said, it was actually Jennifer Turner who was going through emotional turmoil over money, with the possibility of losing the farm and money to raise horses.

"She needed money for her lifestyle," Cheshire said.

The jury will likely start deliberations today. The trial will resume at 9:30 a.m. today.

■ Michael Hewlett can be reached at 727-7326 or at mhewlett@wsjournal.com.

■ Journal reporter Paul Garber contributed to this report.