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Turner trial to leave Forsyth County
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Lynn Turner, the former 911 operator convicted of fatally poisoning her husband, will stand trial outside of Forsyth County for allegedly killing her firefighter boyfriend by similar means.
Forsyth County Chief Superior Court Judge Jeffrey S. Bagley ordered Turner’s capital murder trial moved out of the county on Tuesday because of pretrial publicity.
District Attorney Penny Penn initially fought a defense motion to move the trial from the fast-growing northside county, where Turner grew up and where Randy Thompson, a firefighter and the father of Turner’s two children, died in 2001.
But on Tuesday morning, as a second week of jury selection was about to begin, Penn conceded that chances of finding an impartial jury in the county were unlikely.
“It was just too big a story,” she said.
“They [prospective jurors] knew about it, and they knew a lot about it.”
A new location and date for the trial could be determined by late this week or early next week, officials said. Walker County, in northwest Georgia near the Tennessee state line, has been mentioned in the past as a possible site, because it’s outside the Atlanta media market, where Turner’s case — with its themes of poison, sex, love and money — has made headlines on and off for years.
Turner, 38, was convicted in 2004 of malice murder in the 1995 antifreeze poisoning death of her husband, Cobb County police officer Maurice Glenn Turner, and sentenced to life in prison.
Her trial in that case was moved from Cobb County to Houston County in Middle Georgia, also because of pretrial publicity.
In the first week of jury selection in her trial in Thompson’s death, about 100 prospective jurors were interviewed.
At least 80 percent of them knew some details — and many of them were aware of her previous trial and conviction in Glenn Turner’s death.
Lynn Turner’s defense team said 41 percent of the potential jurors had to be excused for having fixed opinions about the case. Prosecutors said it was closer to 36 percent, but both sides agreed that the percentages were well above what the courts have deemed acceptable.
Bagley agreed.
“It’s as clear as a bell,” he said. “I just wonder how they expect to get a jury in Fulton County in the Nichols’ case. I guess you’ve got to go through the exercise.”
Brian Nichols is accused of going on a shooting spree at the Fulton County courthouse and, ultimately, killing four people, including a judge.
Turner’s trial would have been the first death penalty trial in Forsyth County since the 1980s when Jack Potts was sentenced to die for the 1975 kidnapping and murder of a 24-year-old auto mechanic.
Prosecutors knew they were facing an uphill battle to find a jury in Forsyth County, where Turner once worked as a secretary at the courthouse.
But Penn said they’d hoped that, with the passage of time since Thompson’s death and the county’s rapid growth, they could find enough people who didn’t know about the case to make a jury of 12 and three alternates.
“It didn’t pan out,” said Jack Mallard, a special prosecutor who was brought in to assist with the case.
Staff writer Jane O. Hansen contributed to this report.
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Potential poisoning trial jurors interviewed
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Jury selection continued at a slow pace Wednesday in the trial of Lynn Turner, a former Cobb County 911 operator accused of killing her husband and her Forsyth County boyfriend.
By 7 p.m., as the third day of juror interviews was winding down, only 14 of 42 prosecutive jurors had been qualified to move to a later round of questioning, and possibly be picked for Turner’s two-phase murder trial.
Court officials expect jury selection to take about two weeks, with the trial lasting another two to three weeks.
Turner, 38, is facing trial in the 2001 antifreeze poisoning death of Randy Thompson, a Forsyth County firefighter and the father of her two children. If she’s convicted, prosecutors will ask that she be given the death penalty.
Turner has already been sentenced to life in prison in the death of her husband, Cobb County police officer Glenn Turner, in 1995. Investigators believe Glenn Turner, like Thompson, also died of antifreeze poisoning.
A record 600 potential jurors have been summoned for Turner’s trial. If it proceeds, this would be the first death penalty trial in Forsyth County since Jack Potts was sentenced in the 1980s for the 1975 kidnapping and murder of a 24-year-old auto mechanic.
But defense attorneys Jimmy Berry and Vic Reynolds are trying to have the trial moved from Cumming because of pretrial publicity. They convinced a judge to move her previous trial from Cobb County to Houston County in Middle Georgia.
Only a handful of the prospective jurors who have been interviewed had not heard of the case, which has attracted national publicity with its themes of poison, sex, money and murder.
The majority of those who were disqualified were ruled out because of their knowledge of pretrial publicity or their views on the death penalty.
A school teacher who was questioned Wednesday was excused after she said that because of her Roman Catholic faith she did not believe she could vote to put anyone to death.
District Attorney Penny Penn has said she expects the case against Lynn Turner will focus on the similiarities in the two men’s lives and deaths.
Both Glenn Turner and Thompson were in their early 30 and initially were thought to have died from natural causes. Both men also were romatically involved with Lynn Turner, who some have described as a police groupie.
If a local jury is selected, Chief Superior Court Judge Jeffrey Bagley has said the jury will be sequested in a local hotel for the length of the trial. If jurors vote for conviction, a second phase of trial will decide Turner’s fate.
Although prosecutors will ask for the death penalty, jurors will have the options to vote for life with parole or life without parole.
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Poisoning trial lawyers sift through potential jurors
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Pretrial publicity and the death penalty remained the big issues in Day 2 of jury selection in the trial of Lynn Turner, a former Cobb County 911 operator accused of killing two lovers.
On Tuesday, prosecutors and Turner’s defense team continued to comb through a list of 600 potential jurors for Turner’s trial in the 2001 antifreeze poisoning death of Randy Thompson, a Forsyth County firefighter and the father of her two children.
By late Tuesday afternoon, six potential jurors made it through extensive, one-on-one questioning by the attorneys and were deemed qualified to serve.
But 15 others were ruled out, about half because of their knowledge of pretrial publicity surrounding Turner’s case.
A handful of others were eliminated because of their views on the death penalty. A couple others were disqualified because of health problems.
Forsyth County District Attorney Penny Penn is seeking the death penalty for Lynn Turner, 38, in Thompson’s death.
Turner already is facing life in prison for killing her husband, Maurice Glenn Turner, in 1995, also with antifreeze.
Forsyth County has budgeted $150,000 for Lynn Turner’s trial, even though prosecutors and her attorneys aren’t convinced they can find an unbiased local jury.
Lynn Turner’s trial in Glenn Turner’s death had to be moved from Cobb County to Houston County in Middle Georgia because of pretrial publicity.
With themes of poison, sex, murder and money, Turner’s case has drawn national attention. National TV shows flocked to cover the first trial, which like this one will focus on the similarities in both men’s deaths.
Both men were law enforcement officers when they became romantically linked to Lynn Turner. Both men died in their early 30s. Their deaths were initially attributed to the same natural cause: cardiac dysrythmia, or an irregular heartbeat.
It wasn’t until Thompson died —- nearly six years after Glenn Turner - that authorities learned that the two men shared a common bond: Lynn Turner.
Following each of their deaths, Lynn Turner collected thousands in insurance and pension benefits.
In the summer of 2001, Glenn Turner’s body was exhumed from his Marietta grave, and his tissues and Thompson’s were retested. Both men were found to have died from ethylene glycol, the colorless, odorless, sweet-tasting chemical in antifreeze.
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Jury selection under way in Lynn Turner trial
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Lynn Turner was back in the courthouse where she once worked Monday for the first day of jury selection for her trial in the 2001 antifreeze poisoning death of Forsyth County firefighter Randy Thompson.
Turner already is facing life in prison for killing her husband, Glenn Turner, in 1995 with a lethal dose of ethylene glycol — the sweet, odorless chemical in antifreeze.
This time, Turner, a former Cobb County 911 dispatcher and secretary in the Forsyth County district attorney’s office in the mid-1990s, is fighting for her life. If she’s convicted of murder in Thompson’s death, District Attorney Penny Penn will ask the jury to impose the death sentence.
Finding 12 jurors and three alternates is expected to take two weeks, and might not even be possible. Turner’s last trial had to be moved from Cobb County to Middle Georgia because of pretrial publicity. Forsyth County has budgeted $150,000 to cover the costs of the trial, and it had help Monday with court security from neighboring Hall County.
Wearinga maroon sweater and black pants, Turner sat taking pages of notes as her defense team and prosecutors began screening the first of a record 600 potential jurors.
About a dozen potential jurors were excused because they are fulltime students, primary caregivers to young children or over age 70.
In one-on-one questioning, the focus was on pretrial publicity and jurors’ views of the death penalty. A mother of two who was the first to be questioned in detail said she was aware of Turner’s conviction in the first trial.
She said she believed Lynn Turner was probably guilty in this case as well, but she could put aside her personal views and go by the evidence heard at trial.
Chief Superior Court Judge Jeffrey S. Bagley was considering a defense motion that the woman be disqualified.
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Hearn family statement: ‘Nightmare that we will never escape’
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Barton Corbin pleaded guilty Friday in the slaying of Dorothy “Dolly” Hearn in Augusta in 1990. Her family released this statement:
Dorothy Carlisle Hearn, our beloved Dolly, was taken from us over 16 years ago when she was a senior in dental school, one year shy of becoming Dr. Dolly Hearn. Since then we have been living two nightmares.
We now live without Dolly’s contagious smile, her positive outlook on life, and the joy that she brought to every room she entered. The pain of her loss is awakened each time we tell our children and grandchildren that Aunt Dolly was more than just a photo, we have thoughts of the dental practice that never was, and we think of all of the lives that remain untouched by her inspiring acts of kindness, her free-flowing words of encouragement, and the spontaneous manifestations of her unique sense of humor. This is the nightmare that we will never escape.
In our second nightmare, we’ve lived knowing that Dolly was the victim of a pointless, cowardly act of murder and believing that every path for justice was seemingly exhausted. We’ve felt helpless, hopeless, and robbed of any remedy to set the record straight and to see justice served. We have always known the truth. Today we rejoice that this truth has been publicly revealed and that Dolly’s name is now officially cleared. This nightmare is over.
We remain forever indebted to the Richmond County, Gwinnett County, and Troy, Alabama teams who made every possible effort to see these cases through to the happiest ending they could have. We thank our families, our friends, our communities, and those whom we’ve never met who have prayed for and supported us through these trying times.
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