For more than a decade Delores and Al Evans have sought lasting justice for their only child, Jennifer, a former Emory University pre-med student and Tucker resident murdered in 1995 while vacationing in Virginia Beach.
Their efforts suffered a setback Tuesday when an Virginia appeals court overturned the murder and abduction convictions of one of the men serving an 82-year sentence for her death.
“It’s been a very frustrating, long, drawn-out 14 years that has just totally worn me and her dad down emotionally,” Delores Evans said Tuesday. “We just have to keep picking ourselves up and go to the next hurdle.”
A divided panel of the Virginia Court of Appeals granted ex-Navy SEAL trainee Dustin Turner’s request for a writ of actual innocence, vacating his conviction in the death of 21-year-old Jennifer Evans .
Delores Evans, said she’s urging the Virginia Attorney General’s Office to challenge the ruling.
The Virginia Attorney General’s Office has two weeks to ask for the full court to make a decision or a month to appeal the ruling to the Virginia Supreme Court, the Associated Press reported. If the attorney general does not protest the ruling, Turner, who has served 13 years behind bars, would be released from prison.
The attorney general’s office said only that officials are reviewing the opinion, according to AP.
Turner, 34, of Bloomington, Ind., is serving 82 years for killing Evans outside a Virginia Beach nightclub. Another SEAL trainee, Billy Joe Brown, changed his story to say that he alone killed Evans.
When a circuit court judge found Brown’s confession credible, it opened the door to Tuesday’s ruling.
“I think it was a very faulty decision where he found that so-called confession credible,” Delores Evans said. “How could the judge believe him when he was as drunk as he said he was?”
Turner met Evans at a nightclub and claimed they were sitting in the front seat of his car talking when a drunken, belligerent Brown got into the back seat. Turner testified that Brown suddenly killed Evans by snapping her neck. Turner admitted helping dump her body in a park 30 miles away.
Brown, who’s serving 72 years, originally testified that Turner jumped out of the car, said he had killed Evans and asked for help disposing of the body.
But in 2003, saying he had converted to Christianity, Brown signed a sworn statement asserting he killed Evans by himself.
According to AP two of three appeals court judges concluded: “While Turner’s conduct creates a suspicion of guilt, the evidence, viewed in the context of Brown’s recantation, cannot support findings of guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.”
Judge Cleo Powell dissented, saying Turner was partially responsible for Evans’ death because he deceived her into leaving the club with him so he could have sex with her, then after her death drove to an isolated area and helped get rid of the body.
Powell said a jury could have concluded Turner abducted Evans. That would make him guilty of felony murder even if Brown killed her.
“Turner’s callous disregard for Evans, displayed after her murder, is consistent with a finding that he intended to defile her before she was murdered,” Powell wrote.
The appeals court found Turner guilty of being an accessory after the fact for helping conceal Evans’ body. But that’s a misdemeanor carrying a maximum of 12 months. Turner already has served 13 years.
Turner’s mother, Linda Summit, said the first thing she did when she found out about the decision was drop to her knees and pray.
“I’ve had to adjust to many, many things but I haven’t lost my hope or my faith,” she said. Summit added that her son was excited, “but he knows we still have to wait for the rest of the decisions to be made.”
The attorney general’s office said only that officials are reviewing the opinion.
Evans was the only daughter of Delores and Al Evans. The Evans lived in Tucker at the time Jennifer was murdered, but have since moved, listing their residence only as suburban Atlanta.
Delores Evans said she still has confidence in the justice system.
“It’s a good system, the best we have, and we have to put our faith in that,” she said. “Even if it doesn’t come out the way we think it should, I know there’s a higher authority where he will ultimately be judged.”
--The Associated Press contributed to this report.
