Page 1 of 2 12 LastLast
Results 1 to 10 of 16

Thread: Chester Dewayne Turner - California Death Row

  1. #1
    Guest
    Join Date
    Oct 2010
    Posts
    5,534

    Chester Dewayne Turner - California Death Row


    Victims
    Diane Johnson, 21 [3/1987]
    Annette Ernest, 26 [10/1987]
    Anita Fishman, 31 [1/1989]
    Regina Washington, 27 [9/1989]
    Baby Washington (fetus) [9/1987] (no picture)
    Elandra Bunn, 33 [6/1987]
    Andrea Tripplett, 29 [4/1993]
    Debra Williams, 32 [11/1992]
    Mary Edwards, 41 [12/1992]
    Desarae Jones, 29 [5/1993]
    Natalie Price, 31 [2/1995]
    Mildred Beasley, 45 [11/1996]
    Cynthia Annette Johnson, 30 [1997] (no picture)
    Paula Vance, 24 [2/1998]
    Brenda Bries, 39 [4/1998]



    Chester Dewayne Turner


    Summary of Offense:

    Chester Dewayne Turner, a pizza delivery man, raped and strangled at least 10 women in South Los Angeles. In 2004, DNA Turner was charged with 10 murders based on DNA evidence. Turner was already serving an eight-year sentence for rape when DNA linked him to the serial killings. On July 10, 2007, he was sentenced to death in Los Angeles County. The victims, in the order they died, were Diane Johnson, 21; Annette Ernest, 26; Anita Fishman, 31; Regina Washington, 27, and her unborn child; Andrea Tripplett; Desarae Jones, 29; Natalie Price, 31; Mildred Beasley, 45; Paula Vance, 38; and Brenda Bries, 37.

  2. #2
    Administrator Heidi's Avatar
    Join Date
    Oct 2010
    Posts
    33,217

    Chester Turner, serial killer on death row, is charged with four more murders

    Investigators say DNA links serial killer Chester Dewayne Turner to the slayings of four women. In some cases, others had been accused of the crimes now attributed to Turner, who is on death row.

    Chester Dewayne Turner, one of Los Angeles' most prolific serial killers who prowled the streets of South L.A. in the 1980s and '90s, was charged Tuesday with four additional murders linked to him through DNA.

    The charges were filed after a DNA test recently connected Turner to the 1997 slaying of Cynthia Annette Johnson, whose killing had been considered cleared by the LAPD after the arrest and unsuccessful prosecution of another suspect. A department criminalist inadvertently included evidence from the Johnson case for testing last year as part of the LAPD's effort to reduce the backlog of untested sexual assault kits, Det. Cliff Shepard said.

    The remaining three murder counts stem from killings in which authorities long suspected Turner but never filed charges against him.

    In two cases, another man was wrongfully convicted and spent 11 years behind bars until his release in 2004, when DNA linked Turner to the killings. In the fourth case, DNA connected Turner to the case after he had been charged with multiple killings in 2004. All four of the victims were strangled.

    Turner, 44, was sentenced to death in 2007 for the murder of 10 women, one of whom was 6 1/2 months pregnant.

    "He needs to be held accountable for what he did," said L.A. County Deputy Dist. Atty. Robert Grace, who helped prosecute Turner. "It's very important for everyone in the city, particularly those in South L.A., that the justice system does value the lives of people killed."

    Turner's attorney, John Tyre, questioned the decision to file new charges when his client is already on death row. "We need to spend our money on better places than trying to put someone to death twice," he said.

    Turner, a one-time pizza deliveryman, was one of at least five serial killers who roamed South L.A. in the 1980s and '90s. Most of his victims were raped and strangled.

    In the latest filing, prosecutors allege that Turner was responsible for the killing of Johnson, 30; Elandra Bunn, 33; Mary Edwards, 41; and Debra Williams, 32.

    Johnson's body was discovered in an alley near an African Methodist Episcopal Church on Central Avenue and 105th Street.

    Within months, police made an unrelated drug arrest of two men in a crack house. One of the men told detectives that his associate had confessed to the killing.

    William Johnson, no relation to the victim, later testified in court that he saw Rodney Lavell Greene walk away with the victim toward the church on Central Avenue shortly before the killing. Later, William Johnson said, he and Greene were smoking crack cocaine when Greene confessed that he had beaten the victim and killed her with a baseball bat because she had refused to have sex with him.

    But the coroner's office said that the victim had been strangled, most likely with the killer's hands, not a bat, and that there was no evidence she had been beaten. Greene's attorney, Bruce L. Karey, said prosecutors dropped the murder charge on the day of Greene's trial.

    But the case was considered cleared by the Los Angeles Police Department until last year's genetic test linked the killing to Turner.

    As with Cynthia Annette Johnson's slaying, police came to suspect someone other than Turner in the 1992 killings of Edwards and Williams.

    Detectives discovered that David Allen Jones, a part-time janitor, had been charged with the attempted rape of a woman near where three slaying victims, including Edwards and Williams, had been found.

    After denying that he killed the women, Jones, under detectives' prodding, admitted to having sex and smoking crack cocaine with them. A psychiatrist described Jones as having the mental capacity of an 8-year-old. Jones was convicted in 1995 of killing the three women and was sentenced to 36 years to life in prison.

    He was released in 2004 after DNA tests exonerated him and implicated Turner in the Edwards and Williams killings. Shepard, the lead LAPD detective on the Turner case, said that Turner is a suspect in the third slaying — and three others — but that evidence from those crimes has been destroyed.

    http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la...,7330817.story

  3. #3
    Administrator Heidi's Avatar
    Join Date
    Oct 2010
    Posts
    33,217
    L.A. serial killer on Death Row charged in 4 more slayings

    A man sentenced to death in 2007 for murdering 10 women in Los Angeles County over about a decade is due to be arraigned today on new charges involving the slayings of four other women in South Los Angeles in the 1980s and `90s.

    The latest case, which was filed Feb. 1, charges Chester D. Turner with the June 5, 1987, slaying of Elandra Bunn; the Nov. 16, 1992, murder of Debra Williams; the Dec. 16, 1992, killing of Mary Edwards; and the Feb. 22, 1997, slaying of Cynthia Annette Johnson.

    The criminal complaint includes the special circumstance allegations of multiple murders and murder during the commission of a rape or attempted rape involving all four of the victims, who were killed in an area known as the "Figueroa Corridor."

    Prosecutors willdecide later whether to seek the death penalty again for the 44-year-old death row inmate, who was brought back to Los Angeles from San Quentin State Prison on Thursday to face the new capital murder case.

    The Arkansas native -- who once worked as a pizza deliveryman -- was sentenced to death in July 2007 for murdering 10 women between 1987 and 1998. He was described at the time by prosecutors as the city of Los Angeles' most prolific serial killer.

    In denying a motion to reduce the jury's recommendation of a death sentence to life in prison without the possibility of parole, Los Angeles Superior Court Judge William R. Pounders said there was "overwhelming evidence" that the defendant methodically located lone women and "strangled each to death for his own sexual pleasure."

    The judge said the "circumstances of the up-close and very personal nature of the strangulation" of each of the victims "revealed a cruelty rarely seen in murder trials."

    The judge also tacked on a separate 15-year-to-life term for the second- degree murder of the unborn baby of one of his victims, 27-year-old Regina Washington, who was found dead in September 1989.

    Along with the slaying of Washington, Turner also was convicted in April 2007 of first-degree murder for the killings of:

    -- Diane Johnson, 21, who was found dead in March 1987;

    -- Annette Ernest, 26, who was found dead by a passing motorist in October 1987;

    -- Anita Fishman, 31, killed in January 1989;

    -- Andrea Tripplett, who was 5 1/2 months pregnant with her third child when she was strangled in April 1993. Turner was not charged with killing her unborn child because it was not considered viable under the law in place at that time.

    -- Desarae Jones, 29, killed in May 1993;

    -- Natalie Price, 31, whose body was found outside a home in February 1995;

    -- Mildred Beasley, 45, whose body was found in a field in November 1996;

    -- Paula Vance, 38, who was strangled in February 1998, during the commission of a rape, which was caught on a grainy black-and-white surveillance videotape in which the assailant's face cannot be seen; and

    -- Brenda Bries, 37, who was found dead in the Skid Row area in April 1998.

    Turner lived within 30 blocks of each of the killings -- with Bries' body discovered in downtown Los Angeles just 50 yards from where he was living at the time, according to prosecutors.

    Turner was linked to the strangulations through DNA test results after being arrested and convicted of raping a woman in the Skid Row area in 2002.

    The DNA test results linking Turner to the killings helped to free another man, David Allen Jones, a mentally disabled janitor who was convicted of three killings in which authorities later said Turner was suspected, including the slayings of Williams and Edwards.

    Another man was initially charged with murdering Johnson. That case was later dismissed after DNA evidence excluded him and identified Turner, according to the District Attorney's Office.

    During the trial in which jurors eventually recommended that Turner be put to death for his crimes, Deputy District Attorney Bobby Grace told the panel that Turner's DNA matched DNA from blood on a tissue found near the scene where the partially nude body of Bunn -- a 33-year-old mother -- was discovered in an alleyway behind South Figueroa Street near 87th Street.

    Turner was not charged at the time with Bunn's slaying, but it was presented as an aggravating factor to the jury as it considered whether he should be put to death or spend the rest of his life in prison without the possibility of parole.

    Detectives from the Los Angeles Police Department's Robbery-Homicide Division continued to investigate the four murders in which Turner was suspected after he was sent to death row, according to the District Attorney's Office.

    http://www.dailybreeze.com/latestnews/ci_17539736

  4. #4
    Administrator Heidi's Avatar
    Join Date
    Oct 2010
    Posts
    33,217
    Calif. serial killer pleads not guilty to 4 deaths

    LOS ANGELES — A convicted Southern California serial killer has pleaded not guilty to slaying four additional victims.

    City News Service says 44-year-old Chester A. Turner entered the pleas Thursday. A Los Angeles judge ordered him held without bail.

    The former pizza deliveryman is on death row for strangling 10 women and killing a pregnant victim's fetus. The killings took place in Los Angeles County between 1987 and 1998.

    Turner was linked to the crimes through DNA tests, which also helped to free a man who was wrongly convicted of three deaths.

    New charges filed in February accuse Turner of four additional murders during the original time period. The criminal complaint contains special allegations that the killings occurred during rape or attempted rape but prosecutors haven't decided whether to seek the death penalty.

    http://www.montereyherald.com/state/ci_18240255

  5. #5
    Administrator Heidi's Avatar
    Join Date
    Oct 2010
    Posts
    33,217
    Called L.A.'s most prolific serial killer, Chester D. Turner -- already on Death Row -- charged with 4 more murders

    LOS ANGELES -- Two alleged victims of a convicted serial killer, who had already been sentenced to death before being charged with four additional slayings, were found less than a quarter-mile away from each other one month apart, a Los Angeles police captain testified today.

    Called to the stand in a hearing to determine if there is enough evidence to require Chester D. Turner to stand trial for four murders between 1987 and 1997, Los Angeles police Capt. Justin Eisenberg testified that Debra Williams was found dead on Nov. 16, 1992, at the bottom of a stairwell that leads to a boiler room at 97th Street School.

    Mary Edwards was found dead on Dec. 16, 1992, in a carport outside a motel at 9714 S. Figueroa St., less than a quarter-mile away from the school, the police captain told Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Samuel Mayerson.

    Turner -- who was sentenced to death in 2007 for murdering 10 women between 1987 and 1998 -- was subsequently charged with the slayings of Williams and Edwards, along with the June 5, 1987, murder of Elandra Bunn and the Feb. 22, 1997, killing of Cynthia Annette Johnson.

    The murder charges include the special circumstance allegations of multiple murders and murder during the commission of a rape or attempted rape of all four victims, who were killed in an area known as the Figueroa Corridor.

    Prosecutors have yet to decide if they will seek another death sentence for Turner, who will turn 45 on Saturday.

    Bunn was found in a supine
    position, with her pants pulled down and hanging on just one ankle, her shoes off and her face bruised and swollen, in an alley behind a motel at 8725 S. Figueroa St., Los Angeles police Detective Joe Callian told the judge.

    She had "severe swelling and bruising" to one of her eyes, the detective testified.

    Williams, who was found dead at the bottom of the school stairwell, was fully clothed, said Lawrence Reiche, who was an investigator for the coroner's office.

    Edwards was also fully clothed, but was missing a shoe, Eisenberg testified.

    Johnson was found dead at the back of a vacant residence at 1143 E. 106th St., with her pants and underwear pulled down below her genital area and her right shoe off, former Los Angeles County coroner's investigator Erik Arbuthnot testified.

    Deputy District Attorney Bobby Grace told the judge that he expects to present scientific evidence when the hearing resumes Thursday.

    Turner, an Arkansas native who once worked as a pizza deliveryman, was described by prosecutors as the city of Los Angeles' most prolific serial killer when he was sentenced to death for the murders of 10 women between 1987 and 1998.

    He was brought back to Los Angeles from Death Row at San Quentin State Prison on March 3, a month after being charged a second time.

    Turner was sentenced to death in July 2007 for the 10 murders, with Los Angeles Superior Court Judge William R. Pounders saying then that there was "overwhelming evidence" that the defendant methodically located lone women and "strangled each ... for his own sexual pleasure."

    The judge said the "circumstances of the up-close and very personal nature of the strangulation" of each of the victims "revealed a cruelty rarely seen in murder trials."

    The judge also tacked on a separate 15-year-to-life term for the second- degree murder of the unborn baby of one of his victims, 27-year-old Regina Washington, who was found dead in September 1989.

    Along with Washington's slaying, Turner was convicted in April 2007 of first-degree murder for the killings of:

    -- Diane Johnson, 21, who was found dead in March 1987 and is not related to Cynthia Johnson;

    -- Annette Ernest, 26, who was found dead by a passing motorist in October 1987;

    -- Anita Fishman, 31, killed in January 1989;

    -- Andrea Tripplett, who was 5 1/2 months pregnant with her third child when she was strangled in April 1993. Turner was not charged with killing her unborn child because it was not considered viable under the law in place at that time.

    -- Desarae Jones, 29, killed in May 1993;

    -- Natalie Price, 31, whose body was found outside a home in February 1995;

    -- Mildred Beasley, 45, whose body was found in a field in November 1996;

    -- Paula Vance, 38, who was strangled in February 1998, during the commission of a rape, which was caught on a grainy black-and-white surveillance videotape in which the assailant's face cannot be seen; and

    -- Brenda Bries, 37, who was found dead in the Skid Row area in April 1998.

    Turner lived within 30 blocks of each of the killings -- with Bries' body discovered in downtown Los Angeles just 50 yards from where he was living at the time, according to prosecutors.

    Turner was linked to those killings through DNA test results after being arrested and convicted of raping a woman in the Skid Row area in 2002.

    After Turner was sent to Death Row, detectives from the Los Angeles Police Department's Robbery-Homicide Division continued to investigate the four murders with which he has since been charged.

    http://www.contracostatimes.com/california/ci_19249512

  6. #6
    Administrator Heidi's Avatar
    Join Date
    Oct 2010
    Posts
    33,217
    Convicted LA serial killer to face 4 more murders

    A former pizza deliveryman who was sentenced to death for murdering 10 women and an unborn fetus was ordered Friday to stand trial on charges of killing four other women.

    Superior Court Judge Samuel Mayerson found there was enough evidence against Chester Turner, 44, presented at a preliminary hearing for him to stand trial on four counts of murder. He is scheduled to be arraigned Nov. 21.

    Turner was sentenced to death for a string of murders between 1987 and 1998. The new charges allege Turner killed four more women between 1987 and 1992.

    The murder charges include the special-circumstance allegations of multiple murders and murder during the commission of a rape or attempted rape of all four victims, which makes Turner eligible for the death penalty. Prosecutors have not yet decided whether to pursue the death penalty again.

    It wasn't immediately known who would be representing Turner in the case.

    Authorities say Turner is among at least three serial killers who stalked women during a crack cocaine epidemic during the 1980s and 1990s. Police initially thought one person, known as the Southside Slayer, was responsible for the deaths of as many as 90 women.

    Another man, Michael Hughes, was found guilty this week of strangling three more victims in a series of attacks stretching over a decade and faces the death penalty.

    Hughes, a former security guard, was serving a life sentence for killing four women in 1992 and 1993 when he was charged with the additional killings of 15-year-old Yvonne Coleman and two prostitutes.

    http://www.wdtimes.com/news/national...d53a434c5.html

  7. #7
    Administrator Heidi's Avatar
    Join Date
    Oct 2010
    Posts
    33,217
    DA to seek death penalty for L.A. serial killer already on death row

    Prosecutors today said they planned to seek the death penalty for a man already on death row for killing 10 women and now charged with killing four other women.

    Los Angeles Superior Court Judge George G. Lomeli ordered Chester Turner, 46, to return to court Nov. 14 for a pretrial hearing.

    Turner -- who was sentenced to death in 2007 for murdering 10 women between 1987 and 1998 -- was charged last year with murdering four women between 1987 and 1997.

    The newest charges involve the deaths of Debra Williams, who was found dead Nov. 16, 1992, at the bottom of a stairwell that leads to a boiler room at 97th Street School, and Mary Edwards, who was found dead Dec. 16, 1992, in a carport outside a motel at 9714 S. Figueroa St., less than a quarter-mile from the school where Williams' body was discovered.

    He also is charged with the June 5, 1987, slaying of Elandra Bunn and the Feb. 22, 1997, killing of Cynthia Annette Johnson.

    Turner, an Arkansas native, was described by prosecutors as the city of Los Angeles' most prolific serial killer when he was sentenced to death in July 2007.

    In addition to his death sentence, Turner was sentenced to a separate 15- year-to-life term for the second-degree murder of the unborn baby of one of his victims, Regina Washington, who was found dead in September 1989.

    Along with Washington's slaying, Turner was convicted in April 2007 of first-degree murder for the killings of:

    -- Diane Johnson, who was found dead in March 1987 and is not related to Cynthia Johnson;

    -- Annette Ernest, who was found dead by a passing motorist in October 1987;

    -- Anita Fishman, who was killed in January 1989;

    -- Andrea Tripplett, who was 5 1/2 months pregnant with her third child when she was strangled in April 1993. Turner was not charged with killing her unborn child because it was not considered viable under the law in place at that time.

    -- Desarae Jones, who was killed in May 1993;

    -- Natalie Price, whose body was found outside a home in February 1995;

    -- Mildred Beasley, whose body was found in a field in November 1996;

    -- Paula Vance, who was strangled in February 1998, during the commission of a rape, which was caught on a grainy black-and-white surveillance videotape in which the assailant's face cannot be seen; and

    -- Brenda Bries, who was found dead in the Skid Row area in April 1998.

    Turner lived within 30 blocks of each of the killings -- with Bries' body discovered in downtown Los Angeles just 50 yards from where he was living at the time, according to prosecutors.

    Turner was linked to those killings through DNA test results after being arrested and convicted of raping a woman in the Skid Row area in 2002.

    After Turner was sent to death row, detectives from the Los Angeles Police Department's Robbery-Homicide Division continued to investigate the four murders with which he has since been charged.

    http://www.contracostatimes.com/cali...killer-already
    An uninformed opponent is a dangerous opponent.

    "Y'all be makin shit up" ~ Markeith Loyd

  8. #8
    Administrator Moh's Avatar
    Join Date
    Oct 2010
    Location
    Germany
    Posts
    13,014
    Los Angeles serial killer on death row for 10 murders found guilty of 4 more

    LOS ANGELES (AP) - A man who is on death row for killing 10 women in the Los Angeles area was convicted Thursday of four more murders.

    Chester Turner, 47, was convicted of strangling the women in South Los Angeles between 1987 and 1997. Prosecutors said DNA evidence linked him to the killings.

    Jurors deliberated less than a day before finding the former pizza deliveryman guilty of first-degree murder with special allegations that make him eligible for the death penalty, according to a statement from the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office.

    Turner had been convicted and sentenced to death in 2007 for killing 10 women, including one who was pregnant. He also was sentenced to 15 years to life in prison for killing the woman’s unborn baby.

    Authorities say Turner was one of at least three serial killers who stalked Los Angeles-area women during a crack cocaine epidemic in the 1980s and 1990s that led some women into prostitution to support their drug habits.

    The attacks were dubbed the “Southside Slayer” killings before authorities concluded more than one attacker was involved.

    Two years ago, Michael Hughes was sentenced to death for strangling a 15-year-old girl and two women. He previously got life for four killings.

    Former mechanic Lonnie Franklin Jr. has pleaded not guilty to 10 so-called “Grim Sleeper” killings and the attempted murder of another woman that took place between 1985 and 2007. The victims were strangled or shot and dumped in alleys near his South Los Angeles home.

    http://www.dailynews.com/general-new...ilty-of-4-more

  9. #9
    Administrator Moh's Avatar
    Join Date
    Oct 2010
    Location
    Germany
    Posts
    13,014
    In regard to his 2007 death sentence, Turner has yet to file his opening brief on direct appeal. The California Supreme Court has given him until the end of the year to do so.

    http://appellatecases.courtinfo.ca.g...doc_no=S154459

  10. #10
    Administrator Heidi's Avatar
    Join Date
    Oct 2010
    Posts
    33,217
    Jury recommends 2nd death sentence for LA killer

    A jury recommended another death sentence for a man who's already on death row for murdering 10 women in the Los Angeles area.

    Chester D. Turner, 47, should be put to death for killing four other women between 1987 and 1997, the panel said Thursday.

    The former pizza deliveryman was convicted last week in the second spate of killings around south Los Angeles. DNA evidence linked him to the crimes, prosecutors said.

    Turner will be sentenced Aug. 1, according to City News Service.

    He had been convicted and sentenced to death in 2007 for killing 10 women, including one who was pregnant. He also was sentenced to 15 years to life in prison for killing the woman's unborn baby.

    Turner was one of at least three serial killers who stalked Los Angeles-area women during a crack cocaine epidemic in the 1980s and 1990s that led some women into prostitution to support their drug habits, authorities said.

    The attacks were dubbed the "Southside Slayer" killings before authorities concluded more than one attacker was involved.

    Two years ago, Michael Hughes was sentenced to death for strangling a 15-year-old girl and two women. He previously got life for four killings.

    Former mechanic Lonnie Franklin Jr. has pleaded not guilty to 10 so-called "Grim Sleeper" killings and the attempted murder of another woman that took place between 1985 and 2007. The victims were strangled or shot and dumped in alleys near his south Los Angeles home.

    http://www.sfchronicle.com/news/crim...er-5582098.php
    An uninformed opponent is a dangerous opponent.

    "Y'all be makin shit up" ~ Markeith Loyd

Page 1 of 2 12 LastLast

Thread Information

Users Browsing this Thread

There are currently 1 users browsing this thread. (0 members and 1 guests)

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •