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Thread: Albert James Turner - Texas

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    Albert James Turner - Texas


    Keitha Turner and Betty Jo Frank




    Jury selection starts for ex-prison guard's murder trial

    Jury selection has started in Fort Bend County for the trial of a former prison guard accused of stabbing to death his wife and mother-in-law in front of his children.

    Albert James Turner, 46, is charged with capital murder in the Dec. 27, 2009 slayings of Keitha Frank Turner, 39, and Betty Jo Frank, 66, at his in-laws' home in Rosenberg.

    Police have said an argument among the family members led to the violence. Turner was also accused of injuring his father-in-law, Gene Frank, founder of the Church of Living Waters and Living Water Christian School.

    More than 300 prospective jurors have been summoned, and the selection process that got under way Thursday could last for weeks before the trial starts in state district Judge Brady Elliott's court in Richmond, said Wesley Wittig, assistant district attorney.

    Turner, who worked at a Texas Department of Criminal Justice prison in Sugar Land, fled his in-laws' home after the violence and a police manhunt ensued.

    The U.S. Marshals Service added him to the 15 most-wanted list and the case was aired on several television programs, including America's Most Wanted. On March 5, 2010, he was arrested while sitting on a bench in a shopping mall in Concord, N.C.

    Turner is represented by Houston attorney Pat McCann. The district attorney's office is seeking the death penalty.

    http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/...n/7533042.html

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    Two interesting trials getting started

    Two trials that may catch your attention are about to get under way in Richmond.

    Jury selection started a week ago for the capital murder trial of Albert Turner, a former state prison guard.

    The Fort Bend County district attorney's office is seeking the death penalty for the 46-year-old, who is accused of stabbing to death his wife and mother-in-law in front of his children two days after Christmas in 2009.

    You may still remember Turner from watching America's Most Wanted back then. That was one of several television programs that aired the case after the U.S. Marshals Service added him to its 15 most-wanted list.

    A police manhunt was unfolding at the time after Turner fled the scene of the violence.

    Thanks to the exposure, Turner was arrested on March 5 last year while sitting on a bench in a shopping mall in Concord, N.C.

    The murders took place at Turner's in-laws' home in Rosenberg, where an argument among family members led to the slayings of Keitha Frank Turner, 39, and Betty Jo Frank, 66. Turner's father-in-law Gene Frank, founder of the Church of Living Waters and Living Water Christian School, was injured but survived.

    More than 300 prospective jurors were summoned last week. It's a lengthy process to shrink the pool to eventually a panel of 12 jurors plus two alternates for the trial in state district Judge Brady Elliott's court.

    Jury selection is expected to take several weeks because each day, on average, only three to four prospective jurors are carefully interviewed individually by both the defense and prosecution teams.

    Meanwhile, the court-appointed four-member defense team doesn't seem to have an easy time with Turner. Defense attorney Pat McCann told me that his client appears to be lacking understanding of his charges and the roles of the defense lawyers.

    "He's so paranoiac that he can be considered delusional," McCann said, adding that the discomfort Turner displayed toward the defense team has gone beyond "the normal dislike of the attorney."

    So much so that it calls into question if Turner is able to "rationally assist his lawyers," McCann said.

    So McCann asked the judge last week to allow a competency test on Turner, but Elliott rejected the request.

    http://www.ultimatefortbend.com/stor...etting-started

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    Update:

    Turner: State seeks death penalty

    Jury selection for the murder trial of a former Sugar Land prison guard continues in the 268th District Court in Richmond, and the trial should begin later this month, prosecutor Chad Bridges said.

    Albert James Turner, 46, will be tried for the December 2009 slayings of his wife and mother-in-law in Rosenberg. Judge Brady G. Elliott will preside over the case.

    http://www.fbherald.com/news/article...cc4c03286.html

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    Defense: Jealousy, fear fueled slayings

    Ex-guard goes on trial in deaths of wife, mother-in-law

    RICHMOND — The attorney for a former prison guard who faces the death penalty in the killings of his wife and mother-in-law asked jurors on Wednesday to consider a lesser crime than capital murder, saying the elder woman's death was unintentional.

    But prosecutors described the deaths of both Keitha Frank Turner and Betty Frank as premeditated, saying Albert Turner cut their throats "through and through" in front of three young children in December 2009.

    In opening arguments Wednesday, defense attorney Patrick McCann said Turner killed his wife in a rage of jealousy and fear that she would leave him. Keitha and Albert Turner had a troubled marriage, he said.

    "He was obsessed with his jealousy and didn't seek help," he said. "He became increasingly stressed and believed that she was having an affair. The prospect of losing them pushed him to the edge."
    Crime scene

    Fort Bend County Assistant District Attorney Fred Felcman said that on the afternoon of Dec. 26, 2009, Keitha Turner left home with her four children and headed to her parents' house less than 2 miles away. Her husband came to his in-laws' home bringing a gift for his wife. She refused the gift before he left.

    McCann said it was his gesture to amend their troubled relationship.

    Around midnight, Keitha Turner went to bed with her youngest daughter while the other children were playing video games in another room, said Felcman. Turner showed up at his in-laws' house, walked straight to the bedroom where his wife was and fatally stabbed her. When he saw Betty Frank coming out in the hallway, he cut her throat, Felcman said.

    McCann said after Keitha Turner was stabbed, his client was about to leave the house when his mother-in-law appeared.

    Jurors heard a 911 call, where one of the children was frantically trying to talk to a dispatcher and to her mother at the same time.

    "My mother is bleeding. She's going to die. Hurry! … Mom, don't die! Keep breathing!" she screamed. Then she was heard crying, "My grandma is dead. He killed her, too. He stabbed her with something in the neck and it's cut open … Grandma I love you. Please don't die!"

    Jurors also saw a video clip and photographs taken by Rosenberg police investigators. In one, Betty Frank was seen lying in a pool of blood and her clothing soaked red in front of a second-floor bathroom. The wall and toilet were splashed with red. In the bedroom where Keitha Turner was said to be sleeping with her 5-year-old daughter that night, the pillow and bed were smeared with blood and a red pool was seen on the floor. Blood stains were seen all along the stairs leading to the first floor and the door.

    Patrol officer Shayne Mocha recalled officers were trying to find a T-shirt and a towel to stop the blood that was squirting from Keitha Turner's neck while she was trying to communicate with the officers.

    Turner fled after the rampage and went in hiding until his capture 2½ months later in Concord, N.C., following a nationwide manhunt.
    'A good person'

    Darren Frank, Keitha Turner's brother, said his sister had been contemplating leaving her husband for three months but was afraid to do so for fear that he could become violent. In the 911 call, a daughter tells the dispatcher, "He is an abusive father."

    "But we had never imagined something like this would ever happen," Darren Frank said in a telephone interview before the trial.

    Outside the courtroom on Wednesday, Turner's sister, Juanita Dawsey, described him as "a good brother, very protective."

    "He's not violent. He's a good person," said Turner's mother, Lillie Turner.

    The trial resumes today in Judge Brady Elliott's court in Richmond.

    http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/...#ixzz1NSZGX2og

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    Outside the courtroom on Wednesday, Turner's sister, Juanita Dawsey, described him as "a good brother, very protective."

    "He's not violent. He's a good person," said Turner's mother, Lillie Turner.
    ROFL. Of course he isn't mama. Also, if this had occurred 10 miles to the East the chances that he would get the DP would be probably 50% less, that is Harris County. Fort Bend County is much more conservative...it is where Whitaker was sentenced to death.

  6. #6
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    Ex-guard takes stand, denies he killed wife, in-law

    RICHMOND — A former prison guard from Rosenberg charged with fatally stabbing his wife and mother-in-law denied killing them, saying he had left Texas before the slayings to escape from two men, including a mayor who had threatened him.

    "I want the jury to know I never put my hands on my wife," Albert Turner said Friday, the third day of testimony in his capital murder trial. "I was not at that house. I didn't commit this crime … Y'all have my life on the line."

    Turner, 46, is facing the death penalty in the fatal stabbings of Keitha Turner and her mother, Betty Jo Frank. Prosecutors said the man cut their throats in the older woman's Rosenberg home on Dec. 26, 2009.

    Defense attorney Patrick McCann had advised Turner not to testify. Judge Brady Elliott also warned Turner that prosecutor Fred Felcman would cross-examine him.

    Attorney cites paranoia

    Turner discounted videotaped depositions from his children, saying they were "contradictory" to each other and that Karissa Turner, 14, and Jairus Turner, 13 were "coerced" by both prosecutors and defense attorneys.

    In a taped 911 call, Karissa was heard frantically pleading for help as her mother was dying. A moment later, she screamed that she saw her father cut her grandmother's throat. Both siblings described the scene in their depositions.

    On the day of the incident, Turner said, the mayor of a nearby city and another man were on his property.

    The mayor was having an affair with his wife for some time and had verbally threatened him, he said. At about 9:40 p.m., Turner said he left his house "in fear of my life." When the women were killed, he was in Louisiana, he said. Turner was arrested in Concord, N.C. about 2½ months later.

    Felcman asked Turner if he was accusing his children of making up their stories. Turner said, "I know she misidentified me."

    Letting out a loud sigh, McCann told the judge that his client was incapable of continuing to testify. The judge disagreed, and Turner remained on the stand.

    Outside the courtroom, McCann described Turner as delusional. But Turner refused anti-psychotic medication a jail doctor prescribed. In June 2010, two psychiatric exams found Turner paranoid, he said. After the judge denied the defense's request for a competency hearing, hesent a county psychiatrist to exam Turner, who refused to cooperate. When he eventually did, he rejected medication, McCann said. He said Turner's paranoia led him to believe the defense to be part of a conspiracy.

    War changed him?

    Before Turner testified, his mother and cousin said Operation Desert Storm turned Turner, a Gulf War veteran, from a jolly, carefree person into a closed, distant stranger.

    "He was the nicest person you'll ever meet," said his cousin, the Rev. Terrell Blair. "But after he returned, he was like in the ocean gasping for air. He drowned."

    McCann said years of a troubled relationship between Turner and his wife and his belief that she was having an affair led him to "snap" and kill her. But he didn't intend to kill his mother-in-law, McCann said, adding she might have stumbled and fell on the knife .

    Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty.

    McCann is asking jurors to consider the first killing a crime of passion and the second manslaughter or negligent homicide, removing the death penalty as possible punishment.

    Closing arguments are set for Tuesday.

    http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/...#ixzz1NeahySvY

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    Update: Turner has been found guilty in Fort Bend County, KTRK reports.

    • • •

    RICHMOND -- Jurors began deliberating Albert James Turner's double murder case late this morning following closing arguments by prosecutors and the defense attorney.

    The 46-year-old former prison guard is facing the death penalty on charges that he murdered his wife, Keitha Turner, and his mother-in-law, Betty Jo Frank, on Dec. 26, 2009 at his in-laws' home in Rosenberg.

    Turner was arrested in Concord, N.C., in March 2010 following a nationwide manhunt.

    During trial today, Turner asked Judge Brady Elliott to allow him to defend himself saying his defense attorney, Pat McCann, had failed to interview all witnesses he listed and look into all evidence he asked him to.

    "He neglected my case," he said, adding that McCann never highlighted the fact there was no DNA linked to him found in the crime scene. "He has not defended me. … I've fired him."

    McCann, who had said last week that Turner suffers from paranoia and has deep suspicion that the defense was part of a conspiracy to convict him, told Elliott Tuesday that the team had conducted an extensive investigation.

    Turner's car was later recovered from the Chattahoochee River in Georgia near Atlanta, on which DNA from blood stains on the side of the car was linked to Turner, McCann pointed out. However, he said while DNA wasn't an evidence to indicate Turner killed the two women, it could not overcome other evidence that he committed the crime.

    "There was no third party," he said.

    "We reviewed each piece of evidence. There was nothing we have not looked at or turned over to the court," he said, adding the defense team could not find proof that the mayor and another man Turner alleged to be in his house were "anywhere near his house" on the day of the incident. Nor did the defense team find evidence that Keitha Turner was having a relationship with another man.

    "He is faced with defending his own life during the punishing phase, and I can't conceive a worse time to exercise this," McCann told Judge Brady Elliott.

    Elliott denied Turner's request.

    During closing arguments, prosecutors said evidence from the 911 call made by Turner's daughter and depositions by family members were consistent in identifying their father as the one who killed their grandmother after they found their mother dying in a blood-filled bed. Turner's son said in the videotaped testimony that after he ran back to his own room after seeing his mother lying in a pool of blood, he saw his father walk past his room with a knife in his hand.

    Prosecutor Jill Stotts said Turner had been on the run for 2 ½ months after the murders, never called to check on the welfare of his family. During his testimony, Turner said he checked the Internet to learn about where his four children were.

    "He didn't call. He didn't need to. He knew exactly what happened because he did it," Stotts said.

    Rosenberg police investigator Rick Gurrero said after Turner's car was found in Georgia, authorities in Akron, Alabama, also found Turner's gym bag that contained his and his wife's birth certificates.

    "Is it usual for someone to carry the birth certificates of two people while traveling from state to state?" Prosecutor Fred Felcman said to jurors.

    In his argument, McCann said out of a "sudden passion" Turner killed his wife due to their long troubled relationship and jealousy arising from his belief that she was having an extramarital affair.

    McCann said before Turner's children heard their mother's scream and found her dying, no one knew what happened between Turner and his wife, although evidence pointed to a struggle.

    He maintained that his client had no intention to kill his mother-in-law, who, he believed, fell on the knife by accident when he crossed path with her near the stairway as he was trying to leave the second floor after killing his wife.

    "She was an older woman, frightened to death, and feared for the safety of the children, and still groggy, and stumbled," he said, in reference to the hydrocodone painkiller found in her system from an autopsy.

    He asked jurors to consider the second killing as either manslaughter or criminally negligent homicide.

    Felcman argued that the trace amount of hydrocodone was barely detectable citing a finding by the Galveston County Medical Examiner's Office.

    He said the cut through Betty Jo Frank's neck from the front all the way into the spine could not have been caused by falling on a knife. Mambo, during his testimony last week, said the wounds were inflicted by "considerable force."

    http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/...#ixzz1NxcxENqd

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    Jury deliberates fate of man who killed wife, mother in-law

    A Fort Bend County jury this morning began deliberating whether a former prison guard should receive the death penalty for killing his wife and mother-in-law.

    On May 31, the jury convicted Albert Turner, 46, of killing Keitha Turner and Betty Jo Frank in his in-laws' home in Rosenberg in December 2009. Backed by the testimony of a medical examiner, prosecutors said Turner cut their throats "through and through."

    Authorities arrested Turner 2 ½ months later in Concord, N.C., after a nationwide manhunt.

    Throughout the punishment phase, the defense tried to convince the jury that Turner, an honorably discharged Gulf War veteran, had no criminal history and would not be a threat to others if he was spared death and put behind bars for life with no parole.

    Citing statistics from his 15 years of research on potential of violence among inmates, Dallas-based forensic psychologist Mark Cunningham told the jury Monday that prison is a more secure environment than the open community. Factoring in his age, history of continuous employment, high-school diploma and the availability of contact with his family, Turner would "make a positive prison adjustment," Cunningham said.

    "There is a very low probability that he will commit serious violence if he's confined for the rest of his life," he said.

    The defense also drew testimonies from Turner's siblings, neighbors from his Orlando, Fla., hometown and former fellow state prison correctional officers. They depicted him as a protective and responsible brother, a caring youth who mowed his neighbors' lawns and a generous man who bought his coworkers' breakfast.

    Prosecutors, who pursued the death penalty, portrayed Turner as a brutal man who beat women in his life and whipped his son with an electrical cord. They said he premeditated the slayings and never showed remorse.

    Defense attorney Patrick McCann suggested that Gulf War darkened Turner's personality, helped turn him into a paranoid seized by his delusion that his wife was having an affair, which led to his "snap" on the night of the killing. While describing the slaying of Keitha Turner as a crime of passion, McCann called the death of Frank as an accident, positing she fell onto Turner's knife during the strife. The jury disagreed.

    Keitha Turner's brother, Darren Frank, and his wife, Gamila Frank, who have two children, told the jury that since the tragedy, they became the caretakers of Turners' four children, ages 14, 13, 8 and 7.

    Gamila Frank said she had to quit her job as a school speech therapy specialist to be a full-time homemaker.

    "Our family of four all of a sudden became a family of nine. It feels like a tornado hit us. When the tornado passes, our life is demolished," she said, sobbing. "The kids live in fear. They have nightmares about killing. I'm dealing with very broken children."

    http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/...#ixzz1OboHt9tO

  9. #9
    Jury just gave him the death penalty. This is why I love Texas. No matter what case prosecutors decide to seek the death penalty in, you always know what the result will very likely be! Texas is a no nonsense state that gives no mercy! Wish more states had citizens like Texas does!

    http://abclocal.go.com/ktrk/story?se...rticle-8174777

  10. #10
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    A reporter's view inside the Turner murder trial

    For nearly two decades, Albert James Turner had watched violent and mentally troubled inmates as a state prison guard. Today, the 46-year-old sits on death row.

    Three weeks after the conclusion of the double murder trial that I covered from gavel to gavel, the sounds and images from the courtroom are still playing in my head.

    Turner was convicted of killing his wife, Keitha Turner, and mother-in-law, Betty Jo Frank, by cutting their throats in his in-laws’ home in Rosenberg on Dec. 26, 2009.

    Thanks to being profiled on America’s Most Wanted and additional exposure on Live with Regis and Kelly, Turner was caught 2½ months later in Concord, N.C.

    I’m still affected by that 911 call by Turner’s oldest daughter, then 12, as she tried to talk to the dispatcher and her dying mother at the same time.

    “My mother is bleeding. She’s going to die. Hurry! … Mom, don’t die! Keep breathing!” she said hysterically. Then she was heard screaming, “My grandmother is dead! He killed her, too. He stabbed her with something in the neck and it’s cut open … Grandma I love you. Please don’t die!”

    The last words her mother said to her was, “I am going to die.”

    And those blood-drenched crime scene photos and autopsy images were too graphic to depict. I can only say the cuts were so severe that both women were nearly decapitated. One juror had to turn her eyes from the large screen and kept looking down for minutes.

    Rocky relationship

    Court-appointed defense attorney Patrick McCann had a rough time with Turner from the get-go. Turner refused to cooperate with the defense. McCann told me that Turner was paranoid and delusional and believed the defense to be part of a state conspiracy to convict him.

    But Robert Ashley, Frank’s brother, told me Turner was too smart to be delusional.

    Drama erupted on May 27 when Turner took the stand, defying McCann’s advice to not testify and Judge Brady Elliott’s warning that prosecutor Fred Felcman “will not be nice” when cross-examining him.

    Turner denied the crime, saying he was in Louisiana when the women died. He claimed two men, including a mayor of a neighboring city whom he accused of having an affair with his wife, showed up in his house that night and threatened him. Fearing for his life, he said, he had to leave the state. Letting out a loud sigh, McCann told the judge his client was incapable of continuing to testify.

    Elliott disagreed.

    On the last day of the trial, more than a dozen bailiffs were deployed in and around the courtroom before jurors returned with a verdict, an apparent step to prevent any outburst. Turner showed no emotion when the verdict was read.

    But raw emotion filled the victim impact statements from Frank’s daughter-in-law, Gamila Frank, and Ashley.

    After the tragedy, Turner’s four children, ages 14, 13, 8 and 7, and their ailing grandfather, Gene Frank, began living with Gamila Frank, her husband, Darren Frank, and their own two children. Gamila Frank had to quit her job to be a homemaker.

    “Four broken kids are living with three broken adults and sharing space with two broken cousins,” she said.

    Family members told me they didn’t seek the death penalty but entrusted the court with a decision.
    McCann said the capital punishment would traumatize Turner’s children again.

    “The kids may be going to college when the execution is coming,” he said.

    ‘I’ve forgiven you’

    At the end of his victim-impact statement, Ashley turned to Turner and said, in a choked voice, “I want you to know that I’ve forgiven you.”

    Turner lowered his head.

    “It was the first time he had the look of shame on his face,” Ashley told me after the trial.

    The remark reminded me of Turner’s daughter’s account in her deposition. Seeing her daughter lying in a pool of blood, Betty Jo Frank said to her son-in-law, “Jesus loves you,” before her own neck was slashed.

    Ashley and Turner coached basketball together at Living Waters Christian School, which is affiliated with the Church of Living Waters that was founded by Gene and Betty Jo Frank.

    “Before Dec. 26, 2009, he was a good friend of all the family, and on Dec. 27, I was supposed to hate him? I couldn’t do that. I couldn’t make that transition in my mind,” Ashley said.

    “My whole thing now is to try to rekindle a relationship with him so we can reach out to him. We just don’t want to let him perish without knowing that there is love for him,” he said. “I know my sister would have wanted that. I feel that also provides healing for all of us.”

    http://www.ultimatefortbend.com/stor...r-murder-trial

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