Turner found guilty of kidnapping, sexual assault

DONIPHAN — A Ripley County jury deliberated nearly two hours Friday in convicting a Poplar Bluff man of more than a dozen felonies, including the kidnapping and sexual assault of his estranged wife.

Turner

The jury of seven women and five men retired to begin its deliberations at 5:48 p.m. after hearing testimony from the state’s final six witnesses, as well as closing arguments by Butler County Prosecuting Attorney Kacey Proctor and Doyle William Turner’s attorney, Tim Fleener with the Public Defender’s Office.

The bailiff entered the courtroom at 7:45 p.m. to report the jury had reached a verdict.

When the jurors returned to the courtroom a short time later, Presiding Circuit Judge Michael Pritchett asked: “Mr. foreman, has the jury reach a verdict.”

After answering yes, the foreman handed the verdict forms to the bailiff.

Pritchett then looked over the forms before asking Turner to stand.

Flanked by his attorneys, Turner listened as Pritchett read, “We the jury find the defendant Doyle William Turner” guilty 15 times.

The jury convicted Turner of lesser misdemeanor first-degree trespassing and third-degree domestic assault charges in connection with an Oct. 1, 2015, incident at his estranged wife’s home, as well as a misdemeanor first-degree trespassing charge at his mother-in-law’s house on Oct. 25, 2015.

Turner originally had been charged with two Class B felonies of first-degree burglary and the Class C felony of second-degree assault.

The jury also convicted Turner of the Class B felonies of first-degree burglary and kidnapping, four unclassified felonies of armed criminal action, the Class C felony of first-degree tampering, the unclassified felonies of first-degree rape and first-degree sodomy and two Class C felonies of unlawful possession of a firearm.

After reading the verdicts, Pritchett asked, “Mr. foreman, is that the verdict of the jury?”

“Yes, it is,” the foreman replied.

At the request of Fleener, Pritchett then polled the jury, asking each, “is that your verdict?”

Each juror responded yes.

After dismissing the jury, Pritchett ordered a sentencing assessment report be completed by Probation and Parole and set sentencing for July 15.

Since Turner was charged as a prior offender, sentencing was taken out the jury’s hands and given to Pritchett.

Earlier in the day, the jury heard from Turner’s estranged wife, who, at times, became distraught as she testified. She said she has been with Turner since 2000 and married to him since 2005.

“At first, (the relationship) was great,” said the witness, who suspected her husband, who was becoming more possessive, was using drugs in 2015.

The witness said she moved to Poplar Bluff, where she lived in government housing on Cleveland Street.

As they still were married, the witness said, she and Turner were “still intimate, but in my mind, I didn’t want to be married to him.”

She said she let him stay at her residence, but not after May 2015 when she decided to divorce Turner and got a second job to pay for it.

On Oct. 1, 2015, the witness said, Turner was not living at her Cleveland Street home, but “I still had contact with him.”

The witness said her mother brought her home that day from her first job so she could change clothes to go to her second job.

The woman said she had gone into her bedroom and shut the door.

She then demonstrated what happened next by placing a hand over her mouth and simulating a knife at her throat.

The witness said she heard “‘shh, it’s me.’ He tells me to tell my mom I’m OK.”

Upon opening the door, “I’m whispering, looking her in the eye, telling her to call the police.”

After the police arrived, she said, she didn’t initially press charges, even though Turner broke her bedroom window, and her thumb had been cut. The witness said, she had to pretend to “be a good wife because he threatened to kill my mother, my sister if I didn’t.”

The woman said she subsequently obtained an ex-parte order and cut off all contact with Turner.

On Oct. 25, 2015, the witness said, she was not at her mother’s Oakmoore Drive home when Turner broke in there, apparently looking for her.

The witness said late on Nov. 15, 2016, or early the next morning, Turner who did not have permission, came in “through my bedroom window” after having broken the glass.

“When he broke in, I was sleeping,” she said. “I grabbed my phone. The sound of the dresser (overturning), he came through (it) like it was paper.”

She said she had placed the dresser under the window after Turner’s earlier break in.

Turner, she said, put her in a choke hold and then “slammed my elbow on the broken glass in the floor.” Blood from the injury would later be found by officers on the bathroom sink.

When Turner turned on the lights, she said, his face was covered with black paint, and he was dressed all in black.

Turner, she said, put a gun to her forehead.

The witness said Turner broke her cellphone before forcing her from her home.

The witness then told the jury how Turner pulled her along by the wrist. At one point, she said, she twisted her ankle.

As the witness detailed their route, she said, they went through thickets and briars before they swam across Black River.

Crossing the river, she said, was the “scariest thing,” and she was so cold from being wet.

While en route to a shed on Harper Street, where Turner was staying, the witness said, Turner sexually assaulted her.

Once at the shed, she said, Turner made her take her clothes off.

“I had too … I was so paralyzed with fear,” the witness said.

Turner, she said, again sexually assaulted her on a couch in the shed, with a shotgun laying on a nearby table. “All I could do was move my head,” she said.

At one point, she said, Turner walked around the table in front of her with the shotgun.

“He said, ‘I’m going to ask you one more time, are you going to be my wife,’” the witness said. “I said no again. He pulls the trigger.”

The witness then broke down, sobbing and hunching over on the witness stand.

Her testimony continued after a 25-minute recess.

On cross-examination, the witness said, she legally separated from Turner when she got the restraining order.

The witness said she previously had allowed Turner to came back to her home because of the children.

At one point, she said, “he told me we were going to be a family.”

Fleener questioned the witness about her application for the ex-parte in which she listed her residence “as Doyle’s home address.”

Although she initially said she couldn’t remember, she answered affirmatively after being shown the application.

Fleener also asked her about the written statement she made.

In that statement, he said, “you didn’t put he pulled the trigger on you. … You remembered to tell that the bandage (on her elbow) fell off … you didn’t write that down because it didn’t happen.”

The witness never really answered Fleener.

Poplar Bluff Police Detective Andy Cleaveland described the woman as being “very upset, very distraught, weepy and crying” after she was removed from the shed.

Theresa Sullivan, a registered nurse at Poplar Bluff Regional Medical Center, testified she collected the sexual assault kit from the woman.

That kit, according to Poplar Bluff Detective/Evidence Custodian Daniel Mustain, was sent to the crime lab and tested.

According to the lab report, Mustain said, the swabs contained genetic material, and it’s “DNA matched the DNA profile we submitted on Doyle Turner.”

Police Lt. Josh Stewart testified regarding his recovery of a backpack Turner lost in Black River. It contained such items women’s lacy lingerie, a new roll of duct tape, a drop cloth, electrical cords and bungee cords.

The state’s final witness was Missouri State Highway Patrol Sgt. Scott Stoelting, who, along with police Detective Bryce Colvin, interviewed Turner after his arrest.

Turner, Stoelting said, was crying and upset during the interview and had “black stuff’ on his face and hands.

Stoelting said Turner did not fully answer some of his questions, including whether he pointed a gun at his estranged wife.

Later, he said, Turner did admit to it, as he did to breaking into her house and holding her at knifepoint.

“He knew there was a restraining order against him,” Stoelting said. “He tried to contact her; she refused contact, and he was upset about that.”

Stoelting said Turner told him he knew his estranged wife would not answer her door, which is why he broke in through the window.

“He used the end of the (sawed-off) shotgun to break out the window,” Stoelting said.

Turner, he said, reported his wife left him because “he started using drugs and doing illegal things. She got mad and left him.”

On Nov. 15, 2015, “he was upset because he thought his wife was talking to some guy in Florida,” Stoelting said. “He was afraid he wouldn’t get to see his kids anymore.”

Turner, Stoelting said, believed his wife lied when she said he had not been “talking to this guy.”

Stoelting said Turner reported he pointed a gun to his wife’s head in the shed because “he wanted her to confess her love to him to make her a better wife.”

During Stoelting’s testimony, the jury watched Turner’s 60-plus minute interview, during some of which he was crying, with his head resting on the table or his folded arms.

In the interview, Turner talked about “banging dope” and indicated his wife cut herself with the knife, as well as cut herself on the broken glass.

On cross-examination, Stoelting confirmed Turner told him he and his wife had sexual intercourse.

In regards to Turner living on Cleveland Street, Stoelting said, he “knew he did live in the house at some point in time.”

The state and defense stipulated Turner is a convicted felon, having been convicted of stealing in Wayne County.

The defense did not call any witnesses, but admitted the woman’s ex-parte order application and written statement into evidence. Both documents were read by the jurors.