Trial of Poplar Bluff man charged with kidnapping, rape opens

DONIPHAN — A Ripley County jury is expected to begin its deliberations later Friday in the trial of Poplar Bluff man who faces 15 felonies, including kidnapping and sex assault charges involving his estranged wife.

Turner

A jury of nine women and five men was sworn in at 2:03 p.m. Thursday to hear the case of Doyle William Turner.

The 48-year-old is standing trial before Presiding Circuit Judge Michael Pritchett on three Class B felonies of first-degree burglary, the Class C felonies of second-degree domestic assault and first-degree tampering, five unclassified felonies of armed criminal action (ACA), the Class B felony of kidnapping, the unclassified felonies of forcible rape and forcible sodomy and two Class C felonies of unlawful possession of a firearm.

After hearing opening statements from Butler County Assistant Prosecuting Attorney Paul Oesterreicher and Turner’s attorney, Tim Fleener with the Public Defender’s Office, the jury heard testimony from four witnesses.

Turner’s mother-in-law said she was at her daughter’s Cleveland Street home on the afternoon of Oct. 1, 2015.

The witness said her daughter arrived home from one of her jobs to change clothes to go to her second job. While her daughter was in her bedroom, the witness said, she was in the living room.

“I heard her scream,” said the witness, who indicated she went to the closed bedroom door and asked if her daughter was OK.

When her daughter opened the door, “she looked at me and mouthed ‘call the police,’” the witness said. “I did, and they came,” but her daughter didn’t want to press charges.

The witness said her daughter had a cut on her neck.

Although she didn’t see Turner, the witness said, her daughter “told me he held a knife … she was bleeding.”

The witness described her daughter’s relationship with Turner as not good.

“She lived in Dexter, but she was very unhappy,” she said. “She wanted to move to Poplar Bluff. … She wanted a place for her and the kids. … She got into public housing” on Cleveland.

At about 1:15 a.m. on Oct. 25, 2015, the witness said, she was in bed at her Oakmoore Drive home when she heard what she described as “a crash” and felt pain in her right leg.

“My bed was covered in glass … I was covered in glass,” said the witness, who indicated there was a large rock on her bed and a smaller one in the floor. That rock, she said, had “bounced off” the wall, leaving an indentation.

The witness said she called 911.

“At that point, (Turner) is crawling in my bedroom window,” she said. “He just keep crawling through. I thought, ‘I’m going to die.’ I was so scared.”

Once in the bedroom, the witness testified, Turner said, “I need a car.”

Turner, she said, was “ranting. He was just talking out of his head. He was mad at (his estranged wife).”

At one point, she said, Turner “looked at me and growled,” again asking where her keys were and she told him. Turner, she said, smashed her cellphone.

“He said, ‘I’m sorry. I’ll return your car to (her daughter’s) house tomorrow,” the witness said.

Turner, the witness confirmed, did not have a key to her home nor had he ever lived there.

Turner, she said, took her 2004 Chevrolet, and it was found abandoned along a Poplar Bluff street a couple of weeks later.

“He stripped everything out of it,” she said. “It was totalled.”

On the morning of Nov. 16, 2015, the witness said, she was supposed to drive her daughter to work but was unable to reach her by phone. When the witness arrived at her daughter’s home, she said, the police were there, and her grandchildren told her, “‘Dad stole mom.’”

On cross-examination, the witness told Fleener her daughter and Turner had a good relationship in the beginning, but were separated at the time.

“She didn’t want to be married to him anymore, she confided that in me,” the witness said.

Turner, she said, wasn’t supposed to be at her daughter’s home.

“He wasn’t on the lease,” she said. “He brought his stuff there; she wasn’t pleased about that.”

During the initial incident, the witness said, she didn’t see the knife, only the cut on her daughter’s neck.

“All I did was call the police; she talked to them,” the witness said. “I was so angry. I sat in my car. … All I could do was stare at him.”

The witness said she asked her daughter why she kept going back to Turner.

“She whispered in my ear, ‘I have to do this. He’ll kill you and (her twin sister),’” said the witness, who indicated Turner threatened people could “show up at the door …”

“After he stole the car, and we didn’t know where he was, we were so scared,” she said.

The witness described Turner as being a “different Doyle” and someone who didn’t look well.

Butler County Chief Deputy Wes Popp testified he responded to the Oakmoore home on Oct. 25, 2015.

“I first noticed a screen on the ground under one of the windows,” Popp said. “… The glass was broke from the outside in.”

Two rocks were found, including one that hit the wall, causing an indentation, he said.

“I found blood on the outside of the front door, inside the storm door” and droplets on the floor at the door, said Popp, who took a separate swabs at each location, which were sent to the lab.

“The lab report came back on the storm door as Doyle Turner,” Popp said.

Outside the home, he said, he found a rifle scope below the window and a cellphone in the yard.

Popp said he later opened the phone’s settings and found it belonged to Turner, with his “gmail address.”

On Nov. 16, 2015, Popp said, the Butler County/Poplar Bluff Major Case Squad was activated to search for Turner’s estranged wife. Popp said he was told officers needed to find Turner.

During prior investigations, Popp said, he found Turner ran in the “same circles as the informant I had.”

When Popp contacted the informant, he said, he was told Turner was “staying at Chihuahua’s house.”

Initially, Popp said, he didn’t know who Chihuahua was, but later found it to be John McClanahan.

Popp said he and another deputy went to McClanahan’s Harper Street residence and contacted him.

McClanahan, Popp said, reported he had let Turner stay in a shed on his property. The shed reportedly was pad locked, but if there was no lock, “he was there.”

Popp described the shed as a “wooden-type tool shed.”

“When I went to open it, I felt a bungee cord on the inside,” Popp said. “I drew my gun and yanked it open. (Turner’s wife) was on the couch.”

Popp said he was able to pull the woman out and handed her off to other officers.

Turner, Popp said, was told repeatedly to come out.

“His hands came up, and he came out,” said Popp, who indicated Turner had “some black stuff” on his face at the time of his arrest.

On cross-examination, Popp confirmed Turner had gone to his mother-in-law’s house looking for his wife.

Poplar Bluff Police Detective Jason Morgan testified he got a search warrant for the shed, which “looked like someone was staying there.”

Inside, he said, he found wet clothing, medical supplies and a disassembled “short, sawed-off single shot shotgun” in a bag in close proximity to the couch.

Police Detective Scott Phelps testified he processed the Cleveland Street home on Nov. 16, 2015.

Inside, he said, he found a broken cellphone in the living room floor.

Phelps said he found blood droplets in the living room, kitchen, hallway and master bedroom. A “blood smear,” he said, also was found on the bathroom sink.

Phelps said the window in the master bedroom had been broken and a dresser, which had been underneath the window, was “pushed over.”

A “forearm” for a shotgun, Phelps said, also was found in the middle of the master bedroom.

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Editor's Note: A date from the testimony of Turner’s mother-in-law was incorrect and has been changed. The DAR regrets the error.