Julia Lynn TURNER |
The Trial of Lynn Turner
The trial of Lynn Turner, a Georgia woman charged with poisoning her
husband with antifreeze —
and later having a relationship with
another man who died of a strikingly similar cause — featured
a
parade of witnesses. Click through the photo gallery to see what key
witnesses had to say.
Angie Bollinger
The sister of Randy Thompson, the man Lynn Turner had two children
with following the death of her
husband, testified that Turner said
her late husband, a police officer, was killed in the line of duty.
Actually, Glenn Turner died the same way Bollinger's brother would
die six years later. Though
Lynn Turner was not charged with
Thompson's death at the time, prosecutors were permitted
to present
evidence of similarities in their bid to prove Turner killed her
husband.
Dr. Donald Freeman
Dr. Freeman, an emergency-room physician, treated Glenn Turner on
March 2, 1995. Turner was sent
home but died the following day.
Freeman testified that classic symptoms indicating "a single acute
large ingestion" of ethylene glycol, the main ingredient in
antifreeze, were not present, and suggested
the police officer might
have ingested smaller amounts of the poison over a period of days.
Vince Turley
The former Metropolitan Life sales agent told the jury that Glenn
Turner made his then-fiance his
beneficiary at her request in late
September 1993. "He said Lynn was all over his back to get it
changed," said Turley, who was also once a police officer. Upon her
husband's death,
Lynn Turner received more than $110,000 in benefits
and interest.
Samantha Gilleland
Gilleland, an animal-shelter worker, testified that Lynn Turner made
several visits to the shelter to play
with rescued cats and had
learned that antifreeze would effectively poison them. "We discussed
the
stray cat problem she was having at the time and she asked if
antifreeze had the same effect on
cats as it did on dogs," Gilleland
testified.
Dr. Brian Frist
The Cobb County medical examiner autopsied Glenn Turner in 1995 and
believed he died of heart failure,
though he noticed calcium oxalate
crystals in his tissues under a microscope. It was only after he
learned
that another man romantically linked to Lynn Turner had died
under similar circumstances that he
reconsidered his initial
findings and ordered Turner's body exhumed. "In retrospect, I
realize that
there's more significance to them," Frist said. "I do
believe they are the result of ethylene glycol toxicity."
Dr. Kris Sperry
Chief medical examiner at the Georgia Bureau of Investigation,
Sperry testified that it appeared Randy
Thompson first ingested
antifreeze up to two days before he went to the emergency room on
Jan. 20,
2001. Because Thompson left the hospital feeling better,
Sperry said the firefighter likely ingested more
antifreeze
afterward, based on the levels of ethylene glycol found in his body
after his death.
Chris Tilson
Lethal levels of ethylene glycol were not immediately detected in
Randy Thompson's blood because of
an analysis error, not because it
was an inconclusive cause of death, testified the Georgia Bureau of
Investigation crime lab analyst. Further testing was done when a
medical examiner found alcium
oxalate crystals – a hallmark of
ethylene glycol poisoning – in Thompson's kidneys. "I had made
a
mathematical calculation error," Tilson admitted. "I took full
responsibility for the error."
Helen Gregory
The defendant's mother testified that Lynn Turner may have seemed
cold at the funerals of her husband
and boyfriend because she is not
an emotional person. "She just does not show openly her feelings or
her emotions," she said. But on the day of Glenn Turner's death, she
testified, her daughter was "crying
hysterically." Gregory is caring
for the defendant's children by Thompson, 5-year-old Blake
and
8-year-old Amber.
Dr. Robert Palmer
A toxicologist testifying as a defense witness, Palmer questioned
whether the calcium oxalate crystals
found in Turner's exhumed body
could have come from another source, such as embalming fluids,
flowers or other materials decomposing inside the coffin. Palmer
also expressed concern that the
crystals found in Glenn Turner's
kidneys should have been found in his other organs as well.
"I don't
believe that the evidence supports the cause of death," he said.
Lynn Turner died in prison on Monday, August 30, 2010.
The victims
.
|
|
|