Judge grants bail as lawyer claims 'no new evidence' justifies arrest in 1989 child murder (2024)

MONCKS CORNER — A defense attorney for a woman charged with murder in the 1989 strangulation of her stepson slammed deputies, alleging a 35-year delay uncovered "no new evidence" but has prejudiced her right to a fair trial.

Defense attorney Shaun Kentsaid during a Feb. 7 bond hearing that the lack of evidence in this case is laughable and embarrassing. He went as far as to say he would give up his license to practice law if the judge could find one line of probable cause in the affidavits that led to the Jan. 9 arrest of Megan Turner and her husband, Victor Turner, in the death of 5-year-old Justin Turner.

"This is such poor work on the part of the Berkeley County Sheriff's Office," Kent told Circuit Judge Roger Young. "That's not justice."

A 94-page motion Kent filed prior to the hearing in Berkeley County General Sessions Court asks for the charge to be dismissed. Kent contends the state not only failed to uncover new evidence, but the decades-long delay has left the defense in an impossible position.

Turner's defense cannot perform its own tests because evidence has been destroyed, he argued, and nearly 20 witnesses have died or are now medically unable to testify.

"There is no justification for the delay by the State that overcomes the substantial actual prejudice created by the delay," the motion to dismiss reads. This "is a clear violation of her fundamental right of due process guaranteed by the Constitutions of our Country and State.”

The Berkeley County Sheriff's Office said new forensic testing that was not available at the time Justin was killed recently enabled investigators to determine the murder weapon was a dog leash that was found in the family home in 1989.

Forensic analysis performed in 2023 found the same fibers on the dog leash and Justin Turner's shirt collar. But an analyst warned the fibers could have transferred at some other point in time, Deputy Solicitor Anne Williams said at the bond hearing.

The arrest affidavits cite the crime scene investigation, forensic analysis, autopsy results, corroborating evidence, pertinent information provided by witnesses and incriminating statements by the Turners as cause for the arrests.

Kent countered that investigators have always had the leash in their custody. He cited an expert who said fibers found on Justin's shirt collar and on the leash could have been transferred at some point other that at the time of his death.

Berkeley County Sheriff Duane Lewis said during a Jan. 10 press conference that the department has "always been doing the very best we could do" to solve the case based on the technology at the time. He declined to comment Feb. 7, saying the case is in the hands of the justice system now.

Amy Parsons, Justin's cousin, was 8 at the time of his slaying and she has become a spokesperson for the grieving family. She begged the judge to deny bond for Megan, who legally changed her name from Pamela and moved away from Berkeley County with her husband after Justin was killed. She maintained that Megan poses a flight risk.

Kent argued that her clean criminal record and quiet life in Cross Hill in Laurens County make her a prime candidate for bond.

Young seemed to agree with the defense. While he said he almost never sets bond for someone charged with murder, he granted Turner a $50,000 surety bond on this "very unusual" case.

New evidence?

Megan Turner had previously been arrested in late 1989 and charged with murder in Justin's death, but in November 1990 the charges were dropped for lack of evidence. A case was taken to the grand jury in 1992, but no indictment was returned.

The new pair of arrests come as a result of a multi-agency, decades-long effort to uncover the truth about what happenedto the slain 5-year-old, who would now be 40 years old, according to the sheriff.

The case was picked up a year and a half ago with arekindled fervor to use new technologies to connect the dots between evidence that wasn't previously strong enough to warrant an arrest, Lewis said on Jan. 10.

The charges came more than three decades after Justin went missing and was found dead, strangled and sexually assaulted with an object. The child was expected to walk to a neighbor's house on March 3, 1989, to catch a bus to kindergarten. But the blond-haired boy who wasn't known to wander off never showed up for the bus that morning.

Megan Turner reportedly told investigators she was taking a shower when Justin left for school that Friday morning. Victor Turner told investigators he was at work thatday, according to The Post and Courier reports in 1989.

Affidavits state that Justin's stepmother deviated from her morning routine when she said she didn't watch Justin leave the house that morning. According to the arrest affidavits, she told witnesses that she had an altercation with the boy just before the time she says he was last seen alive.

Officers searched the family home that Friday and Saturday without success.

Witnesses overheard his father asking law enforcement: "What if someone had done harm to the Victim, such as killed him, and that someone was in the family, what would happen to them?" according to the arrest affidavits.

Two days after Justin went missing, his father found his body seconds after entering a camper parked on the family property near their home. His body had been crammed into a storage area. One of his hands was clutching a clump of animal hair.The camper had previously been searched, according to affidavits.

The Turners' "deliberate actions and obvious behavior of both defendants… is highly suggestive that (the Turners) knew exactly where (Justin) was located," affidavits state.

The defense's motion reveals more details about the couple who has been married for 37 years.

Turner, 63, has two adult children from a previous marriage. She’s worked at Piggly Wiggly, for a small construction company as a clerk, and, most recently, as an animal control officer for the Spartanburg County Sheriff’s Department. Nine family members wrote letters describing Turner’s character, and nearly every page described her as an animal lover.

A letter from her sister, Linda Brechko, refers to Justin’s murder as a “cloud” over Turner’s life. The packet says Turner was “forced” to change her first name from Pamela to Megan after Justin’s murder because of “extremely hateful publicity.”

“To know Megan is to know a person who is optimistic and who tries to believe in the best of people even though she has faced horrible obstacles,” Brechko wrote. “She loves her husband and her family unconditionally.”

Megan Turner and her husband both have health struggles. She takes daily medication for high cholesterol, diabetes and restless leg syndrome. Her husband is on oxygen for terminal lung and heart disease, the letters say.

Victor Turner is represented by Joseph Cole Good. His bond hearing is expected to be held Feb. 8.

The impacts of Justin's slaying were felt not only throughout the county, but also in the rest of the Palmetto State and country, the sheriff said. Though Lewis was working at a different policy agency at the time of the homicide, he lived in Berkeley County, which has since become the fastest-growing county in the state.

“You have to go back to Berkeley County in 1989. We were a different place. We were smaller. Everybody kind of knew everybody. Families, we all stuck together," Lewis said at the press conference last month as several members of Justin's family stood with him.

Parsons, Justin's cousin, said after the bond hearing that she was disappointed bond was granted, but she had a feeling it was coming.

Kent expects Turner to return to court again in March when he presents his motion to dismiss the charge.