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[Music] up next the murder of a funeral director it just didn't make sense it didn't ring
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clear at all cell phone records provided some important evidence there was a whole lot more to this story
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than what was originally thought but a homemade mask found near the scene indicated
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the victim and killer knew one another i'm thinking we've messed something up
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somewhere we've made a mistake [Music] in the small town of navasota texas lonnie turner
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was an important figure lonnie was the owner operator of a local funeral home there
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in navasota he was a well-respected member of the community at large he would help the needy i mean if you
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didn't have money or you didn't have insurance to take care of a service he
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would tote the note for you a lot of times he went unpaid and lonnie was one of the first
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african-american members of the city council and the school board he broke down a lot
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of racial barriers good businessman all-around good guy one november night shortly before
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midnight lonnie's son arrived home and discovered the light bulb had been unscrewed near
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the door on the back porch he noticed the tv is only the den the lights are on and he goes back to
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dad's room he saw lights on under his father's bedroom door which was unusual for this
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time of night so he looked inside he noticed what appeared to be some blood on the wall he saw that his father
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was there in an area between the edge of the bed and the bedroom wall he gets scared
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and he runs to his room and he lifts up his mattress to get a gun then he ran outside and called police
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[Music] and everything in a panic lonnie jr got in his car and drove to the police station
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when police arrived at the turner's home a short time later the victim's brother lawson answered the
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door lawson said he just arrived and when he got there he hadn't seen his brother or
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his nephew lonnie jr and so he was going to stay with his brother overnight he goes through the
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house and he doesn't see lonnie senior so he's thinking he's out on a call
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so he was gonna go ahead and get ready and get ready for bed because he had to get up the next morning
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they took him out and treated him as if he may be the shooter police found lonnie senior dead on the
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floor of his bedroom shot twice at close range they found two spent nine millimeter
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shell casings in the police cruiser officers told lawson that his brother had been murdered
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[Music] this is unbelievable oh no i was out there that night and he just he cried like a baby he was extremely
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upset police found no signs of forced entry nothing was stolen even though there was seven thousand
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dollars in cash in a safe in an adjacent room the safe was actually open there were firearms all over the house
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and none of those items seemed to have been touched at the police station the victim's son
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loni junior told police he had no idea who would have done this do you know anybody would want to hurt your dad
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i don't want to do something like this nobody no nobody just enemies it you know but police were
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confused by the stories given by the victim's brother lawson and by the victim's son who'd left the
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scene after calling police and those stories were about to get even stranger virtually everyone on the navasota texas
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police force knew lonnie turner he ran the town's most successful funeral home
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and was a civic leader we spent time at the funeral homes we respected him and respected the fact that
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he was not only a friend to us but he was a leader and a role model the crime scene gave every indication
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that lonnie was in bed asleep but woke up saw he was in danger and lifted his arm to protect himself
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the first shot hit him in the forearm as the shooting began he had actually rolled
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to his left during the shooting and roll completely off of the bed the second shot hit him in the chest
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start looking at people that knew him or had a reason to kill him investigators were troubled by the
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movements of the victim's son lonnie jr and the victim's brother lawson on the night of the murder lonnie jr
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said he came home found his father injured in the bedroom then grabbed his gun and cell phone
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called police and drove to the police station by his own admission lonnie said he called police without
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even checking to see if his father was still alive we started asking him well why didn't you go check on your dad
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you know was he still breathing was he trying to say anything to you and lonnie didn't even do that
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it just didn't make sense it didn't ring clear at all it was one of the strangest stories i've
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had from a murder suspect and there have been some pretty strange stories even stranger
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was what happened next shortly after lonnie jr left but before police arrived the victim's
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brother lawson claimed he arrived from out of town and let himself into the house
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he was going to stay with his brother overnight lawson was scheduled to referee college football in houston the next day
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when he heard no answer he assumed his brother was out on a funeral call picking up a body
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so when police arrived he was completely unaware a crime had been committed lonnie turner
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was killed with a nine millimeter weapon interestingly police found a nine millimeter
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taurus handgun under lonnie jr's mattress in his bedroom test fired from that gun
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were compared to a bullet recovered from lonnie's senior's body i was able to determine that the
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question bullet from autopsy was fired in the submitted taurus pistol fingerprints on that gun matched lonnie
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jr's when questioned lonnie told police he wasn't surprised his nine-millimeter gun
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was used as the murder weapon he claimed the gun had been stolen two weeks earlier
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we thought that was kind of strange he never reported that gun stolen to law enforcement all of a sudden
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reappears underneath the mattress and in the house police performed a gunshot residue test
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on both the victim's brother lawson and the victim's son lonnie jr lawson tested negative he also passed a
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polygraph and he had no motive no real reason for him to have shot his brother but gunshot residue was found on lani's
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hands he said this probably happened because he grabbed his 38 caliber handgun for
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protection before calling police to check lonnie's alibi investigators first had
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to estimate the time of his father's murder we started checking to see who last
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spoke delaney senior we determined that he spoke to a female friend of his around 9 15.
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and when lawson tried to call his brother lonnie senior around 10 pm there was no answer so we believe the
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death will be between 9 15 and 10 o'clock lonnie jr said he had an alibi for the
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entire evening including between 9 15 and 10 pm lonnie claimed he was at a restaurant
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with his girlfriend then went to his girlfriend's house his presence was verified both at the
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restaurant his girlfriend's house and he left his girlfriend's house somewhere
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around 9 40 9 45 that night and from there he went to the local car wash it appears that he per his father's
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instructions carried the suburban to a car wash there and washed the suburban and we've actually had some witnesses
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that verified that information also but lonnie refused to take a polygraph he was starting to feel the heat and
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knew he was a suspect at that point the day after the murder investigators found
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a potential clue in a small creek just 50 yards from the turner's home was a pair of gloves
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and what looked to be a mask cut from a felt bag they've cut two holes in it for the eyes and then a little
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area where they can breathe out the mouth when that evidence was found it was thought to be a major
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a major break in the case masks are good objects to find dna profiles on due to the fact that they're in close
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proximity to your skin and also in the mouth region you get good profile from saliva
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police were convinced these items would identify the killer 21 year old lonnie turner jr and his father both
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lived and worked together lonnie's senior was grooming his son to take over his funeral business
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lonnie jr was an only child his parents separated when he was a teenager according to friends
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loni junior didn't fit the mold of a funeral director lonnie jr very flashy flamboyant junior he's the type of guy
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that he likes nice things there were a significant number of rumors that lonnie jr was selling and bombing fluid on the
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street when cigars and cigarettes laced with marijuana or pcp are dipped in embalming fluid
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the effects are often intensified the embalming fluid was a rumor and it remained a rumor we were never
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able to confirm that that was a that that was a fact as the beneficiary of his father's estate
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lonnie jr stood to inherit the funeral home and all of his father's assets i think
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junior saw the business as sort of his cash cow and it would be able to finance his lifestyle
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dna analyst jennifer watson examined the mask and gloves found 50 yards away from
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lonnie turner's home near a creek police believed they had been worn by the killer she
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found epithelial cells around the holes for the eyes and mouth and was able to generate a dna
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profile which she compared to lonnie jr's dna the results surprised everyone
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the result was that lonnie turner jr was excluded as a contributor to that profile
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the dna from the mask was also compared to the victim's brother lawson his dna also
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did not match in looking for other suspects police knew one thing the killer was
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familiar with the house and the family lonnie senior always left the back door open
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we figured that somebody knew about the layout of the house knew that the back door was
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unlocked and there was only one other person who fit that profile 19 year old james white lonnie senior's godson
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who often helped out at the funeral home he did work around the turner funeral home in the turner senior home
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it's the church that the junior would have to do that he may not want to do and then he
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would pay my son to do it four months before the murder james white was charged with stealing two of
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lonnie senior's personal checks he made them out to himself for a total of eight thousand dollars in cash
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and forged lonnie senior signature senior was mad at him for doing that and certainly felt betrayed
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but he continued to embrace white as a godson but white apparently knew lonnie senior
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kept cash in a bedroom safe he also knew where lonnie jr kept his guns we believed he would have had knowledge
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of where it was kept lonnie jr loves showing off especially that nine millimeter because it was something
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special he bought for his 21st birthday james white claimed he spent the entire night of the
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murder at a party with two friends but they didn't corroborate this story we confronted a friend and he said
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listen james white just called me said hey lie to the police tell them that i was with you
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this friend said he saw white that night but not until 10 30 p.m which gave white plenty of time to commit the
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murder the prime suspect in the murder of lonnie turner senior was his godson james white
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white denied any involvement so investigators compared white's dna to the dna found on the homemade mask
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found near the crime scene james white's dna was definitely on the mask and with the amount of dna that was
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present it's likely that he wore that mask when i was told that i almost jumped out
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of my boots now james white changed his story after several hours had passed one of
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the people doing the interrogation threw in lonnie turner jr's name and it seemed to like turn on a switch in
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white and that's when he started talking about how he had been set up white now said that lonnie jr hired him
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to kill his father white said he went into lonnie's senior's house and that lonnie jr was with him but he
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got cold feet and tried to back out but lonnie jr literally held a gun to his head
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and threatened to shoot him if he didn't go through with it [Music] really grateful for the children of me
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there was only one problem with this story lonnie jr had an alibi for the entire
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evening he was at a restaurant at his girlfriend's house then at a car wash while driving home records indicate
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lonnie jr was on his cell phone the entire time james white never said lonnie jr was on his cell
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phone while he was literally holding a gun to his head we couldn't put him at the residence you
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know committing that crime he was either with someone was being seen by someone or was talking someone on the phone
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if things were to have happened the way he said it then junior would have had to
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been pointing a gun at his head while talking on the cell phone at the same time
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the polygraph that was given to him it came back inconclusive james david white is not the sharpest
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crayon in the box and i didn't know how much of it was due to that or to deception i just didn't know
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prosecutors believe james white needed money and knew lonnie turner senior kept cash inside his home
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he also knew lonnie jr kept guns under his bed the evidence suggests white stole
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one of the guns the nine millimeter two weeks before the murder prosecutors believe the motive was
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burglary which is why white wore a mask in the event he was seen white unscrewed the light bulb on the porch
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entered the house and probably thought no one was home when he opened the bedroom door looking
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for valuables he found that wasn't the case one bullet entered lonnie's forearm and
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he tried to cover his face the other hit him in the chest killing him instantly prosecutors believe white panicked left
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the money and valuables behind but returned the gun to lonnie jr's bedroom then threw the mask and gloves in a
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nearby creek but the mask still contained enough dna to tie him to the scene the other interesting element in this
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case was the family member's movements that night lonnie jr came home found his father
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wounded in the bedroom grabbed his gun and cell phone called police then drove to the police station
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[Music] but before police arrived his uncle lawson entered the house since he planned to
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spend the night when he heard no answer he assumed his brother was out on business
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and when police arrived he was in the kitchen making a sandwich completely unaware of the crime
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james white's father who was also the victim's best friend remains convinced that lonnie jr
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was involved i think that it's fair for my son to be in prison for this murder because he
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said he pulled the trigger but i would like to see lonnie jr there also because my son didn't have anything
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to profit from this the junior is the one who profit everything in july of 2005 james white accepted a
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plea bargain admitted his complicity in the crime and was sentenced to 25 years in prison
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without the forensic evidence i don't think we'd be here today talking about
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this case i honestly believe that if it hadn't been for that dna profile on that mass we wouldn't have made it
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able to make a case prosecutors admit lonnie jr's story about what happened defies belief but the alibi
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was what saved him i think there are a lot of people today who still believe that
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he had something to do with his dad's death and it has hurt his reputation and it has certainly hurt the solid
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reputation that his father worked so hard to build for the family business lonnie jr wasn't there that night when
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his father was murdered there's no question about that the evidence clears that for me it stands out because
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of the twists and turns it took us some places that i think we really didn't anticipate when
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we began the investigation