00:00:00
[AUDIO LOGO] NARRATOR: Every fraud
begins with a promise. - He wanted to be married
by the time he was 30.
00:00:12
NARRATOR: A quick
fortune, easy money, or a life transformed overnight. - You put all of that
together, you're looking
00:00:21
at well over $1 million. NARRATOR: But behind
these illusions lie calculated
deceptions, carefully
00:00:30
hidden in plain sight. - It was wantonly
horrible and inhumane. He suffered. NARRATOR: Sometimes
these criminals
00:00:39
are backed into a corner
and feel their only way out is to kill. - This case was about
lust, greed, and murder.
00:00:48
[THEME MUSIC] [FOREBODING MUSIC] MARCUS K. GARNER:
My name is Marcus Garner. I started working
as a freelance reporter
00:01:17
while I was in college
at Clark Atlanta University. NARRATOR: On January
21, 2001, emergency
00:01:26
services entered
the home of 32-year-old fireman Randy Thompson. MARCUS K. GARNER: After not
being able to hear from or
00:01:35
find Randy for some time,
some of his colleagues came to his apartment
and kicked the door
00:01:42
in when he didn't answer. They found him dead. Smith County Medical examiner
ruled Randy Thompson's death
00:01:51
a result of natural causes, and
said that he showed an enlarged heart, which is not
normal for a 32-year-old,
00:02:01
who didn't have any
history of heart problems or heart disease. NARRATOR: Randy left behind
three children, two of which
00:02:10
were from his relationship with
girlfriend Julia Lynn Turner, also known as Julie
Lynn or Lynn.
00:02:17
They had been
together six years. PATRICK HEAD: My name
is Patrick Head, and I am the district
attorney emeritus
00:02:27
for the Cobb Judicial Circuit. Julia Lynn Turner was a 911
operator in Cobb County.
00:02:35
She was very outgoing. - Lynn Turner was described as
kind of the life of the party
00:02:43
in a lot of situations. She was described
on her surface as bubbly, exuberant, exciting,
kind of fun, party type person.
00:02:53
PATRICK HEAD: She was what you
might refer to as a groupie with the police department.
00:02:58
She sort of had a thing
for following officers around. She mostly hung out with police
officers, law enforcement.
00:03:07
MARCUS K. GARNER: Julia Lynn
had a thing for men in uniform. She was rumored
to have been dating
00:03:13
multiple police officers,
and in some cases, she would disappear. It was said that there were
cases where she had enthralled
00:03:22
herself into police
investigations, setting herself up
as a honeypot or a patsy or
00:03:28
something like
that, going in, you know, with wires
on to make drug buys and things of that nature.
00:03:37
NARRATOR: Before Julia
Lynn met Randy Thompson, she had been in a relationship
with 29-year-old
00:03:42
police officer Glenn Turner. PATRICK HEAD: Glenn Turner was
a Cobb County police officer.
00:03:48
I'm not exactly
sure when they met, but my recollection,
it was in 1993. MARCUS K. GARNER:
Glenn Turner was a very
00:04:01
laid back and fun-loving guy. When Turner was
in a group of friends who were police officers,
he was at least at one point
00:04:10
a motorcycle officer
with Cobb County Police. PATRICK HEAD: Other
police officers
00:04:15
that Glenn worked with, they
held him in high esteem. They felt that he
was a good friend
00:04:24
and some referred
to him as a Teddy bear. MARCUS K. GARNER: He was
pretty much looking for love.
00:04:30
He told people that
he wanted to be married by the time he was 30. [TRAFFIC NOISE]
00:04:36
Julia Lynn met Glenn
Turner at one of the bars that they would frequent. I guess it stands
to reason that Julia
00:04:43
was there because it
was a place that police officers would frequent. They kind of hit it off.
00:04:49
She was bubbly and perky. Glenn was attracted
to her vivacious attitude. NARRATOR: Within a few
weeks of meeting,
00:04:59
Julia Lynn and Glenn Turner
began a relationship. MARCUS K. GARNER: When Lynn
and Glenn got together,
00:05:09
Lynn showered him with
gifts-- snakeskin boots, expensive snakeskin boots,
trips, new clothes, things
00:05:17
like that. - If she wanted to impress,
then she would give gifts and sometimes expensive gifts.
00:05:25
They ended up
going on a cruise. BRYANNA FOX: I'm
Dr. Bryanna Fox, I'm a psychological
criminologist
00:05:34
at the University
of South Florida and a former FBI Special Agent. One thing that we commonly
see with a fraudster
00:05:41
is that it doesn't just
go straight to the fraud. They don't just pitch the
initial fraud right outright.
00:05:47
There are grooming
behaviors that occur. First, they have to get
the person to trust them.
00:05:52
They have to befriend them. [OMINOUS MUSIC] MARCUS K. GARNER: I guess
he wasn't, you know,
00:05:59
I don't want to say
necessarily in a position to buy for himself,
but things that he
00:06:03
didn't necessarily try
to buy for himself, she did those things for him. NARRATOR: On August 21, 1993,
Glenn Turner and Julia Lynn
00:06:13
got married,
and the expensive gifts continued despite Julia Lynn
working as a 911 operator.
00:06:22
MARCUS K. GARNER: I believe
after their wedding, Julia bought a pair
of Chevrolet Camaros.
00:06:28
One was a convertible
and another one was a pace car. And I'm not sure
for which race, but each
00:06:35
one costing about $25,000. Now, this is
for a woman who was working as a 911 operator with
salaries of $30,000 a year.
00:06:50
PATRICK HEAD: Lynn was someone
who liked to be grandiose. She was what some people might
call a person with champagne
00:06:58
taste but a beer budget. And she spent more
than she earned. [TENSE MUSIC] - My name is Dr. Keri
Nixon, and I'm a consultant
00:07:09
forensic psychologist. Their spending habits,
their presentation, their standing in the
community-- all of these things
00:07:17
are part of the same
motivator to generate trust, generate confidence. When you see somebody who has
a career, has nice things,
00:07:29
lives as part of a middle
class community, you're going to trust them. NARRATOR: Despite
the lavish gifts,
00:07:38
it was not long
before cracks began to appear in the marriage. PATRICK HEAD: It was pretty
clear from the things
00:07:46
that Glenn told
some of his friends that he and Lynn were not
having marital relationships.
00:07:53
So that put their relationship,
I think, on shaky ground very shortly after
they were married.
00:08:02
NARRATOR: Not long
after the wedding, friends and family began
to notice that Glenn
00:08:07
was becoming isolated. MARCUS K. GARNER: Leading
up to their marriage, everything seemed like
they were doing well.
00:08:15
He was head over heels
in love with her. But at the same time,
while he seemed very happy
00:08:20
and into the relationship,
she kind of walled herself off from his family. And in so doing, kind of also
walled him off from the family.
00:08:31
And the closer they
kind of got together, the further he got from
his sister and mother
00:08:36
and the rest of his family. NARRATOR: Glenn's
family members were also concerned about Julia
Lynn's controlling behavior.
00:08:46
- It seemed like once
they got married, the romance immediately
came to a halt. And he seemed to be
less enthralled.
00:08:53
Family members and friends said
that Julia was controlling, that she was manipulative.
00:08:58
She put him on an allowance
so he could only spend so much money on a given basis.
00:09:06
NARRATOR: Julia Lynn had
a part-time job at a local gas station and made Glenn
cover her shifts,
00:09:13
claiming she
needed to stay away from home to help local
police with undercover sting
00:09:18
operations. - Glenn agreed to pick up some
of the shifts, making only $7 an hour when everybody knows
it as a police officer,
00:09:28
he could take on security
jobs or private jobs for $20 to $30 an hour or more. And his friends seem to be
concerned about, you know,
00:09:38
why he was doing
all this for her. And she seemed to be more
and more progressively
00:09:43
out of the picture. KERI NIXON: Something that's
fascinating in this case is she
00:09:49
was very, very controlling. We see her isolate him. It also suggests that she's
a controlling individual
00:09:58
that wanted to take
control of him, wanted to make him vulnerable. And that's absolutely
coercive control,
00:10:07
which tells me that this was
also an abusive relationship. PATRICK HEAD: They
had financial troubles
00:10:14
from the very beginning
when they got married, and Glenn was actually
working two and sometimes
00:10:23
three jobs in the latter
part of their relationship when she was off
doing undercover work.
00:10:30
So Glenn was the one that had
made the decision that he was going to end the relationship.
00:10:37
NARRATOR: There were
also rumors of Julia Lynn being unfaithful to Glenn. MARCUS K. GARNER: Julia
Lynn had been disappearing
00:10:44
during the time that she
was married to Glenn Turner, and it had been
rumored that she
00:10:50
was in an affair with
another police officer or someone else in a uniform. On March 2, 1995, Glenn
Turner went to the hospital
00:11:05
with severe flu-like symptoms. He was throwing
up, had a headache, was dizzy, just totally
wasn't feeling well.
00:11:13
He'd had a conversation with
his mother, even saying he felt like he was going to die.
00:11:19
He got himself
into the hospital and they said that
he had what appeared to be an enlarged heart.
00:11:25
They treated him and sent
him home, telling him that, you know, he
should take some liquids
00:11:31
and things like that. Julia went home with him
to nurse him back to health. I think one of the things that
doctors told her was maybe
00:11:40
a good thing for him
to do was to have something fluid, like gelatin. She prepared gelatin
for him, and she said she
00:11:49
left to go off to the store. NARRATOR: When Julia
Lynn returned home, she found her husband
unresponsive in bed.
00:12:00
PATRICK HEAD: When the police
department showed up and the emergency
people, everything
00:12:05
seemed natural in the house. There was nothing
askew, nothing out of place, nothing that would
indicate any signs of violence.
00:12:15
NARRATOR: On March
3, 1995, emergency responders pronounced
31-year-old Glenn Turner dead in his home.
00:12:24
- So when he was transported
back to the medical examiner's office, they did an autopsy.
00:12:30
And in the autopsy, they found
that he had an enlarged heart. He declared that the person
had died of natural causes.
00:12:37
And the case was closed. [FOREBODING MUSIC] NARRATOR: In March 1995,
Glenn Turner's sudden death
00:12:48
was ruled as natural causes
due to an enlarged heart. His wife, Julia Lynn,
attended his funeral
00:12:57
with a mystery guest. - Julia Lynn brought a date
to her husband's funeral. No one identified who the man
was that came to the funeral
00:13:10
with her, but she was seen
sort of fondling the man's leg or holding his hand
at times during the funeral.
00:13:18
BRYANNA FOX: I guess from
a behavioral standpoint, subtle things that
many people take
00:13:24
for granted, which is
the way we display grief, that's telling in itself. PATRICK HEAD: She did not seem
to be very grief-stricken.
00:13:33
She was more or less carefree. She did not demonstrate
what people thought she would be demonstrating
if she truly had
00:13:44
lost a person that she loved. MARCUS K. GARNER: So Julia
Lynn acted very cold toward Glenn's parents, and
within a week of the funeral,
00:13:53
she had moved out
of the house that she lived in with Glenn Turner. NARRATOR: Julia Lynn
collected around
00:14:01
$150,000 as a result of her
husband's untimely death. MARCUS K. GARNER:
Julia Lynn was
00:14:11
the beneficiary of Glenn
Turner's insurance policy and his pension. So she stood to gain more
than $150,000 from the policy,
00:14:21
as well as $700 a month
from his pension. PATRICK HEAD: At the time
Glenn died, he had left
00:14:28
his benefits to his sister. And Lynn actually filed
suit against the sister to try to recover.
00:14:36
They ended up
settling for half, but she was after every
penny she could get. MARCUS K. GARNER: She
identified that there was
00:14:43
$6,300 that Glenn had left
in deferred payments to his sister, and she stepped
in and said, "hey, no,
00:14:51
some of this money
should go to me," and was able to get half of it. NARRATOR: Less than a month
after Glenn Turner's death,
00:15:00
Julia Lynn revealed a new
relationship with another man in emergency services. - Julia Lynn had been
disappearing during the time
00:15:10
that she was married
to Glenn Turner, and it had been rumored
that she was in an affair
00:15:17
with another police officer. It's suspected
that Randy Thompson was the person that she brought
to Glenn Turner's funeral.
00:15:30
PATRICK HEAD: Randy Thompson
was a Forsyth County Deputy. He left the Sheriff's
Office, then came
00:15:38
back to Forsyth as a fireman. MARCUS K. GARNER: He became
enthralled with Julia Lynn,
00:15:44
and that relationship
progressed to a point where he and Julia
Lynn were essentially
00:15:50
having an affair
while Julia Lynn was still married to Glenn. Shortly after the funeral
for Glenn Turner,
00:16:00
Julia Lynn moved in with Randy
Thompson to his apartment in Cumming, Georgia, which
is in Forsyth County, where
00:16:06
he worked as a firefighter. NARRATOR: After moving
to Forsyth County, Julia Lynn got a job working
in the county courthouse.
00:16:20
PENNY A. PENN:
My name is Penny Penn and I am the Forsyth
County District Attorney.
00:16:26
When I started working in the
district attorney's office, Lynn was employed here as, they
were called secretaries then,
00:16:35
now she would be
an administrative assistant. MARCUS K. GARNER: She wasn't
making more than maybe $30,000
00:16:41
at her courthouse job, about
the same or maybe just a little bit more than what she was
making when she was a 911
00:16:48
operator with Cobb County. PENNY A. PENN: Lynn was smart. And she was one that if she
did something for you,
00:16:59
you gave her
an assignment, she really was like a dog with a bone. Her mother was also the
secretary for the chief judge.
00:17:13
NARRATOR: With a new job
and a new relationship, Julia Lynn rarely mentioned
her deceased husband, Glenn.
00:17:23
- Julia Lynn seemed
to be kind of cagey about what
her relationship was prior to getting with Randy.
00:17:31
It's not clear whether
or not she told him if she was a widow, or whether
she told him she was divorced,
00:17:38
but it was clear
to Randy and his family that she had been
married before. - When Lynn and I
were working together,
00:17:47
she had actually brought her
wedding pictures to the office. And I had, you know,
gone through them.
00:17:55
And she had related
that her husband had died of a heart attack. You hear that and, you
know, that's a tragic story.
00:18:03
Here is this couple. He's young, they're recently
married, and then he-- he dies.
00:18:11
NARRATOR: During the first few
months of their relationship, Julia Lynn was very generous
towards Randy Thompson.
00:18:20
- When she was dating
Randy Thompson, she gave him gifts,
a pair of cowboy boots,
00:18:25
and she paid for all of the
stuff with her own funds. - Randy certainly had
no reason to think
00:18:34
that Lynn did not have money. She had told his sister,
I think at one point, that she had received
an inheritance from the death
00:18:46
of her grandmother. MARCUS K. GARNER: They would
go on expensive and exciting trips, and it just
seemed like the thing
00:18:55
that couples would do
but she was a lot of times footing the bill for that. And it was a thing
that he enjoyed,
00:19:02
because I don't think
that he had ever experienced a woman
who would do as much for him as she was doing.
00:19:09
NARRATOR: 10 months after
the death of her husband Glenn, Julia Lynn and Randy
celebrated the birth
00:19:17
of their first child. - Lynn got pregnant very soon
after she and Randy moved in together, and so then based
on the birth of their daughter,
00:19:28
Lynn really prevailed on him
to get this insurance policy. And it was for the daughter,
and Lynn was a trustee.
00:19:38
PATRICK HEAD: They
never got married. They ended up
having two children. And during that time period
when the first child was born,
00:19:48
Lynn made Randy take out a
$100,000 life insurance policy. When the second child was
born, she made him take out
00:19:57
or increase it to $200,000. NARRATOR: As long
as she never remarried, Julia Lynn would still
receive monthly payments
00:20:08
from Glenn Turner's
police pension. Despite this, Julia
and Randy soon ran into financial difficulty.
00:20:17
- Between 1996 and 2001, Julia
Lynn's financial situation only changed because of the
money that she was receiving
00:20:26
from Glenn Turner's
pension and the money she'd received from
his insurance payout.
00:20:32
She was still working
in a relatively low-paying job. Now they had
purchased a home and
00:20:38
were raising a family
together, but the expensive trips,
the lavish gifts, all of that
00:20:46
seemed to have
died at this point. And while Randy Thompson made
a good living as a firefighter,
00:20:54
it seems that there were still
things that Julia Lynn wanted that were beyond their means.
00:21:02
FIONA HOTSTON MOORE: My name
is Fiona Hotston Moore, and I'm a forensic accountant
and expert witness.
00:21:08
So I would say that
people's financial spending gives you an indication
of what they are.
00:21:14
So if normally they spend
$1,000 a month on whatever it is they spend
it, they typically
00:21:20
continue with that pattern. PATRICK HEAD: Lynn was
in financial trouble. She was behind on payments, her
credit cards were maxed out.
00:21:30
She was in bad
financial trouble. PENNY A. PENN: She was still
living way beyond her means,
00:21:38
and her financial
records reflected that. So towards the end of 1999
into 2000 and beyond,
00:21:48
she had many credit cards. She was overdue
on those credit cards. She was behind on her
house payments.
00:21:57
She had to refinance her house. She was overdrawn
on a couple of bank accounts. So all of the money
that she had
00:22:06
gotten as a result of Glenn's
death, she had spent. NARRATOR: In early
January 2001,
00:22:16
Julia Lynn and Randy
Thompson's relationship was also in trouble. MARCUS K. GARNER:
Randy Thompson
00:22:24
had separated from Julia Lynn. He'd moved into an apartment
away from the home that he had shared and had
purchased with Julia Lynn,
00:22:32
and lived in with
their children. So he was living by himself. They were sort of back
and forth in relationship.
00:22:39
He was going through
bouts of depression. PATRICK HEAD: They had
separated and were living apart
00:22:46
and were really not
seeing each other. And then Lynn called Randy
and asked him to have
00:22:54
dinner with her at Longhorn. And he canceled
some dinner plans that he had with a friend,
and went to dinner
00:23:01
with her at Longhorn. MARCUS K. GARNER:
The next day, January 20, Randy Thompson went
to the hospital
00:23:11
with severe flu-like symptoms. Checked into the hospital
and was treated, then released.
00:23:19
On January 22, 2001, Randy
Thompson was found dead. [OMINOUS MUSIC] NARRATOR: On January 22, 2001,
Randy's worried co-workers
00:23:36
forced their way into his
apartment and found him dead. - Forsyth County
medical examiner
00:23:43
ruled Randy Thompson's death
a result of natural causes, and said that he showed
an enlarged heart.
00:23:52
NARRATOR: After Randy
Thompson's death, Julia Lynn's behavior was
once again questioned.
00:23:59
- She was criticized because
she didn't take her children to the funeral,
and Randy's friend's
00:24:06
reaction, their reactions
when they heard he had died. And, you know, Lynn
just-- she stayed at work.
00:24:14
People grieve differently. Just because someone
doesn't cry doesn't mean that
they are not sad
00:24:21
or that they are not grieving. MARCUS K. GARNER: News
of both men's deaths wasn't something that
was common knowledge
00:24:32
to the general
public at the time. However, when the news
and the similarities were brought to the attention
of the media,
00:24:41
it raised flags
for everyone who was aware that something was wrong. NARRATOR: A few weeks
after the funeral,
00:24:51
Randy's heartbroken
mother received a letter from the mother
of Glenn Turner. - They compared notes.
00:24:58
And after comparing notes,
they reached the conclusion that something was amiss.
00:25:06
NARRATOR: Both the Turner
and Thompson families contacted police, who decided
to look again at the results
00:25:14
of Randy's autopsy. - Randy Thompson's
autopsy was conducted by the state crime lab.
00:25:21
Dr. Koponen was
the medical examiner who performed the autopsy. And when he was going through
everything and found something
00:25:30
that shouldn't be in the body. So he asked them to do
a test for ethylene glycol.
00:25:38
Ethylene glycol is
a colorless, odorless liquid. You might know it
as "antifreeze."
00:25:49
When the test was performed,
the chemist who performed it made a little bit of an error.
00:25:56
He misplaced
a decimal by 1 point. So he was off 10 times. So the amount that was
reported back, they
00:26:07
did find ethylene glycol but
the amount that was reported was such a small amount that
it is what the scientists
00:26:15
call insignificant. NARRATOR: When the state
medical examiner realized the error,
they ran a new test.
00:26:24
- And it came back positive
with a very high number. So based on that, Dr.
Koponen had some concerns.
00:26:34
He learned that Randy Thompson
was having a relationship with Lynn Turner. And he also found out
that Glenn Turner had died
00:26:43
under similar circumstances. He obtained the lab results
from Glenn Turner's autopsy,
00:26:51
and found that Glenn
also had calcium oxalate crystals in his kidneys. Based on that and the
relationship between both
00:27:00
of them with Lynn
Turner, Dr. Koponen put his down as a homicide
as the cause of death.
00:27:11
KERI NIXON: That's another
psychological significant fact. Shooting somebody
and strangling somebody and
00:27:17
stabbing somebody,
they are so what we call interpersonal crimes. You've got to be close.
00:27:26
You have to see
the fear in their eyes. You have to see the life
drain out of them.
00:27:33
Whereas if you poison somebody,
you can then distance yourself from the result. It's
almost-- it's still horrific,
00:27:43
but it's less invasive. It's less violent. MARCUS K. GARNER: In June
2001, the Georgia Bureau
00:27:52
of Investigations took
over both investigations, and a similar autopsy
was done for Glenn Turner
00:28:01
after his body was exhumed. Again, oxalate crystals
were found in his kidneys, revealing the presence
of ethylene
00:28:12
glycol, the primary
substance in antifreeze. Because antifreeze
is a substance that
00:28:20
has a sweet taste and can go
undetectable in substances like jell-o or sweet tea.
00:28:30
NARRATOR: Police discovered
that Julia Lynn had admitted to serving both men,
either jell-o or sweet tea,
00:28:36
before their deaths. - Investigators
were able to draw a very clear through
line that, in both cases,
00:28:45
pointed back to Julia Lynn. NARRATOR: In November
2002, Julia Lynn Turner was indicted by a Cobb
County grand jury
00:28:57
and charged with murder. PATRICK HEAD: You had
two different homicides. The first one occurred here
in Cobb County in 1995,
00:29:06
and the second would
occurred in Forsyth County. Glenn Turner was here in Cobb. Randy Thompson was in Forsyth.
00:29:14
NARRATOR: Having two
suspected murders in two very close knit communities
meant holding a trial
00:29:20
was challenging. PENNY A. PENN: We
spent a week here across the street
in the old courthouse
00:29:27
trying to pick a jury,
and we were just unable. Too many people had
heard about this case,
00:29:32
you know, knew about
it and had formed an opinion about her guilt.
They could not be fair.
00:29:39
We realized we were not going
to be able to get a jury here, and so venue was changed.
00:29:46
NARRATOR: There were
further complications. Due to the fact that
many of the prosecutors
00:29:50
involved in the case knew
Julia Lynn Turner personally. PENNY A. PENN: It was odd.
00:29:56
You know, that is a unique
aspect to this case as well. When Lynn got arrested, she was
working for one of our judges.
00:30:05
You know, that's a little
awkward, to say the least. And then her mother
still worked here
00:30:14
so that, too, was awkward. And I always had a good
relationship with her mother.
00:30:19
That was unfortunate. NARRATOR: After being unable
to form a jury in Cobb County,
00:30:27
in 2004, Julia
Lynn Turner was put on trial in Houston County
for the murder of Glenn Turner.
00:30:36
- The opening line that I used
when I was addressing the jury, I said, "this case is about
lust, greed, and murder."
00:30:48
PENNY A. PENN: It was
a circumstantial case. And so that often has
just so many more pieces,
00:30:55
there are so many more
witnesses, so many more facts. MARCUS K. GARNER: Julia
Lynn seemed confident.
00:31:02
She presented herself
as calm and self-assured. There wasn't any
view of her seeming
00:31:10
to be frightened of anything,
or even contrite. And she entered
in knowing that there
00:31:17
was only circumstantial
evidence that was being ruled against her. NARRATOR: One of the strongest
pieces of evidence
00:31:25
for the prosecution was
the presence of ethylene glycol in Glenn Turner's body. PATRICK HEAD: The amount
of ethylene glycol
00:31:34
that should ever be found in
a dead person's body is zero. The fact that they found any
would indicate foul play.
00:31:45
The fact that
they found so much and that it was
the cause of death means it was a homicide
or a suicide.
00:31:54
But there was nothing
in Glenn's case to make it appear that he
had ever considered suicide.
00:32:00
NARRATOR: The prosecution
argued that Julia Lynn Turner poisoned her husband
by adding ethylene
00:32:07
glycol into his last meal. MARCUS K. GARNER: If she
had added ethylene glycol to the gelatin, it
would be difficult
00:32:16
to detect the difference
or that there was anything additional
added to the gelatin.
00:32:25
PATRICK HEAD: You
can hide it in soup. You can hide it in jell-o. You can hide it in Gatorade.
00:32:34
And these are all things that
these people had consumed. MARCUS K. GARNER:
Julia Lynn had
00:32:40
served Glenn Turner
his last known meal the morning that he died. Green jell-o. And it's known now that
antifreeze has a sweet taste
00:32:53
and can easily be passed off in
jell-o without being noticed. PATRICK HEAD: Glenn had
even told somebody that when
00:33:03
she had seen Glenn
before she left, that he was feeling
poorly and had eaten some jell-o that she had made.
00:33:12
When Randy was sick and she
went over and carried stuff to him, she carried him
iced tea, which he liked,
00:33:19
which could easily hide
the ethylene glycol. She carried him what we heard
was chicken soup, which can
00:33:27
also hide the ethylene glycol. NARRATOR: Prosecutors argued
that Julia Lynn Turner's motive
00:33:34
for the murder was financial
fraud and deception. FIONA HOTSTON MOORE:
Typically, fraudsters
00:33:40
are very aware of the different
items in their toolbox, so they're very aware
of the different ways
00:33:45
that they can defraud
money, so they'll be aware of hidden
identities, fraudulent loan
00:33:50
applications, and so on. - With Glenn, there was
a life insurance policy with MetLife that was $100,000.
00:34:00
There was life
insurance through Cobb County as an employee
that was $47,000. He had deferred compensation,
which was close to $4,000.
00:34:10
He had the retirement,
which if she had drawn all of the retirement
that he would have
00:34:15
been able to get, was 84,000. And if you pull up
the future retirement that she would have gotten,
it comes to over $450,000.
00:34:29
So that's how we get to the
total dollar amount of Glenn, which would have been $693,000.
00:34:39
- Julia Lynn inherited
more than a quarter million dollars from
Glenn Turner's insurance
00:34:45
and state proceeds. And that's just
from Glenn Turner. [TENSE MUSIC] NARRATOR: On May 14, 2004,
after a three-week trial
00:35:01
in Houston County,
a jury took just five hours to reach their verdict. PATRICK HEAD: Usually,
a quick verdict is not guilty.
00:35:11
When the bailiff
came in and said, the jury has reached a verdict
and it's the same day,
00:35:17
to be honest, I was concerned. - A jury found Julie Lynn
Turner guilty of murdering
00:35:26
Glenn Turner. That means that all 12
jurors ruled against her. NARRATOR: The judge
sentenced Julia Lynn Turner
00:35:36
to life imprisonment
for the murder of Glenn Turner. - I know that Glenn's mother
was very appreciative,
00:35:46
and she used to come by every
year after that trial and would bring cookies
to the office, up until the day
00:35:57
that I retired. NARRATOR: Three years
later, Julia Lynn Turner was tried for the murder
of Randy Thompson
00:36:06
for financial gain. PENNY A. PENN:
The case against Lynn was about her murdering
her former partner,
00:36:18
the father of her two children,
solely for financial reasons. And we also sought
the death penalty.
00:36:31
NARRATOR: It was revealed
that in the months leading up to Randy Thompson's
death, Julia Turner
00:36:37
was in financial trouble. MARCUS K. GARNER:
As a result of a lot of the expenses that she had
or had accumulated because
00:36:45
of her lavish lifestyle
and her expensive taste, there were a lot of bills
that were difficult to pay.
00:36:53
Julia Lynn had racked up
credit card expenses again, which said at one point in time
that she had over $35,000
00:37:02
worth of credit card debt. - She actually had
gone to the bank because she was unable
to write checks.
00:37:13
She had made a comment
to a bank employee that she was going
to take care of this soon.
00:37:19
And it wasn't long after
that that Randy died. NARRATOR: Once
again, prosecutors
00:37:27
argued that Julia
Lynn Turner was financially motivated when
she poisoned Randy Thompson
00:37:33
with antifreeze. - If you take the $200,000
that she was going to get, she has two children who
are now going to draw Social
00:37:42
Security until they are 18
or 20, depending on whether or not they stay in college.
00:37:48
And you put all
of that together, and it's over $600,000. So Lynn is looking
at the potential of receiving,
00:37:57
over some period
of time, over $600,000. So if you couple that with
what she got from Glenn
00:38:05
or would have gotten
in total from Glenn, you're looking at well
over $1 million.
00:38:14
NARRATOR: During
the trial, it was revealed that Julia
Lynn Turner's plan to collect Randy
Thompson's insurance money
00:38:20
was foiled by Randy one
month before he died. - Yeah, he had
taken out a $200,000
00:38:29
life insurance policy and made
Julia Lynn the beneficiary. However, as a result
of uncertain expenses
00:38:38
or however they were managing
their funds or their finances, he allowed that insurance
policy to lapse,
00:38:45
unbeknownst to Julia Lynn. PATRICK HEAD: I believe it
was the day of the funeral
00:38:53
for Randy that she called
the State Farm agent to collect on that $200,000 policy
because she believed
00:39:01
it was still in effect. And he told her
it had expired or lapsed because of non-payment
the month before.
00:39:11
PENNY A. PENN: We had
her phone records. And then we had a witness. And it was the woman who
had to break it to her
00:39:18
that the policy
had expired, you know, and testified
that there was just this long period of silence
on the other end of the phone
00:39:30
when she did that. PATRICK HEAD: So she was
a month later on killing Randy. If she'd done it
a month sooner,
00:39:40
she'd have gotten $200,000. But she believed at the time
that she did it that she was going to get $200,000.
00:39:50
NARRATOR: In 2007, three years
after she was found guilty of the murder of Glenn Turner,
Julia Lynn Turner's second
00:39:58
murder trial drew to a close. MARCUS K. GARNER:
On March 24, 2007, a jury found Julia Lynn
Turner guilty of murdering
00:40:09
Randy Thompson. [OMINOUS MUSIC] In both cases, two different
juries found Julia Lynn
00:40:18
guilty of killing her lovers. The judge wanted
to sentence her to capital punishment,
that is, they
00:40:24
wanted to put her to death. PENNY A. PENN: We thought
that it was warranted, given the fact that she
had murdered two people
00:40:35
and it was for financial gain. Also, there is the fact
that it was like wantonly
00:40:45
horrible and vile, inhumane. He suffered. It took him several
days to die. And she continued killing him.
00:40:56
She had poisoned him,
and then, you know, what she gave him was
enough to escape detection,
00:41:03
but it wasn't
enough to kill him. And so she had to give
him another dose. So it was over an extended
period of time,
00:41:12
and he really suffered. NARRATOR: During
sentencing, the judge heard pleas from Julia Lynn
Turner's mother for mercy
00:41:21
on behalf of her two young
grandchildren, aged 8 and 11. PATRICK HEAD: When they went
for the punishment section,
00:41:29
the jury found that she should
be sentenced not to death, but to life without parole.
00:41:43
PENNY A. PENN: Lynn Turner
was getting away with murder until Randy's death. I think that if Lynn
Turner had not
00:41:53
been charged with murder
after Randy's death, she would have
killed someone else.
00:42:05
PATRICK HEAD: Had she not
murdered Randy Thompson, she would have gotten
away with murder.
00:42:11
She hadn't done it twice, she
would have never been caught. NARRATOR: Between
2006 and 2010,
00:42:19
Julia Lynn Turner launched
two separate appeals against her convictions. All of them were rejected.
00:42:28
- When the decision came
back on the habeas corpus, I believe she then realized
that case was over.
00:42:37
She was going to spend
life in prison. And it also meant that she was
never going to get paroled.
00:42:46
KERI NIXON: When
somebody continues to deny many years
after an offense, it can be for many,
many reasons.
00:42:53
However, when we look at her
history of control and manipulation, I
suspect that this
00:42:58
is just part of her
continued need for control. - On August 30, 2010,
Julia Lynn Turner
00:43:12
was found dead
in her prison cell at Metro State
Penitentiary for Women. Julia Lynn was 42 years old
when she was found dead.
00:43:23
PATRICK HEAD: She had been
found unresponsive in her cell and that she had died.
00:43:28
And they believed
that she had-- she was on medication
for blood pressure and she was on some pills.
00:43:37
And what we believe is
that she hoarded those until she could end her life. MARCUS K. GARNER: Glenn
Turner's mother, Kathy Turner,
00:43:48
told me that she didn't
believe that Julia Lynn was able to go
on and that she had
00:43:55
pretty much given up on life. PATRICK HEAD: And I believe
that once she looked at it
00:44:01
and saw that she was going
to spend the rest of her life in prison, she decided she
might as well poison herself.
00:44:09
She'd done it to two guys. She knew how to do it,
so she poisoned herself. And my belief was
justice was served.
00:44:20
So that's how I felt. NARRATOR: The double homicide
in the suburbs of Atlanta cast a long shadow over all
those involved in the case.
00:44:32
PATRICK HEAD: Well, as I
said in the beginning, this case was about
lust, greed, and murder.
00:44:37
It was the greed that made her
do the things that she did. PENNY A. PENN: Both
Glenn's and Randy's family
00:44:51
sustained a loss. It was also terrible
here because there were kids who lost their dad,
and then two of them
00:45:01
ended up losing
their mother, such as it was when she committed this crime. And you know,
that's always sad.
00:45:11
But here, you know,
purely for financial gain, it's just
so the planning that went
00:45:19
into this, the thought that
went into this, the fact that she can just
watch these people
00:45:26
suffer as she's
doing this, you know, she's killing them gradually,
it's just so cold-blooded.
00:45:36
MARCUS K. GARNER:
It's unfortunate that Randy Thompson
and Glenn Turner fell prey
00:45:41
to Julia Lynn Turner's wiles. These were men who had taken
the step to put themselves
00:45:50
and their lives on the line
for the sake of others in an emergency situation. They were willing to give
the ultimate sacrifice.
00:46:01
However, in the place
where they should have been
most comfortable, the place where they should
have been the safest,
00:46:08
in the arms
of their lover, that was the place where they
were the most in danger,
00:46:13
and the place where their lives
were taken from them. And it's unfortunate
that while they
00:46:19
had committed to give
their lives for the community, the person who had
committed their life
00:46:24
to them was the one who killed
them and snuff their lives out. [THEME MUSIC]