Turnbull v. Com.

• Decision Date: 10 October 1975
• Docket Number: No. 750325,750325
• Citation: Turnbull v. Com., 218 S.E.2d 541, 216 Va. 328 (1975)
• Parties: John TURNBULL, a/k/a George Waggener v. COMMONWEALTH of Virginia. Record
• Court: Virginia Supreme Court

Page 541

218 S.E.2d 541

216 Va. 328

John TURNBULL, a/k/a George Waggener v. COMMONWEALTH of Virginia.

Record No. 750325.

Supreme Court of Virginia.

Oct. 10, 1975.

Peter G. Decker, Jr., Norfolk (Chris A. Christie, Decker, Zoby, Collias & Christie, Morfolk, on brief), for plaintiff in error.

John R. Alderman, Sp. Asst. Atty. Gen. (Andrew P. Miller, Atty. Gen., on brief), for defendant in error.

Before I'ANSON, C.J. and CARRICO, HARRISON, COCHRAN, HARMAN, POFF and COMPTON, JJ.

COCHRAN, Justice.

John Turnbull, a/k/a George Waggener, was tried by a jury on November 25 and 26, 1974, on two indictments charging him with the abduction ¹ and murder of Sandra Harrell Jones. Found guilty of the abduction and of murder in the first degree, Turnbull appealed the judgment order of the trial court, entered November 26, 1974, on the jury verdict, sentencing him to confinement in the State penitentiary for 30 years on each charge.

We awarded Turnbull a writ of error limited to the questions whether the evidence was sufficient to support his conviction on each charge, and whether the trial court erred in ruling that James Tolley, a witness for Turnbull, was incompetent, and in subsequently denying Turnbull's motion for a mistrial.

On May 25, 1973, at about 8:00 a.m., the badly beaten body of Sandra ('Sandy') Harrell Jones was found beside a farm road in a wooded area of Southampton County. The medical examiner testified that in his opinion Sandra's death was caused by strangulation and that she died between 5:00 p.m. May 24 and 5:00 a.m. May 25.

The principal witness for the Commonwealth was Pamela ('Pam') Blair, who testified that she had pleaded guilty to the abduction and murder of Sandra in Southampton County. The witness related the sordid events in detail. On May 22, 1973, she and James Tolley accompanied Sandra and Turnbull ('Mongoose') to an office building in downtown Norfolk, where Sandra had been employed. Turnbull threatened Sandra with a wrench before she went into the building for her pay check and struck her in the mouth with the back of his hand when she returned without the check. They proceeded to Sandra's apartment, but the check had not been delivered. Sandra promised to pay Turnbull from her earnings as a dancer at the Jolly Roger, an Ocean View restaurant and night club, and Turnbull warned her that she had better do so because 'she couldn't rip him off'.

On May 24, Pam testified, Turnbull was angry with Sandra over the money and said that 'she had ripped him off'. He also said that he had found out the day before that Sandra had been informing on the activities of the Pagans, the motorcycle gang of which Turnbull was the leader. Pam saw Sandy in an old maroon Mustang with Linda Grant and June Reed at a service station in the Ocean View section of Norfolk frequented by Pagans and their women. Turnbull ordered Linda 'to do what he told her to do, and go teach Sandy a lesson'. Linda, June, and Pam then took Sandra to an apartment where Linda brutally beat her with a belt and cut off her hair. The four returned to the service station around 3:00 p.m. Turnbull directed Linda to take Sandra to Georgia and 'if she didn't make it along the way to just drop her off somewhere'. Pam's testimony was that Turnbull amplified this command by saying, 'I mean I don't want her to make it' and directing that Linda should 'be sure to burn her hands and face so she can't be identified'.

With Linda driving, the three girls transported Sandra to Southampton County where, Pam testified, Linda killed Sandra and left her body lying by the side of a dirt road in a remote wooded area. On the way out the car became stuck in a mud hole. The girls found two local men to whom they paid $15 each to pull the car out and then rejoined Turnbull and the others at a motel in Norfolk. When Linda reported that Sandra had been killed in accordance with his instructions, Turnbull expressed his pleasure.

George Edwards testified that he and a neighbor helped three girls, whom he identified as Linda Grant, June Reed and Pam Blair, by pulling their car out of a mud hole in a woods path in Southampton County, on May 24 at approximately 11:30 p.m. Suspicious of the circumstances he wrote down the license number of the car. The next morning he returned to the area and discovered Sandra's body some 300--400 yards from the place where the car had been stuck.

William Woods, a convicted felon and former Pagan, testified that at the time of Sandra's murder he was aiding State Police undercover narcotics agents as an unpaid informer. He described the organization of the Pagans and the status of their 'old ladies', the women with whom they lived. An 'old lady' customarily wore a 'property patch' which identified her as the 'property' of a Pagan. Some of the Pagans worked, and others were supported by their 'old ladies'. During the time that Woods belonged to the Pagans, Turnbull never worked at a regular job. Woods testified that Sandra was Turnbull's 'old lady' at one time, that Pam and June Reed were James Tolley's 'old ladies', and that Linda, known as 'Crazy Linda', was Josie Green's 'old lady'. Turnbull was President of the Virginia Beach Chapter of the Pagans and was also over the Norfolk and Portsmouth Chapters, 'and anything they said had to be checked over with him before anybody could do anything'.

On May 24 at about 4:30 or 5:00 p.m., Turnbull, Tolley and Green came to Woods' apartment, and Turnbull advised Woods to have an 'airtight' alibi for that night. Tolley explained that 'they were going to get rid of Sandy', and Turnbull told Woods to say, if he was asked, that when he had last seen Sandy, she and another girl were hitchhiking from Norfolk toward Georgia to work as topless dancers. Woods promptly communicated this information to Jim Smith, an undercover agent of the State Police Narcotics section, and he and Smith looked for Sandra for about eight hours. On the following day Woods saw Sandra's I.D. card in a pocketbook which Tolley burned behind the service station at Ocean View.

After Sandra's body was found, Woods attended a meeting of the Pagans at which Turnbull said that he was going to be picked up for questioning about Sandra's death. He also said, 'I must have been a dumb ass to try to let Crazy Linda try to take care of anything for me', since Sandra had been taken toward Suffolk instead of to Georgia, and nothing had been done to keep her body from being identified.

Woods further testified that Turnbull told him that Sandra was supposed to be paid $60 for dancing but that, after she stopped living with him, every time he went after the money she 'would duck out the back door' instead of giving him the money to get his motorcycle out of the shop. Turnbull also told Woods than when the girls picked Sandra up they intended only to beat her up, but they beat her so badly that he was afraid she would die anyway, so he told them to take her 'towards Georgia'.

Other witnesses for the Commonwealth substantiated portions of the testimony of Pam Blair and Woods. Mrs. Judy Edwards recalled seeing Sandra, shortly before her death, evade Turnbull by going out one door at the Jolly Roger as he came in another. James Thorpe testified that Pam and three other girls in an old maroon Mustang stopped at his service station in Hampton on the night of May 24. Trooper James Smith, of the State Police, confirmed that Woods had reported to him the threat against Sandra on May 24 and that he and Woods had tried in vain to find her throughout that evening until about 2:00 a.m. on May 25.

After his motion to strike the Commonwealth's evidence had been denied, Turnbull, testifying in his own defense, denied any knowledge of Sandra's abduction, beating or murder. He also denied that he had ever threatened or struck her, denied that he saw her on May 24, and denied that he talked to Woods on that day. He admitted, however, that Sandra owed him $30 to repay a loan that he had made to her in April, and that she might have been afraid of him because of this unpaid debt.

Viewing this evidence in the light most favorable to the Commonwealth, we hold that it is sufficient to support Turnbull's conviction on both charges as an accessory before the fact. There was ample evidence that Turnbull ordered the abduction, the beating and the murder. Sandra owed him money, and Turnbull had threatened her, struck her, and pursued her in vain efforts to obtain payment. He ordered her taken to an apartment and beaten to teach her that she could not 'rip him off'. The jury could reasonably have inferred that Turnbull not only wanted to punish her but also wanted to make certain that she would repay his loan and would not thereafter withhold money from him, thus bringing the abduction with the provisions of Code § 18.1--38 (Repl. Vol. 1960).

The jury could have found from the evidence that, after the Grant woman, aided and abetted by June and Pam, had beaten Sandra too severely, Turnbull, believing that she would die anyway, ordered that she be transported out of the state and murdered. The evidence is thus sufficient to show wilful, deliberate, and premeditated killing, which, under the provisions of Code § 18.1--21 (Cum. Supp. 1975), constitutes murder in the first degree. See Bailey v. Commonwealth, 191 Va. 510, 516--17, 62 S.E.2d 28, 30--31 (1950).

The evidence does not show that Turnbull personally abducted or beat Sandra or that he was present when she was murdered. It is sufficient, however, to show that he planned and instigated the commission of the crimes and was, therefore, an accessory before the fact. Foster v. Commonwealth, 179 Va. 96, 99, 18 S.E.2d 314, 315 (1942). See Tolley v. Commonwealth, Va., 218 S.E.2d 550, this day decided. Under the provisions of Code § 18.1--11 (Repl. Vol. 1960), an accessory before the fact 'may be indicted, tried, convicted and punished in all respects as if a principal in the first degree . . ..'

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