VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. — Dustin “Dusty” Turner, a Bloomington, Indiana native who has spent roughly three decades fighting a controversial murder conviction in Virginia, is being released on parole for a second time this year following a brief re-incarceration that advocates describe as a “deeply retraumatizing” misunderstanding.
The Virginia Parole Board issued a notice on May 14 ordering Turner’s release from the Middle River Regional Jail, according to a statement from legal advocates.
On March 5, Turner, 50, had tasted freedom after the parole board narrowly granted him early release in a 3-2 vote in January. However, his freedom was cut short on April 21 when Virginia State Police arrested him for an alleged parole violation.
According to the Dusty Turner Coalition for Justice, Turner spent more than three weeks back behind bars due to “a misunderstanding involving a vague and undefined supervision condition, a matter that could have been resolved without arrest and reincarceration.” Advocates emphasized that Turner had been fully cooperative and compliant with all guidelines while actively preparing to have his parole supervision transferred to his home state of Indiana.
The 1995 Case and Confession
The legal saga began in June 1995 when Jennifer Evans, a 21-year-old pre-med student from Emory University, went missing while vacationing in Virginia Beach. Her body was discovered in a wooded area nine days later.
Investigators arrested Turner and Billy Joe Brown, both of whom were elite Navy SEAL candidates stationed in the area at the time, after the men came forward to authorities. Though Turner maintained that Brown killed Evans in a sudden, drunken rage in the back of Turner’s car, both men were convicted by separate juries in 1996. Turner was sentenced to 82 years for first-degree felony murder and abduction with intent to defile, while Brown received 72 years.
Because Virginia had abolished parole for felony offenses in 1995, both men were expected to serve their full sentences. Turner admitted to helping Brown dispose of the body out of panicked, misplaced loyalty, an act his defense argued amounted only to accessory after the fact, which carried a maximum one-year sentence in Virginia at the time.
The trajectory of the case shifted dramatically in 2003 when Brown signed an affidavit recanting his trial testimony. During a 2008 evidentiary hearing, Brown testified under oath that he alone had strangled Evans during a drunken rage and that Turner had tried to stop him. The presiding circuit court judge found Brown’s confession credible, explicitly ruling that Turner played no role in Evans’ murder or restraint.
Despite the judge’s findings, higher state courts subsequently overturned Turner’s Writ of Actual Innocence on technical grounds, ruling that prosecutors had pursued a theory of “abduction by deception,” which made Turner legally liable for felony murder even if he didn’t physically kill her.
Turner’s path to parole finally opened in 2020 through the Virginia Supreme Court’s milestone Fishback v. Commonwealth ruling. The decision granted retroactive eligibility for parole hearings to inmates convicted by juries in the late 1990s, whose courts never informed them that parole had been abolished in the state.
After parole denials in 2020 and 2024, the board voted to release Turner in January 2026. At his final hearing, Turner stated, “The tragedy of Jennifer’s murder has had an impact on me and a profound impact. It haunts me every day.”
While his original murder and abduction convictions still technically stand, Turner’s impending re-release will finally allow him to return home to Indiana to reunite with his 78-year-old mother, Linda Summitt, who spent 30 years advocating for his freedom. Billy Joe Brown remains incarcerated in Virginia.
