It took about an hour Thursday afternoon for a Bowie County jury to find a former Telford Unit guard guilty of brutally assaulting his former wife during a May 2013 attack that went on for hours.
The jury will return to court Friday morning to decide what punishment Richard Greg Turner, called Greg, should receive. Greg Turner faces five to 99 years or life in the same prison system he worked for 18 years.
“He is a crazy, violent maniac,” Assistant District Attorney Kelley Crisp argued in closing remarks. “He has been beating women in this county for 23 years and it stops today.”
Greg Turner kicked down the door of Amy Turner’s second-floor unit at the Krystal Plex Apartments on the evening of May 2, 2013. Once inside, Greg Turner punched and kicked Amy Turner.
Amy Turner testified that Greg Turner was telling her that she was going to, “come home and be the wife he wanted me to be.”
Greg Turner took the stand in his own defense Thursday and denied he has ever been violent toward Amy Turner or any other woman. But his words were in stark contrast to the testimony of Amy Turner, Susan Horn (another former wife), and others who told the jury they personally witnessed Greg Turner’s darker side.
Greg Turner forced Amy Turner down the stairs at her apartment complex and ordered her to drive to his trailer in Hooks, Texas. A downstairs neighbor of Amy Turner’s told the jury she was shocked at the force with which Greg Turner struck Amy Turner as she sat in the driver’s seat of her green Kia.
Greg Turner claimed the neighbor, Simone Watkins, lied. Watkins did not know Amy Turner. Greg Turner could not explain why a stranger would make up such a story.
Amy Turner testified that Greg Turner demanded she drive her Kia to his trailer in Hooks while he followed in his red Ford F-150 pickup. As the two drove down Interstate 30, Amy Turner tried to elicit the help of other drivers. When Greg Turner realized what his now former wife was doing, he began ramming the back of her small car with his truck.
When the Kia became inoperable and filled with smoke, Amy Turner pulled over to the shoulder. Greg Turner forced her into his truck and drove to the Red River bridge, Amy Turner said. There Greg Turner assaulted Amy Turner again and made her call 911 and report her car had been stolen and her apartment broken into.
At his trailer in Hooks, Greg Turner placed a revolver to Amy Turner’s head and threatened murder/suicide. But when he received text messages from friends alerting him that police were hunting for him and Amy Turner, Greg Turner decided to take Amy Turner back to her apartment.
Greg Turner’s truck was badly damaged from his earlier road rage so he called his girlfriend for a ride. When Greg Turner saw the flashing lights of law enforcement cruisers in the complex parking lot, he ordered Amy Turner out of the car and he and the girlfriend drove away. Later that night, Greg Turner was taken into custody.
Greg Turner has been free on bond for more than two years. Following the jury’s guilty verdict Thursday, 102nd District Judge Bobby Lockhart agreed to allow Greg Turner to remain free until the jury decides his punishment Friday.
