Judge says fair trial impossible and drops murder charges against parents in 1989 killing of boy

By JEFFREY COLLINS
Associated Press

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — A South Carolina judge has thrown out murder charges against a father and a stepmother, saying there was no new evidence they killed their 5-year-old child in 1989. Instead Circuit Judge Roger Young ruled the original detective in the case changed his interpretations of the evidence leading to the new charges in January. Young also says with more than 20 witnesses in the 35-year-old case either dead or unable to testify, the couple couldn’t put up a fair defense and question witnesses who claimed they made incriminating statements. Justin Turner was found dead in a cabinet in a camper behind his Berkeley County home in March 1989. He had been strangled.