After roughly five hours of deliberation Wednesday, jurors cleared Airman Calvin Hill of killing a former friend, Airman 1st Class Ashley Turner, in 2005 at Keflavik Naval Air Station, Iceland.
This verdict is nearly two years in the making. Since Aug. 14, 2005, the night Turner was murdered in a Keflavik barracks, Hill has been incarcerated under suspicion of murder. He exhaled sharply when the decision broke.
The trial took place at Bolling Air Force Base in Washington, D.C. Hill, who shuffled from the military courthouse in cuffs and leather straps, is not yet free. He has pleaded guilty to stealing Turner’s ATM card throughout a two-week period in early 2005 and sapping her bank account of more than $2,700. Turner’s family has said she was distraught to discover Hill on ATM surveillance tapes two years ago.
Air Force prosecutors alleged that Hill later cracked Turner’s skull with a weight, stabbed through her spinal cord and left her to die in the dormitory they shared — all to silence her testimony at his court-martial for theft.
Though jurors sided with Hill’s defense team, there were tears on both sides of the courtroom. Hill’s mother, a courtroom presence throughout the trial, declined to comment. Ashley Turner’s father, mother and brother have also watched from the opposite benches each day.
Larry Turner, the victim’s father, said the family was disappointed with the verdict. The “top notch” prosecution, he said, “made their case.”
“There’s a killer out on the streets,” Larry Turner said. “My daughter was born 20 years ago. In 20 years from now, I hope it’s not your daughter. Society is in danger right now.”
Hill’s sentencing begins Thursday. It is unclear whether his roughly 21 months already spent in prison will be a factor.
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