Robert Espinoza Shoots and Kills Clerk Keith Turner Case

**kellyhound** · #1 ● 01-17-2011, 02:54 PM

SAN ANTONIO The prosecution and defense rested their cases in the trial of a man accused of killing a convenience store clerk.

Robert Espinoza 25, is charged with the April 2002 capital murder of Keith Turner, a Stop and Go convenience store clerk.

The main evidence presented by the prosecution was the surveillance tape of the robbery and murder.

"I dreaded seeing it," said Pamela Turner, the victim's sister, who watched the tape in the courtroom. "It's horrible."
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A woman testified in court that she isn't sure that a man shown on videotape killing a convenience store clerk is her boyfriend.

The testimony conflicts with a statement that the woman made to police after she saw surveillance store video at San Antonio Police headquarters a few days after Keith Turner was murdered at a Diamond Shamrock store in April 2002.

"No, I couldn't tell that that was him from the video," the woman, who is not being identified at the court's request, said during day two of the capital murder trial of Robert Espinosa (pictured, left). "They (police) wouldn't stop showing it to me, until I said, 'We'll, it kinda walks like him.'"

The woman eventually identified Espinosa as the killer after she admitted to police that she was present when the defendant allegedly dumped a gun into Braunig Lake.

The woman said she provided police with the information after she was assured that she would not charged as an accomplice.
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On Feb 20th 2003 Robert Espinoza was found guilty of Capital Murder and sentenced to life in prison.

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San Marcos Area Recovery Team.

April 30, 2002 - In one of SMART's most successful dive operations to date, divers recovered a chrome .357 magnum from lake Braunig, a weapon which is believed to have been used in a recent capital murder at a Sac & Pac convenience store in San Antonio on April 21st.

San Antonio Police homicide detectives contacted SMART to search an area of Lake Braunig in South East San Antonio off a pier where there investigation led them to believe the murder weapon had been discarded.

Using underwater communications, video, and a metal detector, divers discovered the handgun in 15 feet of water, and 87 feet from the end of the dock.

The search took 67 minutes before the chrome .357 handgun was found, preserved, and recovered.

"This is one of our most successful operations ever.
We combined infrared video technology, an underwater metal detector, and a standard search pattern in water as dark as chocolate milk.

Visibility was absolute zero.We were able to find the needle in the hay stack and successfully recover a weapon used in a capital murder.

The success of this operation speaks very highly of the dive team and its membership.San Antonio police detectives were very pleased with the find and recovery and further stated that a warrant for capital murder on the suspect is imminent.

After the weapon was found, SMART divers marked the location with a floating marker while an evidence technician from the San Antonio police took pictures and measurements from the pier to the exact location of the gun.

The gun was then sealed with the barrel positioned up in a water tight container and brought to the surface.

Sealing the weapon in a water tight container prevents rust, preserves trace evidence, and reduces deterioration of the weapon if it had immediately exposed to air.

"The weapon will be brought to a crime lab still sealed in the container where it will be removed and rapidly dried.

The evidence technician will then process the gun for fingerprints and conduct ballistic testing.

It is a common myth that finger prints, barrel contents, and gun powder residue are washed away in the water.

This simply is not true.
With proper handling and drying in a crime lab, physical evidence can still be recovered from the gun.