Defense phase begins
Turner lawyer calls past prosecution witnesses
Witnesses who testified 10 years ago against two men accused of killing Emily Klyce Fisher spent the day Friday testifying for the defense of a third man on trial for her death.
The sequestered jurors heard testimony from seven witnesses Friday for defendant Alfred Turner, who is accused of stabbing Fisher more than 50 times at her Midtown home Feb. 27, 1995.
George Tate and Rodney Blades were tried and acquitted in 1996.
A tip to Crime Stoppers in 2003 led to the partial identification of two suspects, including Turner, whose DNA matches blood from the crime scene, prosecutors said.
Attorneys Gerald Skahan and Juni Ganguli read transcripts Friday from three people who testified in the 1996 trial including Peggy Hill, a nurse who called 911 after Fisher’s maid came across the street and knocked on the woman’s door. Hill is deceased.
They also read testimony of the victim’s son, Adrian Fisher, who died in 1999. He had testified that Tate had been to his home.
The son had a history of drug problems and testified he had repeatedly stolen from his parents to support a cocaine habit and that he regularly hung out with Tate, who he said was a drug dealer.
The most contentious testimony came late in the afternoon when the defense called Keith Summerville, who’s in the Shelby County Jail on an unrelated charge. He testified Blades told him 12 years ago that he stabbed Fisher.
Summerville said he and Blades were in jail at the same time and they were discussing what they were in for and Blades told him he burglarized Fisher’s home and stabbed her.
Summerville was a witness for the state in the first trial when jurors were asked by the prosecution to believe his testimony. But on Friday, prosecutor Thomas Henderson questioned whether Blades told him anything.
“ The first time he met you he just told you that he murdered someone. He confessed to you.” “Yes, sir.” Skahan asked Summerville if he had ever been promised anything for his testimony such as a reduced sentence or dropped charge. Summerville, who has been in and out of jail for years on car burglary charges, shook his head no. He’s in jail now on a charge of especially aggravated kidnapping.