LV man gets life for killing wife

Karen Zekan

Tuesday, Dec. 15, 1998 | 11:20 a.m.

Chances are slim that convicted murderer Clarence Elliot will ever taste freedom again.

Even with District Court Judge Jeffrey Sobel's decision on Monday to allow the man who killed his newlywed wife in 1996 to eventually become eligible for parole, Elliot would be 98 years old before he becomes eligible.

"At least he's not going anywhere," said Deputy District Attorney Dan Seaton, who with Deputy District Attorney Art Noxon successfully prosecuted Elliot in a case built largely on circumstantial evidence.

Authorities never found the gun used to kill Barbara Turner-Elliot, 58, nor eyewitnesses placing Elliot at the crime scene. Yet the former Marine's shaky alibi and evidence found in the couple's home were enough for a jury to convict him of first-degree murder.

Elliot was given 20 years for the murder and an additional 20 for using a deadly weapon to kill his bride of less than eight months. Sobel said his decision to grant eligibility for parole was based primarily Elliot's virtually clean record.

Perhaps the most unsettling moment for the attorneys and the victim's son, David Turner, 34, came when Elliot addressed the court.

He did not express remorse or sorrow, but maintained that he was wrongfully convicted.

"This is my first serious encounter with the justice system," Elliot began, reading aloud from a hand-written statement. "I've been convicted by perjurers, story fabricators ... and supporters of a misaligned justice system."

Citing multiple statutes, Elliot insisted that his constitutional rights were violated, because his attorney did not fairly represent him.

Kirk Kennedy, Elliot's public defender, called no witnesses to the stand during the murder trial in August. Elliot himself never testified.

"If people truly loved my wife as they loudly proclaimed on TV and in the media, they would not have tainted the memory of our love. They failed to recognize the fact that we married each other because of our love and mutual respect for one another."

Turner-Elliot was last seen alive Feb. 19, 1996. A social worker at University Medical Center, she got off work about 4:30 p.m., purchased a box of oyster crackers, Roma tomatoes, an onion, chicken and a box of Benadryl at the Lucky grocery store at Rainbow Boulevard and Flamingo Road a half-hour later.

Five hours later, a security guard at Angel Park golf course spotted her silver Honda Accord in the parking lot, its passenger seat blood-stained. Inside the locked car were the woman's purse, money, cell phone and Benadryl.

Elliot insisted when interviewed by police that he hadn't seen his wife since 7:30 a.m. on Feb. 19 -- the same day she signed a life insurance policy naming him the sole beneficiary of $25,000 in the event of her death.

Detectives, however, found an unopened box of oyster crackers, Roma tomatoes, and chicken in the couple's home, as well as Turner-Elliot's keys to her car.

Her body was found three months later in a ravine near the Red Rock Detention Basin. She had been shot four times with a rare type of .38-caliber bullets -- the same type Elliot later gave detectives during the investigation.