The unanimous decision by the jury of nine women and three men, makes Bruce Turnidge and his son, Joshua Turnidge, the 35th and 36th inmates of Oregon’s death row. The Oregon Supreme Court will automatically review the decision to impose a death.
Joshua Turnidge's expression didn't change as Marion County Circuit Judge Thomas Hart read the verdict. His father's back was to the camera so his expression wasn't visible. Both men were led out of the courtroom in handcuffs.
Jurors earlier this month convicted both men of aggravated murder in the blast at a West Coast Bank branch. The officers were trying to dismantle a bomb planted as part of a robbery attempt when it went off inside the bank on Dec. 12, 2008.
More
The jury deliberated about four hours today and Tuesday on Joshua Turnidge’s sentence and less than five hours for his father last week. The verdict for Bruce Turnidge was held under seal pending a decision on his son’s sentence.
Jurors also could have sentenced the men to life in prison without parole or life in prison with the possibility of parole after 30 years.
Janet Turnidge, the wife of Bruce Turnidge and mother of Joshua Turnidge, left the courthouse with family and friends after the verdicts. Surrounded by a crush of reporters on the courthouse steps, she looked somber and said she was praying for the family of the two officers who died.
She had no direct comment about the death sentences, other than to say: "It's all in god's hands."
Woodburn Police Chief Scott Russell, who lost his leg in the bomb blast, limped out of the front door of the courthouse.
"The murder of a police officer is a terrible thing," he said. "It's an
attack on every citizen."
Defense attorneys declined comment until Jan. 24, the date of formal sentencing for the Turnidges.
The verdicts cap a two-part trial for Bruce Turnidge, 59, and Joshua Turnidge, 34, that began Sept. 29.
Bruce and Joshua Turnidge get death penalty in Woodburn bank bombing
The father and son convicted in the bomb explosion that killed two police officers at a Woodburn bank should both be put to death, a jury decided today.
Watch video
Jurors on Dec. 8 found the two men guilty of 18 counts each of aggravated murder, attempted aggravated murder and other charges stemming from the bombing. In the second phase of the trial, they have been hearing testimony on whether the men should get the death penalty for their crimes.
The trial traced the story of a father and son, perpetually strapped for cash, who were facing yet another business failure as their biodiesel company bled money. The two men were also vocal about their anti-government and anti-police sentiment, and believed the Obama administration would increase restrictions on their right to bear arms.
The pressure they felt was enough to prompt the Turnidges to put in place a long-held bank-robbery fantasy, prosecutors said, and on Dec. 12, 2008, the men planted a bomb outside the West Coast Bank.
The robbery plot went awry however. And later that evening, the bomb exploded when police officers, believing the device to be a hoax, moved it inside the bank and tried to take it apart. The blast killed Oregon State Police Senior Trooper William Hakim and Woodburn Police Capt. Tom Tennant.
Janet Turnidge, Woodburn Chief Scott Russell after today's verdicts
Both talk about today's verdict, the death sentence for Bruce Turnidge and Joshua Turnidge in the Dec. 2008 Woodburn bank bombing that killed two police officers.
Watch video
The blast critically injured Woodburn Police Chief Scott Russell, who lost his leg. Bank employee Laurie Perkett was also wounded.
Prosecutors told jurors that the two men would pose a continuing threat to society — even in prison.
Their crime of killing police officers gives them instant status in prison, they said. Other inmates would seek out their bomb-making knowledge for their own use once they're released.
But prosecutors also used the Turnidges' views –- described as anti-government, anti-authority and racist –- as reasons to sentence the men to death.
The bombing, they said, was Bruce Turnidge's “Timothy McVeigh moment,” referring to the Oklahoma City bomber that they contended was a hero to the older man.
“The only sentence that will silence Bruce Turnidge’s beliefs and his mind is a sentence of death,” Marion County Deputy District Attorney Katie Suver said.
And the son's “hate-filled beliefs,” financial scheming and resistance to authority made him dangerous to keep in the general prison population, said prosecutor Matt Kemmy.
But defense attorneys said that neither Bruce Turnidge nor Joshua Turnidge was ever imprisoned before and accused the state of throwing mud at the defendants with stale episodes and remarks that they allegedly made decades earlier in some cases.
“The death penalty must be reserved for the worst of the worst,” said defense attorney Steven Gorham. “The facts of the crime and the totality of the evidence presented for and against Joshua Turnidge show that putting him to death would be in the name of vengeance alone, not justice.”
They also argued that neither Turnidge personally detonated the bomb and that it had been abandoned when the “idiotic bank robbery plan” went wrong.
It was Hakim, they said, who was banging on the bomb with a hammer and prying it open with a crowbar, showed recklessness in handling the device. A witness testified that the bomb went off just as Hakim said, “There, I got it” and was opening the sealed portion that included the explosive.
The state had argued that Hakim wasn’t to blame. Prosecutors contended that an unknown transmission from an unknown source communicated with the remote-control bomb at the exact moment that Hakim had apparently pried open the device.
Anthony Pyritz, a nephew of Tom Tennant, said he was pleased with the sentences.
“That’s what I was hoping for,” he said. “They’ll never see the light of day.”
Read a statement from the Woodburn Police Department.
-- Helen Jung and Bryan Denson
Comments Feed