Judge rules that charges stand in 2008 Cape Girardeau killing

Cape Girardeau County Associate Circuit Judge Gary A. Kamp ruled to uphold felony charges Wednesday afternoon against Tambra Turner, transferring the case to circuit court.

Turner, 30, of Sikeston, Mo., appeared at a preliminary hearing last week in which Kamp ruled that a property damage charge against her would stand but that he would hear further arguments from each side and take the charges of first-degree murder, armed criminal action and burglary under advisement.

The hearing was Turner's first time in a courtroom after being charged with the murder of 20-year-old Chabreshea Egson in February 2008. She spent nearly 16 months on the run before federal agents caught up with her last month in Chicago, where she had been using her own name.

Kamp set the next hearing at 9 a.m. July 27 after deciding to overrule hearsay objections raised by the defense during Turner's preliminary hearing.

The objections concerned statements Julian Johnson, a relative of Turner's, made to Missouri State Highway Patrol trooper Scott Stoelting shortly after the murder.

At last week's hearing, Johnson testified he didn't recall anything about the interview, but Stoelting testified that Johnson told him Turner was upset after learning her husband was seeing another woman and later confessed to shooting at Egson but wasn't sure whether she'd killed her.

Jennifer Booth, attorney for Turner, objected to Stoelting's testimony because hearsay is generally not permitted in court and argued against admitting it as reliable evidence.

Egson was killed during early morning hours on Feb. 22, 2008, in her sister's rented residence on North Spanish Street in Cape Girardeau. She died of a single gunshot wound to the chest.

About six hours earlier, one of Egson's relatives saw Turner at the door of the residence arguing with her estranged husband, Lloyd Gilmore, who had been staying with Egson.

Turner then grabbed a large tree limb and began smashing windows of the residence, according to testimony presented at the hearing.

Gilmore was not called as a witness because he could not be found by law enforcement, who had a Pemiscot County warrant for his arrest.

bdicosmo@semissourian.com

388-3635