Turner Indicted By Grand Jury

By David Howell

WATER VALLEY – Raynard Turner will spend his forty-first birthday behind bars in the Yalobusha County Jail Saturday after turning himself in to authorities on Sept. 25.

    Turner had been on the run since late August when law enforcement authorities raided his house after obtaining a search warrant stemming from an alleged drug sale made by Turner to a coded informant.

    “He had his attorney, David Hill, with him when he turned himself in to the sheriff’s department,” Chief Deputy Jerry Ferguson said.

    After serving the search warrant on Aug. 31, law enforcement officers seized numerous narcotics including marijuana, cocaine, assorted pills and more than a 100 bottles of whiskey and cases of beer. At that time an arrest warrant was issued for Turner, who was not at the residence when sheriff deputies, Water Valley police officers and a strategic response team from the Oxford  Police Department stormed the house.

    Turner was already out on bond for a February possession of a controlled substance charge when he turned himself in to authorities. A Circuit Court judge revoked the bond and Turner will remain in custody until his trial, according to Ferguson.

    Just eight days after he turned himself in, Turner was indicted by a Second Judicial Grand Jury on Wednesday, Oct. 5, on an 11-count indictment stemming from the Aug. 31 search warrant. He faces an additional charge for felony destruction of jail property, on which the grand jury indicted him after Turner allegedly damaged a camera in the jail

    “Right now he is looking at 12 indictments,” Ferguson reported. “He is also being charged as a habitual offender,” Ferguson said.

    Turner has two prior felony convictions on his record, a 1993 charge for sale of cocaine and a 1993 aggravated assault charge.

    If Turner is convicted as a habitual offender, he would receive a life sentence because these charges would constitute a third subsequent felony offense, Ferguson explained.