Year later, poker game murder unsolved

NEW SMYRNA BEACH, FLORIDA -- For David Michael Turner, it started as a quiet fall Monday evening of Texas Hold'em.

He and his dozen fellow poker players began arriving at James "Bopper" Marathas' New Smyrna Beach home exactly a year ago about 6:30 p.m. to enjoy some food before the game started at 7 p.m. For the next two hours, Turner and the others sat across the felt-topped table from the dealer, calling on their skills and Lady Luck.

Then, about 9:20 p.m. the 62-year-old Port Orange resident's luck ran out when two masked men burst through the Mill Run Drive modular home's unlocked front door. They were armed and demanded money. A single shot rang out. Turner lay dead on floor. His murderers fled the way they came in, but with cash in hand.

Now a year later, New Smyrna Beach police investigators continue to seek those two unidentified assailants, while family members work to try to make sense of the death.

"We are still following leads," said Detective Nicki Diffin.

As the trail has cooled, police and the family hold out hope an ongoing reward of $26,000 might spark some interest.

"We are looking for people to come forward who might have information about the case," Diffin said. The majority of the money, $25,000, came from an anonymous source. It was added to $1,000 put up by the city and Crime Stoppers of Northeast Florida. In addition, a Sheriff's Office $10,000 reward for information about a series of unsolved home invasions at the same time as, and including the Turner murder, is still in effect.

Diffin and her supervisor, Cmdr. Wade Kirby, said the Marathas home was known throughout the card-playing community as a hot spot for higher stakes poker.

"We have been told this was not a penny ante game," Kirby said.

Marathas was not at his home when a reporter went to the residence seeking comment on the killing.

The detectives believe the murder was the result of a "robbery gone bad." However, they would not go into specifics on why Turner was singled out for the fatal bullet, or how much money was taken, citing the ongoing investigation. They did describe one of the assailants as a man 6 feet 2 to 6 feet 5 inches tall and weighing 250 pounds. His partner was 5 feet 8 to 5 feet 10 inches tall and weighed 260 pounds.

Initially, Diffin compared the Turner case to other home invasions, which occurred in DeLand and Ormond Beach, but no links were found. In addition, she said, the investigation has delved into the poker culture in the area, again without success.

"Everything that has the word poker in it, we have looked into," Diffin said, including a Putnam County case where three men were shot in February at a business known as a gathering place for poker.

Turner's younger brother, Jim, believes while his brother played poker for entertainment, the same way some people bowl, it is likely there were thousands of dollars in the room the night of the robbery. Police would not confirm this. Just as likely, he believes his brother believed he was in a safe environment despite the stakes.

"To lose a brother the way we lost Dave was senseless," he said by telephone from his Port Orange home. "It is hard to take," particularly for Turner's wife, who is still too shaken to speak to reporters, he said.

"She has not changed his room or disposed of any of his belongings," Jim Turner said. "She is also undergoing grief counseling."

Turner, one of eight siblings, was the first death among his brothers and sisters and their families, Jim Turner said. Unlike dying in an automobile accident, the murder cuts the family even deeper, he said.

While Jim Turner and his nephew, Court Turner, David's youngest child, have their own theories about the homicide, some of which investigators have discounted, they are satisfied with police efforts, particularly Diffin's. Jim Turner said the detective has spent countless hours on the case, including her own time, kept the family up to date and followed lead after lead, but nothing has panned out.

Still with the reward, the family remains optimistic someone -- maybe a girlfriend mad at her boyfriend or some similar situation -- will come forward.

"Somebody out there knows something," Jim Turner said.

Turner's death was the lone homicide in New Smyrna Beach in 2007. There have been none to date in 2008, Kirby said.

East Volusia News Journal Online

News Added: 15 October, 2008

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