Tracy Turner

Tracy Turner was a trustee in the Roanoke County Jail when Earl Bramblett was arrested and brought back from Spartansburg, SC. He overheard some discussion about Bramblett and thought he may get into a drug treatment program and some time knocked off his sentence if he could help the police. He was looking at twenty-seven years  in the penitentiary. He called the Vinton Police Department.
Barry Keesee, the State Police Investigator, came to the jail to see him. Turner told Keesee he would help them if he could get his trustee status back and into a drug treatment program. Turner lost trustee status because of some infraction. Keesee told Turner to let him know what he could find out and he was a friend of the sheriff, they would work something out..

In the next eight or nine visits, Turner gave back most of the details about the crime and evidence that Keesee told him his previous visit. Sometimes Turner would relate the information minutes later. Some was recorder by Keesee, some not. As the Bramblett trial got closer Turner was visited by Commonwealth Attorney Burkart and assistant Commonwealth Attorney Randy Leach with Keesee. Leach told Turner to make notes what Bramblett said and date them to look authentic. All knew that Turner did not have notes. He was told by Leach  to make them look like they were made at different times and use different pens and pencils and refer to them when he gave his testimony. This is what he did in court and it worked well.

I wrote Turner at the prison after his trial asking to meet with him. He wrote back the procedure I would have to go through. Meanwhile, I told Lindsey's secretary about my scheduled meeting and she said Jennifer Givens, Bramblett's other attorney, and she might get more due to their gender. They met Turner and he said he contacted his attorney because he wanted to recant his testimony.  She had forgotten. His conscience had been bothering him, and he was afraid he may have helped kill an innocent man. He gave an affidavit telling of his meetings and the conversation about the notes, why he did it and why he was recanting his testimony.

He told of the jail letting him attend a public auction for an entire day without a guard as one of the benefits for his help. He had a possible twenty-seven year sentence and was roaming around free.
After his affidavit, Keesee wanted to meet with him but was refused.

Randy Leach is now the Commonwealth Attorney of Roanoke County. The people of Roanoke County deserve an honest Commonwealth Attorney. One that doesn't need lying witnesses to win a verdict.

Wayne & Judy Stinnett

When the Hodges murders first happened, Judy Stinnett told Bill Brown that Benjamin Carr should be a suspect in the murders. Brown responded that they already had their man. Later the Vinton Police Chief Rick Foutz, was told this by Wayne Stinnett and it was also brushed off.
Ben Carr was a Vietnam veteran with a lot of problems. The most obvious was anger. He had been fired by Norfolk Southern Railroad for using excessive force. He liked to beat up people. He was fired by the City of Roanoke Police Department and the Vinton Police Department for the same. He was convicted of assaulting teenagers when a theater security guard. He was a dangerous person.
He worked at a convenience market and went to work in full combat gear with a firearm. Later, he worked for the post office in Roanoke and was transferred to the Vinton Post Office to get away from a supervisor. Carr and Blaine Hodges were scuba diving rescue volunteers on the same team. The supervisor Carr was having problems with was also transferred to the Vinton Post Office. More problems ensued, not only with the supervisor, but with Blaine Hodges. Carr checked into the Veterans Hospital close by. The supervisor called the VA Hospital and asked to be notified when Carr was released. Carr told the  psychiatrist he had killed people for less than what the supervisor said to him.
Carr offered to kill someone the Stinnetts had a disagreement with and added, "like the ones over on Virginia Avenue." Ben Carr died in 1996.

Dorothy McGee

This seventy-two year old lady said she saw the truck the morning of the crime. I talked with her on the phone several times. The first time, she said she would have to check with her friend before she would talk. I called back and she said the friend told her not to talk with me. Other times she would talk awhile and then decide she wasn't going to talk more.
She did tell me she saw the truck in her headlights and it was a red truck, which she then amended to a pinkish red truck. She said the street lights made no difference because it was in her headlights. She said in court it was beat up and dirty.

Ben Carr drove a red Bronco and lived on a dirt road in the county.