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UPDATE: The
Extradition process | Reports
from trial in Florida | Schinkel's
Forged/Perjured affidavit
Ralph Crompton
Pants on fire
Blog this
Winnipeg
Police officers Loren Schinkel and Jim Thiessen questioned Monique
Turenne for 8 hours the night before her husband's funeral. She
was roughly treated while in custody. When she would not confess,
they manufactured a nine page statement which they presented
as authentic to Florida authorities. If she was tried in Canada
she would be able to challenge this forgery.
Police documents
show Turenne's wife set up husband
June 15, 1996
WINNIPEG (CP) -- The
widow of David Turenne admitted to police she set up her husband
for an assault that turned deadly, say documents obtained by
the Winnipeg Sun.
The Canadian Air Force
major was bludgeoned to death Feb. 9 in front of the couple's
rented home in Panama City, Fla.
In a statement to Winnipeg
police hours before her husband's funeral on Feb. 15, Monique
Turenne admitted to luring her husband outside the home where
her boyfriend, Ralph Crompton, was waiting.
Turenne has been charged
by Florida police with being an accessory after the fact and
faces a five-year prison term if she returns to Florida to stand
trial.
She has said she won't
return and Florida officials have not initiated extradition proceedings.
Police have charged Crompton
with first-degree murder.
Both tried to commit
suicide after the warrants were issued.
A summary of top world news
Monday, Nov. 25, 1996 PANAMA CITY, Fla. (AP) -- Ralph
Crompton, a retired U.S. air force master sergeant, received
a life term in prison for the claw-hammer slaying of his lover's
husband, Maj. David Turenne of Winnipeg. The judge rejected requests
from prosecutors and the victim's family that Crompton be executed.
Defence lawyers say they will appeal. ------
Prosecutor
urges death for 'assassin': Judge Hess to sentence Crompton on
Nov. 25
Monica Scandlen, The News
Herald, Saturday, November 16, 1996
Prosecutors argued Friday that
41-year-old Ralph Crompton should be sentenced to die in the
electric chair for the Feb. 9 beating death of a Canadian Air
Force major.
Defense attorneys, citing Crompton's
military record and nonviolent history, countered that Crompton
should receive the only alternative sentence - life in prison.
``He's a good man. He did a
bad act,'' defense attorney John O'Brien said. ``He is a good
man. We are not here to judge the act.''
Crompton was convicted Oct.
15 of the first-degree murder of 42-year-old David Turenne, who
was bludgeoned to death in front of his Forest Park home.
Circuit Judge Glenn Hess will
consider Friday's testimony and will sentence Crompton on Nov.
25.
During the trial, defense attorneys
maintained that it was actually David Turenne's wife, Monique,
who killed her husband. But they conceded that Crompton and David
Turenne had gotten into a scuffle the morning of the murder.
Crompton also testified during
trial that he and Monique Turenne were having an affair at the
time of David Turenne's death.
Authorities previously said
they intend to charge Monique Turenne, who remains in her native
Canada, with accessory after the fact to first-degree murder.
During the trial, two detectives testified that she remained
a suspect in her husband's death.
Amid allegations that two jurors
were coerced by the foreman to return a guilty verdict, Hess
dismissed the jury on Oct. 17, and later denied the defense's
motion for a new trial.
Crompton then waived his right
for a second jury to be seated for the sentencing phase, leaving
his fate entirely up to Hess.
Friday, several witnesses testified
that Crompton, a retired U.S. Air Force master sergeant, was
a dedicated soldier and a compassionate man.
Retired Air Force Lt. Col.
George Waldron described Crompton as a man who would ``lean forward
in the straps'' - an Air Force expression describing someone
who makes personal sacrifices for his comrades.
Four former colleagues described
how Crompton calmly and competently led soldiers in military
operations in Colombia, Peru, Rwanda and Egypt.
``When you talk about being
a man out of control, that was totally out of character,'' Waldron
said, referring to testimony during the trial that Crompton viciously
beat David Turenne to death.
During sometimes emotional
testimony, 20-year-old Mandie Crompton, the oldest of four children,
said her father was fair and affectionate, and called him a ``softy''
who did not like confrontation at home.
During the questioning, Mandie
Crompton periodically glanced at her father. Twice, Ralph Crompton
winked back.
``I couldn't ask for a better
father,'' Mandie said as she tried to hold back tears.
During closing arguments, prosecutor
Larry Basford used the testimony of Crompton's colleagues to
argue that the murder was premeditated and that Crompton carried
it out meticulously.
Basford also said prosecutors
had proved the beating death was ``heinous, atrocious and cruel''
- aggravating circumstances which would warrant the death penalty.
``That's what happened in this
case, (Crompton) was not a soldier on a mission. He was an assassin
on a mission,'' Basford said.
O'Brien argued that the mitigating
circumstances, including Crompton's military service and his
calm and compassionate nature, outweighed the aggravating circumstances.
O'Brien also cited Crompton's
accolades - Air Force Achievement Medals, Meritorious Service
Awards and recognition as Non-Commissioned Officer of the Year,
the highest honor an NCO can receive.
``We are here specifically
to judge the man and his past and his character,'' O'Brien said.
Before the morning's proceedings,
a handful of family and friends rallied in support of Crompton
in front of the Bay County Courthouse.
``My father didn't get a fair
trial,'' Mandie Crompton said. ``There was so much reasonable
doubt.''
The family believes that Ralph
Crompton has taken the blame for a crime committed by Monique
Turenne, Mandie Crompton said.
``My father didn't cause the
blows that caused the death of David Turenne,'' she said, while
holding a bright pink sign reading ``Crompton got an unfair trial.''
A few passing cars honked in
support of the protesters.
``(Ralph Crompton) might be
going to prison or the electric chair. That's forever. That's
forever for my father, for my family,'' she said. ``He won't
be there for the rest of our lives.''
Monique Turenne
indicted in 1996 murder of husband
Mike Cazalas, The News Herald,
March 20, 1997
Monique Turenne's Canadian
attorney Wednesday night said his client will fight extradition
to stand trial for first-degree murder in the Feb. 9 homicide
of her husband.
A Bay County Grand Jury heard
from witnesses - including co- defendant and convicted murderer
Ralph Crompton - throughout the day Wednesday. They took only
eight minutes to return the indictment.
``Well, in short, she's not
guilty,'' said Turenne's Winnipeg attorney, Greg Brodsky. ``So
why should she agree to go to Florida?
``They have an obligation to
prove that my client did something. They know very well that
my client didn't.''
The indictment charges Turenne
with first-degree murder for striking her husband, Canadian Armed
Forces Maj. David Turenne, ``with a blunt object'' outside their
Panama City home.
State Attorney Jim Appleman
said he is prepared for a long extradition battle, since Canadian
courts historically are hesitant to grant extradition in capital
offenses.
``Patience is a virtue in the
criminal justice system,'' he said. ``If it's necessary, we're
prepared to wait for two years.''
Appleman noted that Crompton
is serving a life sentence for his part in the homicide. At his
trial, Crompton admitted fighting with the victim, but said Monique
Turenne struck the fatal blow to her husband's head.
``When you have two or more
people involved in a criminal act, both are responsible if they
intended for the event to happen and they knew what was going
to happen,'' Appleman said. ``And that's what the grand jury
found today by the charges.''
If the death penalty becomes
an issue, he said he will consider not seeking it.
``I can tell you this,'' he
said. ``If it would be necessary to bring the individual back,
then we have discussed the possibility of waiving the penalty
in light of the penalty on the co-defendant.''
Brodsky was critical of the
grand jury process, saying he was only notified of it by the
media and learned of the indictment through the media.
``I'd be in a different position
if they had notified me there was a grand jury proceeding and
if I had some input into what the grand jury would hear,'' he
said. ``It's like gossip at a bar. If you only hear one side
... it's inevitable what the results are going to be and it's
also inevitable that the results will be wrong.''
He said the state's failure
to notify him leaves him wondering ``what the real reason for
the proceeding is if they're allowing the newspaper to notify
me as opposed to them.''
``Justice is done by the submission
of evidence, not by seeing who can get the bigger headline,''
he said. ``It's not the Academy Awards - this is a murder case.
I'm not exactly hard to get a hold of.''
Turenne spoke with Panama City
investigators the morning of her husband's death, but later in
the day declined to answer further questions and sought an attorney's
advice before returning to her native Winnipeg.
But in a Feb. 15 handwritten
statement given to the Winnipeg Police Service and obtained by
The News Herald , Turenne admits to coaxing her husband outside
the home so that Crompton could ``show him what it was like to
be pushed around.''
Turenne admitted to Winnipeg
police that she and Crompton were romantically involved. Both,
she said, were unhappy with their spouses.
She described her husband as
``an alcoholic, very opinionated and to be honest, we were experiencing
some problems with sex ...''
``My husband was not a romantic
person,'' she wrote. ``If there was a deal like to go out drinking
with the boys or stay with me, the boys came first ... There
was just this total lack of closeness, you know.''
``Did this lack of intimacy
bother you?'' she was asked.
`Of course it did. Wouldn't
it, like, bother you?''
She said Crompton talked of
leaving his wife, but she had no intention of leaving her husband:
``I just didn't see it going anywhere,'' she said of her relationship
with Crompton.
When police asked if she and
Crompton ever talked about leaving their spouses so they could
live together, she replied, ``If you leave your spouse in the
states, then you can't stay there anymore because of that military
situation. It's their regulations, it's kind of frowned upon,
divorce and stuff.''
Turenne said Crompton did not
like the way David Turenne was treating Monique Turenne, and
that it came to a head the Tuesday before David Turenne was killed.
Monique Turenne said her son
was ``assaulted'' by a neighbor's grandson - ``the kid's a bully''
she wrote - and she confronted the boy's grandmother.
The grandmother, Turenne wrote,
pushed her twice, with the second push knocking her against the
garage door.
When she told her husband about
it, however, she didn't like his response.
``He was so nonchalant about
it, just said it served me right and that I didn't have a leg
to stand on.''
``Did his reaction upset you?''
she was asked.
``Of course, I would have expected
more,'' she replied.
`Did Ralph know about this
assault on your person?''
`I think it was the next day
that Ralph called me from out of town and I told him what happened,''
she replied. ``It broke the camel's back, eh? He said that he
was going to come in that night and have a word with David, show
him what it felt like to get pushed around.''
``Did you understand that to
mean that Ralph intended to have a physical confrontation with
David?''
``Yes.''
Two days later, Turenne said,
Ralph called her and told her he would be by her house that night.
When he was in the area, he called her and ``asked me to get
out of the house so he could talk to David and I said no because
of the kids. So he said, then get him out and he'd wait for him
outside.''
``I said that shouldn't be
much of a problem and that's when he said something like, `He
won't know it's me.' ''
``What did you think Ralph
meant by that last statement _ that he wouldn't know it was him?''
``I figured he meant he was
going to do it in a dark place or that, you know, he was going
to disguise himself because, like, David would be able to recognize
him.''
``Did he say where he planned
to confront David once he got outside?''
``Not really, but he said something
like he was going to show him what it felt like, you know, to
get pushed into the garage door.''
In the statement, Turenne said
she knew her husband had an upset stomach, so she suggested he
go to the store to get some medicine for it. She said she did
not know where Ralph would confront her husband.
``I didn't know, like, if it
would be on his way out or when he got back, but I knew he'd
be waiting out there for him,'' she said.
Turenne said once her husband
left, she went into her son's room and did not hear anything
from outside. A few hours later, she said, Crompton called her.
``He said it got out of hand,
that it was ugly, and that me and the kids would be all right,
and then something like David was dead,'' she said. ``Jesus Christ,
the man was not supposed to do that. He wasn't supposed to kill
him, he was just going to push him, he said.''
Turenne said she ``just sat
there for a few minutes and cried'' and then went outside and
checked the passenger's side of the van, but did not see her
husband there.
``Then I walked around the
other side and that's when I saw him in the bushes.''
During the questioning in Winnipeg,
Turenne said she spoke to Panama City investigators, but did
not mention her relationship with Crompton because she was afraid
the police would ``implicate'' her in her husband's death.
She also confirmed that because
of her husband's death, she stood to collect hundreds of thousands
of dollars from the Canadian military.
``How much money do you stand
to receive upon the death of your husband,'' she was asked.
``The air force deposited $128,000
in my account on Wednesday and the major, she told me I'd be
getting another $300,000,'' she replied.
Toward the end of her statement,
she is asked about her conversations with Panama City police.
``Can you tell us why you decided
to give us this statement?''
``This is really bothering
me, I feel responsible but this wasn't supposed to happen,''
she replied. ``He wasn't supposed to be smacked like that, it
was basically like how does it feel to get pushed into a garage
door.''
``We understand that when you
were interviewed by police in Panama City, you were accompanied
by legal counsel, a lawyer.''
``Yes, but I didn't even want
one then. My friends kept telling me to get one.''
``Can you explain to us why
you decided to talk to us about the death of your husband without
first consulting with Mr. (John) Daniel of Panama City, Florida,
or some other lawyer?''
``Because I feel responsible
and I just can't live with this,'' she said. ``I want you to
know what really happened here because it needs to be told. I
did not kill him because I didn't kill him and I didn't want
him killed.''
Turenne's statement began at
2:05 a.m. on Feb. 15 and was signed by her at 6:03 a.m. She took
50 Tylenol later that day in an apparent attempted suicide.
© 1997 The News Herald
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Truth can never be told so as to be
understood, and not be believ'd. 
Monique Turenne: the
headlines
