Sisters who had claimed self-defense plead in fatal Columbus city park shooting
Two sisters accused of killing a Columbus teen in a city park chose to plead guilty Tuesday after incriminating text messages were allowed as evidence in the murder case.
Prosecutors had offered Ceonna Shikeria Turpin and Eurica Denise Turpin a plea deal they rejected, until Judge Bobby Peters overruled defense objections to admitting Ceonna’s texts as evidence in the murder trial that was about to begin Tuesday.
The sisters were charged in the March 31 death of Mar’kayla Marshall, who pepper-sprayed Ceonna Turpin before Ceonna pulled a gun and shot back, hitting Marshall three times and wounding two other women.
Ceonna Turpin did not deny shooting Marshall, but claimed she was blinded by the spray and fired in self-defense, fearing Marshall would further harm her or her family, who had come with her to Primus King Park, 1321 Staunton Drive, where the women met to fight.
Eurica Turpin was charged for allegedly participating in the shooting, though her sister pulled the trigger. Videos of the shooting, posted to Facebook, recorded Eurica shouting “Shoot her, Ce’Ce! Shoot her!” when her sister was pepper-sprayed.
Peters rejected defense attorneys’ motions that the sisters be immune from prosecution under Georgia’s self-defense law.
The Turpins claimed the dispute was sparked by Marshall’s insulting their 73-year-old grandmother, but during a Jan. 27 court hearing, Ceonna Turpin testified that Marshall had dated her former boyfriend, Reginald Fletcher, who was in the Muscogee County Jail. She said she had communicated with Fletcher the day Marshall was shot.
Fletcher, 17 at the time, was jailed on an armed robbery charge.
That testimony prompted prosecutors to collect texts she had sent to Fletcher, revealing one that said she told Fletcher he had her ready to shoot some other women.
“Youn love me you got me bout to sh**t one of these b-----s,” she texted.
When Fletcher asked whom she would shoot, she named Markayla and another woman wounded in the shooting.
The defense attorneys objected to admitting this evidence, arguing they were told of it too late, as opening statements in the trial were to begin Tuesday morning. Peters denied their motion, so the jury would have heard about the texts.
After that, the defense attorneys met with their clients again, and agreed to this plea deal:
- Ceonna Turpin, 17, pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter and two counts of aggravated assault. Peters sentenced her to 30 years in prison with 25 to serve and the rest on probation.
- Eurica Turpin, 20, also pleaded to voluntary manslaughter and two counts of aggravated assault. The judge sentenced her to 20 years in prison with 15 to serve and the rest on probation.
Both sisters apologized.
“One day I hope that they forgive me,” Ceonna Turpin said of Marshall’s family.
Said her sister: “I apologize from the bottom of my heart.”
Marshall, 17, was pronounced dead at Piedmont Columbus Regional about 90 minutes after the shooting. The two others wounded, one in the shoulder and the other in the leg, did not have life-threatening injuries, police said.
Threatening social media videos
Ceonna Turpin fired 11 shots from a Taurus 9-millimeter pistol, during the confrontation, which was preceded by the Turpin sisters’ taunting and threatening Marshall in videos they posted to Facebook.
Prosecutors argued she was motivated not by fear for her own safety, or that of her family, but a desire for revenge, as presaged by videos posted to Facebook.
Among the videos were postings of Eurica Turpin telling Marshall, “We can shoot it out like I said,” and repeating, “Let’s do it.” She later remarked, “Fight it out or shoot it out. We’ll do it.”
Those taunts followed an earlier face-off with Marshall at a Farr Road apartments complex, where Marshall sped away as the sisters tried to fight her there, said Senior Assistant District Attorney Don Kelly. They agreed to meet at the park to settle the feud, he said.
Ceonna Turpin was 16 years old, when she shot Marshall. Her sister was 19.
‘Five lives affected’
During the sentencing, Peters lamented that the teens so quickly turned to violence to vent their anger, ultimately leaving one dead, two wounded and two headed to prison.
“That’s five lives affected by a split-second decision out of anger, revenge, I guess,” the judge said.
Of the video evidence, he said: “I saw the videos. They were pretty rough, terrible videos, terrible language. But I know you’re young, you do crazy stuff.”
He refused defense attorneys’ request that the sisters be sentenced as first offenders, meaning their records would be cleared once they completed their prison sentence and probation.
“They’re lucky they’re not here on three counts of murder,” the judge said of Ceonna Turpins’ spraying a group of people with gunfire, and hitting three of them.
Among those testifying to the effect of the crime was Marshall’s younger sister, who was among the wounded. She was 15 at the time.
“Due to the tragedy of seeing my sister get shot, it’s hard for me to sleep at night, and I have nightmares,” she said. She’s also unable to focus on her schoolwork now, she said.
A cousin of Marshall’s said other close family members have died, since the shooting, adding to the trauma. “It impacted me since I watched her die in front of me,” she said. “It’s hard on the whole family.”
Ceonna Turpin was represented by public defenders Marie Pardue and Bentley Adams IV. Eurica Turpin’s defense attorney was Anthony Johnson.
After court adjourned Tuesday, Johnson said the text messages prosecutors had found were so damaging to the defense that taking the plea deal seemed a better option than going to trial. The text made Marshall’s shooting look premeditated, he said.
This story was originally published February 7, 2023 at 12:05 PM.