After 34 years in prison, woman convicted of Lexington murder asks for release, ‘mercy’
One of the women convicted of murder in the 1986 stabbing death of a Lexington man told a parole board Tuesday morning that she will continue to pay for her crime even if she’s released from prison.
Two members of the Kentucky Parole Board told Karen Brown that they could not immediately reach a decision in her case and that it would be taken back to the full board for deliberation next week. The full board could decide to give Brown parole, defer her case to another hearing at a later date or require her to serve out the entirety of her life sentence with no further opportunities for parole.
Brown, now 56 years old, was one of three people convicted in the stabbing death of 22-year-old Michael Turpin in 1986. At trial, prosecutors told jurors that Elizabeth Turpin, Brown and Keith Bouchard worked together to plan and commit the murder of Michael Turpin so that Elizabeth Turpin, his wife, could get $60,000 in insurance money.
Brown said Tuesday morning that she didn’t know if any amount of time served would make up for what she did, but she asked for mercy.
“I don’t know that there’s any appropriate apology for this, but I pray that the best apology I can give you is my behavior since then, since my tragic actions ... if I’m granted the mercy of parole, I promise you that my life will be spent continuing to pay for this crime,” Brown said.
If released, Brown said she has a job lined up at a Goodwill store and will work remotely with a local church.
Brown said she didn’t hold victim down but admitted mistakes
Brown made no mention of the insurance money motive during her hearing Tuesday. She said she had not gone to Turpin’s apartment with the intent to kill him.
Brown said she met Elizabeth and Michael Turpin while she worked at a Lexington car dealership where Bouchard also worked. Brown sold cocaine at the time, began to party regularly with Elizabeth Turpin, and eventually developed a “crush” on her, Brown said.
Elizabeth Turpin, Bouchard and Brown were in downtown Lexington the night of the murder, and at some point, they went outside and saw that Elizabeth Turpin’s car had been moved, Brown said. During her own hearing last month, Elizabeth Turpin said she thought her husband had come downtown and taken it. Brown and Bouchard then went to Michael Turpin’s apartment to confront him.
Brown convinced herself that Bouchard was only going with her to back her up while she told Michael Turpin that Elizabeth Turpin wanted a divorce, Brown said.
Brown said she made a number of mistakes leading up to Michael Turpin’s death, including not walking away or getting help when Bouchard showed her that he had knives before they went to Turpin’s apartment.
“I knew, I had to have known ... that harm was coming because of what was going down,” Brown said Tuesday.
Brown never walked away or called for help, and during the attack, she got Bouchard anything he asked for, including a blanket, a cigarette and a glass of water, she said. Beyond that, she said her only physical involvement in the crime was helping Bouchard take Michael Turpin’s body from his apartment to a vehicle.
She told parole board members that, contrary to what’s previously been alleged, she did not hold Michael Turpin down during the attack or help Bouchard as he put Turpin’s body into a pond at Lexington’s Lakeside Golf Course.
“I don’t want you to hear my truth as an excuse or any type of redirection ... I want you to know that I feel 100 percent responsible for this man’s life,” Brown said.
Brown has been up for parole multiple times, and each time has been deferred.
KY parole board member: Family’s loss a consideration
Michael Turpin’s family, including his father, Don Turpin, addressed the parole board members last month and begged them to order all three of the convicted to serve out the entirety of their life sentences without the future possibility of parole. Family members said that having to come back every few years to try to keep their loved one’s killers in jail was like reliving the tragedy over and over again.
Don Turpin said he’d spoken at six hearings.
“We’ve had to live the last 35 years without a son, brother, grandson and friend to many,” he told the parole board members last month. “The only thing that makes it worse is living in fear that these killers may escape or be set free by a sympathetic board or even a governor’s pardon on his exit out the door with no accountability, as with the past governor.”
Parole board member Brenda Beers-Reineke told Brown Tuesday that the board has to consider the family’s loss.
“I believe that the victims’ pain today is probably felt as profoundly each morning as it was in 1986,” Beers-Reineke said. “As a parole board, it is our job to balance what you have done for yourself against what you did to others. And you yourself admitted that there is no time that one could serve that would make up for this.”
Beers-Reineke also said that the board had received many letters on Brown’s behalf, including some from legislators.
The parole board decided last month that Elizabeth Turpin should serve out the entirety of her life sentence without any future opportunities for parole. Before that, a parole board had decided Bouchard should also serve out his full life sentence.
This story was originally published January 26, 2021 at 1:42 PM.
