The Family Next Door

by John Glatt

  “And you interviewed her on January 14, 2018?”

  “That is correct.”

  The prosecutor then asked if Julissa had mentioned a special punishment for the siblings during the Christmas holiday.

  “Prior to Christmas,” answered Brown, “her and several of her siblings [were] stealing food out of the pantry because [they] were so hungry. They lost Christmas.”

  “And did she indicate what it meant to ‘lose Christmas’ in the Turpin household?”

  “You were not allowed to celebrate with the rest of the family, but you had to watch.”

  “So Julissa, along with a couple other siblings, their punishment for stealing food and being hungry was they lost their Christmas?”

  “Objection,” Jeff Moore interrupted, “argumentative and leading.”

  “It is leading,” said the judge. “Sustained.”

  The prosecutor then asked when Julissa had first been chained up.

  “Around the age of eleven,” said Brown, “was when her mother started chaining her by her wrists.”

  “And what was she chained to?”

  “Her bedpost. Her mattress was on the ground, and she would sit on the ground and have the chains wrapped around each wrist like a bracelet, and then also around the bedpost.”

  The deputy said that Julissa was able to lie on her back while she was chained up and was initially able to stand up.

  “Once her mother found out that she was able to stand up while chained,” he said, “[she] threatened to shorten the length of the chain. She was chained as deputies arrived at the residence.”

  “Did she indicate how she became unchained when deputies arrived at the residence?”

  “Yes. Her older sister Jessica ran to the bedroom and quickly unchained her.”

  Brown said he had inspected Julissa’s arms for what she called “indentations.”

  “So when she pulled her sleeves up,” he said, “there were white spots … on her wrists from where the chains had actually rubbed the caked-on dirt off.”

  “Did she indicate how many days straight she had been in chains?”

  “At that time, she said fifteen.”

  “Did she indicate if she had been chained up prior to those fifteen days?”

  “Yes,” said the deputy. “She had been chained up two times previously, anywhere between two months and four months.”

  DeGonia moved on to what Julissa had told him about what she referred to as “spankings on the face”—being slapped across her face near her eyes.

  “Did she indicate who did that, Mother or Father?”

  “She said Mother.”

  “Did she indicate whether or not Father was present for these ‘spankings on the face’?”

  “She said Father was aware and did nothing to stop it.”

  “[Did] she indicate her feelings toward Mother and Father?” asked the prosecutor.

  “She said she was equally as terrified of Mother as she was of Father.”

  In her cross-examination, David Turpin’s lawyer, Allison Lowe, asked Deputy Brown if he recalled Julissa saying that “Father has never attacked us.”

  “Yes.”

  “And do you remember asking Julissa who runs the show? Who’s the big boss?”

  “Yes.”

  “And what was her answer?”

  “Mother,” replied the deputy.

  * * *

  The prosecution’s fifth witness was Patrick Morris, a supervising investigator with the District Attorney’s Office. He had been called to testify about the Turpin children’s physical and mental conditions, having interviewed the medical professionals who had treated them.

  DeGonia asked Morris to discuss his interview with Dr. Mark Massi of the Riverside University Health System, who treated the six youngest siblings.

  “Did Dr. Massi indicate any type of physical issues with Julissa?” she asked.

  “He described her as perhaps the most severe of the siblings as far as her condition,” said Morris. “She had what he described as severe protein calorie malnutrition, coupled with a condition known as cachexia, which is muscle wasting.”

  The investigator said that the eleven-year-old’s mid-upper arms were the size of a four-month-old baby’s.

  “She was underweight for her age,” he continued. “He said that her height had stunted due to malnutrition. She was forty-six pounds … at least fifteen pounds underweight. She had inflammation and liver damage due to malnutrition. She also had … psychosocial dwarfism, [which] is a stunted growth or development, that’s a result in living in an abusive or a neglectful environment.”

  The investigator said that Dr. Massi also found that fifteen-year-old James suffered from many of the same ailments.

  “He said his overall retarded development,” said Morris, “could be due to malnutrition, psychosocial dwarfism, or a combination of the two. But either way, he said his growth was stunted, and it was still abuse.”

  Dr. Massi said James also had some psychological problems as a result of neglect.

  “He exhibited antisocial characteristics,” said Morris, “specifically mentioning that James talked about wanting to kill animals [and] believed his dreams could predict the future.”

  As for Jordan, the investigator said Dr. Massi had sent her for speech therapy, as she was so hard to understand.

  “And he attributed that to lack of socialization and isolation,” said Morris. “He also did express that he was concerned about her ability to integrate into society, because she seemed very childlike for her age.”

  Morris testified that he had also interviewed Dr. Sophia Grant, who runs the child abuse unit at Riverside University Health System. She had examined Jolinda, finding that she too was suffering from severe malnutrition and muscle wasting. And at thirteen years old, she still had not started puberty.

  “She would have expected her to have some kind of breast development,” the investigator explained, “and she hadn’t exhibited that.”

  “And did she attribute that to anything regarding her health?” asked DeGonia.

  “Malnutrition,” Morris replied.

  “What did Dr. Grant have to say about Janna?”

  “She said [the two-year-old] was better fed than her siblings, but still not enough.”

  In cross-examination, David Macher just asked a few questions about two-year-old Janna, the best-fed of all the siblings.

  “According to your report,” said the defender, “Janna did not suffer from severe protein malnutrition. Is that right?”

  “That’s correct.”

  “And she did not suffer from vitamin D deficiency?”

  “Not that they discussed with me, no.”

  “Okay,” said the defender. “And that she did not suffer from a low potassium level?”

  “Not that they discussed with me.”

  Then Macher commented on how all the siblings had gained weight in the hospitals and were doing well.

  “And you wrote in your report that all of the minors were responding vigorously to treatment. Is that what the doctors told you?”

  “In a general sense, yes,” replied Morris.

  As Jeff Moore had no questions, Morris was excused, and the judge recessed for an afternoon break.

  * * *

  When the court reconvened, deputy DA Kevin Beecham called his sixth and final witness, his senior investigator, Wade Walsvick. Beecham began by asking Walsvick about Joy Turpin’s journal, in which she’d recorded the date the Turpins had moved to California.

  “She indicated they crossed into California on June 4 of 2010,” Walsvick said, adding that they had moved into the Murrieta house eight days later.

  Beecham then questioned him about the eight affidavits David Turpin had filed with the California Department of Education for the City Day School in Murrieta and the Sandcastle Day School in Perris. He asked him to read to the court the affirmation that Turpin had signed for the 2010 school year.

  “This is a privat
e full-time school,” read Walsvick, “that offers instruction in several branches of study required to be taught in public schools of the state, that offers this instruction in English, and that keeps attendance records.”

  Walsvick confirmed that the address of the City Day School was 39550 Saint Honore Drive—the Turpins’ home in Murrieta—and that the defendant had signed it.

  “And what is Mr. Turpin’s title, according to this form?” asked Beecham.

  “His title is the principal,” replied Walsvick.

  The investigator said that Turpin had filed the affidavit online under the penalty of perjury, signing it electronically. He had filed identical ones each October for the next seven years.

  Investigator Walsvick said he had also interviewed Jennifer, Joshua, Jeanetta, Jordan, and Julissa about the education they had received at their father’s private day school.

  “Jordan referred to it as homeschooling,” said Walsvick. “She said it would happen occasionally, and they would go for [extended] periods of time with nothing—no education, training, or anything from her mother.”

  “Did she give you an idea of what ‘extended periods of time’ was?” asked the prosecutor.

  “Years.”

  “So during the times that they weren’t attending school or being taught … where would all the siblings be?”

  “She actually used the word nothing,” said Walsvick. “At the Murrieta address … her mother directed them to vacate their bedrooms and sit on the floors upstairs [in the hallway] throughout the entire day.”

  “Did she tell you why they had to sit in the hallway during the day?”

  “Yes. She said her mother made it crystal clear that they were not to be seen by the neighbors, because they were supposedly in school, and they were not.”

  Walsvick said he had also interviewed Jennifer, who had attended elementary school up to third grade in Fort Worth, and she described her siblings’ education as “minimal.”

  “It would go for brief days,” said Walsvick. “Very short periods of time. And then lapse for upwards of several years, prior to having again a couple of days’ worth of lessons. And that would be it.”

  “And we know that she never finished high school, correct?” asked Beecham.

  “She never went past the third grade.”

  “Did she tell you whether she was ever able to really socialize with anybody outside her family?”

  “She did,” he replied. “Only in a secretive capacity while online.”

  “But socializing as in … actually having a flesh-and-blood friend. Did she have any of those?”

  “None.”

  The investigator had also interviewed Dr. Fari Kamalpour of the Corona Regional Medical Center, who had treated the seven adult siblings.

  “Now,” asked Beecham, “specifically with regard to Jennifer, what was her … height and weight upon admission?”

  “Jennifer was five foot three inches and weighed eighty pounds,” he said. “She was approximately thirty-five pounds underweight for her age, sex, and height.”

  “What was the chief diagnosis for Jennifer?”

  “She was described as suffering from low cognition, ability to perform mental tasks. She was also suffering from severe protein caloric malnutrition.”

  Dr. Kamalpour told Walsvick that Jennifer had a severe B12 deficiency and cachexia, or muscle wastage. The prosecutor asked if the doctor had detailed the effects of severe malnutrition associated with cachexia.

  “She began by describing the effects on adult females, specifically their ability to reproduce,” said the investigator. “And then she specifically identified Jennifer and Jessica as probably never being able to bear children.”

  Then, to audible gasps from the public gallery, the prosecutor showed the court the two photographs Jordan had taken of her two younger sisters chained to their beds.

  “What is this?” asked Beecham.

  “It is a picture of Joanna, the fourteen-year-old female, in chains, sitting on her bed.”

  The prosecutor then displayed another photo.

  “That is a close-up photograph of Joanna’s wrists,” Walsvick said, “showing the bruising and indentation caused by the chains.”

  “Nothing further,” said the prosecutor.

  In cross-examination, David Macher asked if Jordan Turpin had told him that at one point her mother cooked meals and taught them, but then things had gone downhill.

  “That is correct,” said Walsvick.

  “Okay,” Macher continued. “She also told you that when the family lived in Murrieta, Louise Turpin made all the decisions?”

  “Yes,” he replied.

  The defender then asked if Jennifer had witnessed domestic violence when she was younger.

  “She did.”

  “And she also told you that David Turpin promised to stop, and he kept that promise. Isn’t it correct?”

  “That is correct.”

  Then Macher turned his attention to the seven adult siblings’ medical records, asking if Dr. Kamalpour had told him some of them suffered from neuropathy.

  “Correct,” said Walsvick.

  “Did she tell you that can be reversed with vitamins and improved diet?”

  “I believe she did,” he said.

  “Now, Dr. Kamalpour talked to you about the phrase severe iron deficiency?”

  “That’s correct.”

  “Is that another term for anemia?”

  “Can be, yes.”

  “And can anemia be treated with iron supplements and improved diet?” asked Macher. “Did Dr. Kamalpour tell you that?”

  “I don’t believe she said that to me. But I do know that, yes.”

  “Thank you, sir. Nothing further.”

  At 4:30 p.m., the prosecution rested their case. As both sets of defense lawyers had decided not to call any witnesses, Judge Schwartz recessed for the day. Final arguments would start the next day at 10:00 a.m.

  30

  “CRUEL AND UNUSUAL PUNISHMENT AND EXTREME PAIN”

  At 8:30 the next morning, all seven adult Turpin siblings attended a secret probate hearing in the Riverside Historic Courthouse. Fifteen minutes before the hearing, a sheriff’s deputy ordered Press-Enterprise reporter Brian Rokos to vacate the hallway so the siblings could enter unseen.

  Probate hearings are normally open to the public, but this one was closed. It had been called to decide whether the Riverside County public guardian would continue as conservator to care for the seven siblings. Two deputies were stationed outside the courtroom to stop anyone entering.

  After the hearing concluded, bailiffs cleared the hallway so the Turpin siblings could leave via an underground garage without being photographed. Then they were driven away to their undisclosed new home in the rural countryside.

  * * *

  Just a few blocks away, David and Louise Turpin were being brought into Department 44 of the Riverside Supreme Court for closing arguments. The three defense attorneys had filed a motion to strike all the highly damaging testimony about the abuse in Texas from the day before. Deputy DA Kevin Beecham addressed the judge, arguing that the incidents in Texas played a crucial role in what happened later in California.

  “So the physical abuse in Texas,” he said, “started with slapping, hitting, throwing around the room. And it aggravated to belts, leather end, and then … the buckle end.” If the belt wasn’t “correcting the disobedience,” David Turpin would beat his own children with an oar, a wooden paddle, or a metal switch. Once the family moved into the double-wide trailer, because their house had become uninhabitable, David began keeping his children in cages. Then he and Louise had abandoned them for nearly four years.

  “This is like a Lord of the Flies analogy,” Beecham told the judge, “where these children are just left to fend for themselves during the most tender years of their lives.”

  But even though they were now living fifty miles away, the defendants were still able to order some of the older sibli
ngs to punish the younger ones by caging them.

  “It’s unimaginable that they had so much control over their children,” said Beecham, “while they were out of the house or out of the trailer.”

  Once they moved to California, he told the judge, David Turpin no longer physically abused his children as he had in Texas. However, the prosecutor argued, this was because he had more control over them than ever before.

  “He did initiate the chaining,” said Beecham. “It was his idea to do all the chaining of the kids. But the reason why he didn’t physically abuse them, why he wasn’t using an oar or a switch, maybe even a buckle end of the belt, is because he didn’t need to. He conditioned the children over the years, over decades of physical torment and abuse, all stemming from Texas. He conditioned them in a way that’s unimaginable.”

  The prosecutor said that the children could have run away in California but had been brainwashed by all that had happened in Texas.

  “There was apparently a landline in the house,” said Beecham. “They could have called for help. Sure, at any time when one of the select few were outside the house with Mother, they could scream for help. But they were conditioned—conditioned from what happened in Texas. Conditioned by abandonment.”

  Even during the years apart from their parents, the siblings were forced to obey them.

  “And if they didn’t obey,” said Beecham, “they were imprisoned. They were put in cages. And this is only after that they were abused physically to an extent that’s unimaginable.”

  He told the judge that when Jennifer had tried to run away in Texas, she was unable to survive on her own.

  “And what good did it do her?” he asked. “She tried to get a job, but she had no driver’s license. She had no real prospects. No socialization whatsoever. So what did she do? She called her mother, and her mother came, picked her up, and took her away.”

  Once again, the prosecutor showed the court the two harrowing photographs Jordan had taken of her two sisters in shackles.

  “Looking at Julissa, age eleven,” he said. “Extremely pale, skinny, emaciated, with chains. The kids were imprisoned in Texas, and they were imprisoned in California. And her other sister Joanna. Dark, sunken eyes. She’s fourteen, and she looks like she’s seven years old.”