NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — Jason L. Turner has had a history of arrest in Nashville for the last 16 years, but it's been his more recent criminal charges are particularly concerning.
Turner has been repeatedly arrested for assault — whether it be against Nashville police officers, Vanderbilt police officers, or a WeGo bus driver. However, Turner is quickly released because the court says he is not competent to stand trial.
The WeGo bus driver came to NewsChannel 5 to tell her story last week after Turner punched her in the face. In her case, Turner wasn't convicted for that assault because he was deemed incompetent.
"When I told [my supervisor] that he threatened to kill me five times before punching me in the eye and threatened to kill me five more times, I should’ve called the police, but I was trained to call my superior and let them handle that," bus driver Sharon Utley said.
Aaron's story: WeGo Bus driver assaulted behind the wheel by passenger
NewsChannel 5 then analyzed court records from six different court cases where Turner assaulted others in the last decade. Those court records fail to explain why Turner's charges were dismissed or what mental incapacity he has.
Watch the story in the player above.
However, a case from 2020 shed a small glimpse. Turner attacked two different Metro Nashville police officers. A document provided to the judge said Turner was mentally ill but didn't say what specifically was wrong.
"[Turner] is mentally ill, and because of this illness, poses a substantial likelihood of serious harm and is in need of care and treatment in a mental hospital," Judge Monte Watkins wrote in his order.
Watkins wrote in his order that the Middle Tennessee Mental Health Institute should report to the court every six months the progress and conditions of the defendant. When NewsChannel 5 looked at the court file for those records, they were not there.
Two years after that court order, he injured another Metro Nashville officer.
Has Turner ever been convicted?
All printed out, Turner's criminal history is 36 pages long.
Turner has had 91 cases dismissed compared to 29 cases where he was found guilty of a crime.
Most recently, he was convicted in 2019. On the first day of 2019, Turner was staying at Room in the Inn, where he allegedly was overheard discussing selling weed, according to an affidavit.
A staff member asked to speak to Turner about it, but Turner refused. The staffer tried to call for assistance but Turner prevented him from doing so. Turner took it a step further and pinned the staffer against the wall and placed his hands around the staffer's throat, according to the arrest warrant.
The staffer had difficulty breathing as a result of the incident, and was scared to come forward about what happened because Turner "is often violent and issues threats."
Turner was charged with felony aggravated assault — strangulation. He was later convicted of a lesser charge of simple assault.
As a result of that incident and having other cases routinely dismissed in the court, Turner went to jail for 11 months and 29 days.
Following that conviction, he went on to be charged with assaulting three Nashville officers and one Vanderbilt officer. All those charges were dismissed.
What happens to someone found mentally incompetent by the court?
If a court in Tennessee believes a person is incompetent to stand trial, that defendant has to undergo a mental evaluation.
Many defendants end up going to the Middle Tennessee Mental Health Institute in Nashville. The court can also order that person to seek treatment in hopes of returning an individual to a better mental state.
If a person is found incompetent, those charges are retired or dismissed. By state law, a judge cannot pursue conviction once incompetency is determined.
After mental evaluation and charges are dismissed, that person is allowed to go free if they don't meet the criteria to be institutionalized.
State lawmakers are currently looking to close some of those loopholes and keep those deemed incompetent in custody.
HB 1640 — now known as Jillian's Law after the death of a Belmont University freshman — would prohibit anyone found incompetent from ever purchasing a gun. It would also make it a crime to sell a gun to a person who has been deemed incompetent.
In the same vein, HB 1643 would require the state to pay for court-ordered mental health evaluations.
Both of these bills are going through the committee system.
Is mental incompetency happening a lot?
Davidson County's presiding judge Melissa Blackburn told NewsChannel 5 Investigates in 2023 that a $600,000 grant from the county meant people deemed incompetent are no longer immediately released back on the street.
During an 18-month period beginning in 2020, her office found 182 Nashvillians declared incompetent to stand trial had been released.
"We have set up an incompetency docket that deals specifically with those individuals," Judge Melissa Blackburn said earlier this year to NewsChannel 5 Investigates.
NewsChannel 5 has followed several cases in the last six months that dealt with incompetent people accused of crimes.
Court documents show the man charged with shooting and killing Belmont University student Jillian Ludwig had a criminal history, but was previously found not competent to stand trial.
Defendant Shaquille Taylor, 29, has an intellectual disability and language impairment, according to court records obtained by NewsChannel 5. That determination meant he wasn't able to participate in a trial where he was accused of shooting into a car in 2021 off of Dickerson Pike where two toddlers were in the backseat. He admitted to detectives in 2021 that he did it, but was still not charged for the crime.
His case involving Ludwig's death is still wanting to be bound over to a grand jury.
Only two weeks later, another man Kenneth Beach allegedly killed his best friend, who was also a member of his own family. Beach is accused of killing Josue Riscar Chirino after shooting him multiple times, police said. Beach turned himself in to police. However, Beach had tried repeatedly to get mental health treatment before the shooting.
In 2004, he was found mentally incompetent by the court. Court documents obtained by NewsChannel 5 showed that Beach had been diagnosed with bipolar disorder and cannabis dependence before he was charged with criminal homicide in 2023.
His case will continue this spring.
