Join me to hear a story about Jovaughn Turner’s pandemic fraud, check fraud, and lots of gunplay that ends in a dead gang member on his front step. This is eCrimeBytes.com Season 2 Episode 19 – Pandemic Fraud And Guns With Jovaughn E. Turner – Act 2: The Double Fisting Guns Post.
Be sure to check out Act 1 for the background!
Sources:
- https://www.justice.gov/usao-edva/pr/convicted-felon-sentenced-pandemic-fraud-and-firearm-offenses
- https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/67980542/united-states-v-turner/
Transcript:
00:00:10:00 – 00:00:42:16
Keith
Hey ya crazy bastards. Welcome to eCrimeBytes. This is where I research the court documentation and roast the criminal so you don’t have to. This week, this is season two, episode 19. This is Jovaughn Turner. He has some pandemic fraud and he has a lot of gunplay. And we’re talking about that. So if you’re just jumping in here and you haven’t seen Act One, I really recommend that you go back and either watch or listen to it, because there’s a lot of background that’s going to set the stage for what you’re going to hear today in this one.
00:00:42:21 – 00:00:55:56
Keith
If you’re on YouTube, I’m going to put a little link up here so that way you can go back there real quickly and watch this in order. But if you’re going to stick it out and listen to this without the background, let me give you a little bit of a tour so that way you can appreciate some of the stuff you’re going to hear today.
00:00:56:01 – 00:01:08:13
Keith
So Jovaughn Turner, he was young. He was like 18 to 20 years old around the time of when this crime happened and when he was caught. He grew up in poverty. He learned to steal.
00:01:08:13 – 00:01:21:21
Keith
He had a lot of gunplay. He had well before the gunplay, he had some pandemic fraud where he lied about his employment situation of being fired from Wendy’s and Amazon Prime.
00:01:21:21 – 00:01:34:57
Keith
And he made about $21,000. After that, he had some gunplay, got caught and convicted, which made him a convicted felon, which means he’s not supposed to be around guns anymore, at least for the foreseeable future.
00:01:34:57 – 00:01:43:34
Keith
But he was because he shot and killed somebody that came to rob his place, a gang member, actually, that came to rob his place.
00:01:43:39 – 00:02:10:03
Keith
So there’s this dead person in front of his apartment. And police said, you’re not supposed to have guns. We have a search warrant for your premises. They find a check printing machine, they find a check stock paper. They find counterfeit checks. They find credit cards, debit cards. They find $28,000 worth of cash. They find a bunch of stuff that Turner probably doesn’t want them to find.
00:02:10:07 – 00:02:30:57
Keith
Okay. And that’s the point where I left you. We talked a little bit about the victims, where they made these fraudulent checks, and each one of them is below $2,000 and they would find, in my opinion, probably more victims to cash these checks and they would give them a little chunk of change in order to get the lion’s share back.
00:02:31:02 – 00:02:46:53
Keith
And that person would take all the risk while they would kind of hide who was orchestrating the scheme in the background. Okay. I think you’re caught up now. So now we’re on December 30 of 2021. So about a year later from where we last left off,
00:02:46:53 – 00:02:57:41
Keith
there was a car that was driving and a police officer checked the like the registration on it and they found that there was a probation warrant for the registered owner of that vehicle.
00:02:57:46 – 00:03:18:16
Keith
So, of course, the officer stopped it and who was driving, but it was Jovaughn Turner. And now the next bullet in the court paperwork said he gave a voluntary search of the car. I know he’s a convicted felon, and I don’t know that he even needs to give voluntary search. I think they can just search it because he’s a convicted felon.
00:03:18:21 – 00:03:41:23
Keith
Probably not important, but they searched it. And what did they find? Do you think they found candy canes? No, they found a gun underneath the seat. It was a Glock 23, 40 caliber under his seat. And if you remember, a Glock 23 was what he possessed illegally previously when they searched his apartment after they found the fucking dead body.
00:03:41:28 – 00:04:01:01
Keith
So for video viewers, I’m going to pop up a picture. This is the evidence picture that the police took of that gun that they found. Audio listeners, you’re not really missing out on much here. It’s just a standard gun. It’s racked back. It’s a pistol. It says Glock on it. You can see the serial number. It’s obvious that it’s empty because it’s racked back and it’s obvious it’s a police photo.
00:04:01:01 – 00:04:05:45
Keith
It’s a very staged looking down photo on the gun.
00:04:05:45 – 00:04:25:26
Keith
So September 22nd, 2023, this year of when I recorded this, there’s there’s an indictment that came out and this confused me. There are two counts on there, and both of them were felon in possession of a firearm. And I said, hold the fuck up. What about all this check fraud shit, this pandemic shit, all this other stuff that he’s been doing?
00:04:25:31 – 00:04:50:09
Keith
Why did he just get charged with two gun charges? And so, being the researcher I am, I kept going through the court docket until I got to a supersede charge document that on June 14th of 2023, they recharged him and changed one of the charges from a gun charge to wire fraud. So now he’s being charged with wire fraud and a gun charge.
00:04:50:14 – 00:05:09:38
Keith
That, to me made more sense. So when they did this, I don’t know if they did this because of the sentence or what, but I looked a little bit in this, the possible sentencing, and it looked like maximum for both counts he was looking at 20 years for one of them and ten years for the other one. So he’s looking combined
00:05:09:38 – 00:05:35:24
Keith
if he were to do them consecutively, 30 years max. And so that’s a lot of time. And that’s why it made June 22nd, 2023, a little more surprising because he came in and said, I’m guilty of both of these things. And I thought, wow, he said, I’m guilty of both, putting himself in jeopardy of a 30 year sentence.
00:05:35:24 – 00:05:35:46
Keith
Right.
00:05:35:46 – 00:05:59:03
Keith
So at this point, he says, I’m guilty. The court accepts it and he waits for sentencing. If you’ve ever watched any of our old episodes, there’s this one Season two, Episode three The criminal in there. His name is J. Nicholas Bryant. He was in a very similar situation. He was awaiting, sentencing. He pled guilty,
00:05:59:03 – 00:06:03:34
Keith
and he decided to talk to The Daily Beast, which is the media company.
00:06:03:39 – 00:06:30:00
Keith
And he bragged all about how great he was at his crime. And he was even better at it than the movie Catch Me If You Can. And unfortunately for Mr. Bryant, the judge read this. The judge kept that in mind for a sentencing and kind of just royally bent over Bryant because of that article and said, you know, you obviously didn’t learn your lesson.
00:06:30:00 – 00:06:51:01
Keith
Right. And then later on, Bryant was all distressed because he was like, I can’t believe I got this much time. Well, fucker, you talked to The Daily Beast, what do you expect? So I bet you Jovaughn Turner heard my episode was sitting there and he said, Hold my beer. Well, he’s under 21. Yeah, he probably said, Hold my beer.
00:06:51:02 – 00:07:09:30
Keith
I mean, he’s got guns right? He’s probably got a beer too. He said, Hold my beer. Nicholas Bryant He’s he’s got a story, but I’m going to go one step further. For our video viewers, I’m going to pop a social media post on your screen. And for audio viewers, I’m going to have to try to describe this as two posts.
00:07:09:30 – 00:07:33:22
Keith
I’m going to describe the one on the left. First one on the left has three individuals on it. There’s I’m going to talk about the two individuals on the right. First, they both are wearing white T-shirts and they are holding fat, fat stacks of cash. I mean, like a foot thick stacks of cash. You can’t see their faces, but you can tell they have a lot of money in their hand.
00:07:33:26 – 00:07:53:31
Keith
The third individual on the left side of that photo was wearing all black. He’s holding two guns and his face is kind of aimed down. So you can’t really see him. But I can tell you, because I’ve read the court paperwork that that’s Jovaughn Turner. He has two guns in a social media post after pleading guilty but before sentencing.
00:07:53:36 – 00:08:13:45
Keith
Now, I think this post actually came from one of his friends. But from what I read, he reposted it. So it’s kind of like he posted it himself, too. And if you were if you looked at that and were like oh my God, why do you do that? It’s not like he stopped there. Just to drive the point home, there was another post was just him with both guns.
00:08:13:45 – 00:08:28:58
Keith
And this is the one I kind of cut out and put on our thumbnail where he’s kind of holding them down by his hips and looking down. But it’s obvious he has two guns. And this is why I called this act the Double Fisting Guns post, because I couldn’t describe
00:08:28:58 – 00:08:33:23
Keith
what he did here any other way. So yeah, I hope you agree with me that
00:08:33:23 – 00:08:38:51
Keith
this is the appropriate name of this act, because why would you post something like this right before your sentencing?
00:08:38:51 – 00:08:57:51
Keith
So you imagine sentencing rolls around. This is October 21st, 2023. This is not even a month ago when I recorded this. There are sentencing arguments and the government comes up and says, Hey, Turner posted these social media posts. He’s A, a convicted felon already.
00:08:57:56 – 00:09:24:38
Keith
He’s posting these. So that’s bad. But B, he’s still not sentenced in this case. And he posted these. That’s bad. They said, hey, we want at least 27 months. And I heard that and I was like only 27 months. Holy crap, That’s not much at all. Then Turner’s attorney gets up there and said, Please, please, please, just give us 18 months or less.
00:09:24:38 – 00:09:31:58
Keith
But but if you’re going to give us more, please, no more than 24 months. And then Turner writes a letter to the judge and
00:09:31:58 – 00:09:49:51
Keith
I try not to be too pompous and make too much fun of people’s grammar. But there’s parts of this letter that I think are clearly written by the attorney. And then there’s parts of this letter where the attorney just let Turner write it himself, and there’s missing letters or just sentences that clearly don’t make sense.
00:09:49:56 – 00:10:07:01
Keith
I’m going to read it verbatim. And for our audio listeners, and I have it on the screen for our video viewers, some of the sentences don’t make sense. And I’m going to interject here and there just to kind of let you know, this is not me screwing this up on purpose to be funny or anything, but that’s really what he wrote, the way he wrote this thing to the judge.
00:10:07:02 – 00:10:33:54
Keith
So here we go to Mr. Judge Young. I want to take the time to accept full responsibility for my actions and to not try to justify them in any way. And then there’s a comma out the middle of nowhere of spaces, because I am wrong and there’s not right and wrong. In fact, I really wanted to thank the Court for still giving me a chance to remain out on bond while this case was ongoing.
00:10:33:54 – 00:10:57:35
Keith
And for that I am very grateful to have spent time with my family and friends after just spending 11 months of my life incarcerated, missing out on key moments of life, which I regret more than anything. Yeah. Fucker. Because you shot into a car. Oh my God. All right. Sorry. Paragraph two. He starts this one off strong, He says, lookin, and it’s missing the G.
00:10:57:35 – 00:11:20:36
Keith
That’s why I said that. Lookin back and reflecting on the businesses who took a financial loss. And worst, the family of the man who lost his life I send my deepest condolences. It was never in my nature for that to happen the way it did. And I never want that misconception that I brag or boosted about that event because that isn’t me at all.
00:11:20:41 – 00:11:35:40
Keith
And he misspelled boasted, I believe. It said boosted. And I got to disagree, man. You just had a social media post where you had two guns. If you felt bad about shooting somebody, it seems weird that you’d be posting about two guns. But hey, who am I to judge?
00:11:35:40 – 00:11:40:33
Keith
He goes on to say, I have a mother who I know would be torn if anything was to happen to me.
00:11:40:33 – 00:12:03:57
Keith
Getting caught up in the lifestyle I did was not something I ever planned. I had other goals which were cut short by careless mistakes that were caused by young, thoughtless acts that affected and is still affecting my future. Now. Amongst those bigger words that seem written by somebody else, like I isn’t capitalized and stuff, so it seems weird.
00:12:03:57 – 00:12:23:14
Keith
It almost seems like the attorney wrote part of it, but they didn’t want to correct too much of it, so they left the I’s uncapitalized and it is a very hard read. So let’s see here. The last paragraph says, I really want to thrive and become successful with many different streams of income, which during my time I’m sentenced.
00:12:23:19 – 00:12:48:06
Keith
Yes, I read that verbatim. It didn’t make sense to me either the thousand times I read it. I will say it again. I really want to thrive and become successful with many different streams of income, which during my time I’m sentenced. I think he’s trying to say I want to make money while I’m sentenced and I want to diversify that money through different streams of income.
00:12:48:11 – 00:12:49:30
Keith
That’s what I think he’s saying.
00:12:49:30 – 00:13:04:37
Keith
He goes on to say, I will read and study and take advantage of every opportunity I’m given. As a young man, I still have a lot of time to make a change. I can’t wait to move on to the next chapter of my life and put this behind, even though it will always follow me.
00:13:04:37 – 00:13:26:40
Keith
I won’t let it hold me back. Yeah it. Kind of was run on sentence. He closes. Thank you for taking the time to read my letter. Jovaughn Turner. So I imagine the judge goes back, listen, thinks about the arguments, looks at this letter, goes fuck man, why did he spell it terribly here? Why did he miss the g on the looking? Nope.
00:13:26:40 – 00:13:55:26
Keith
Can’t hold that against him. Thinks a little while longer, comes back, sits down in front of the defense and government says, I made my fucking decision. And he says, 24 months. And I heard that. And I was like, Holy shit, that wasn’t much at all. 24 months. Now the details are that judge gave them 24 months on count one and 24 months on count two, but they’re two run concurrently, so it’s 24 months total.
00:13:55:31 – 00:14:02:26
Keith
Total That seemed very short for A wire fraud, but also B wire fraud plus a gun charge.
00:14:02:26 – 00:14:19:25
Keith
So after that, the judge says you’re going to be on three years of supervised release. Now, you might think, yeah, he’ll cruise right through that. Remember before he was not supposed to have a gun. He had a gun. And not only did he have a gun, but he used it and he killed somebody on his front step.
00:14:19:30 – 00:14:22:39
Keith
Who knows if he’ll keep his nose clean on this one.
00:14:22:39 – 00:14:24:56
Keith
And the judge also says restitution,
00:14:24:56 – 00:14:39:15
Keith
just over $33,000. Now, I tried to figure out who the restitution was to, and it didn’t say specifically. I didn’t know if it was because of the pandemic fraud or the check fraud or combination of the two.
00:14:39:20 – 00:15:10:50
Keith
It just said restitution. I think it’s a combination of two, but that’s just me guessing. That’s it. That’s the end of the story. I hope you enjoyed the story even though somebody died. I hope you enjoyed at least the depth that I researched this through. And some final thoughts here. One is I want to say upfront that it’s really hard for me to judge Turner in this case carrying a gun because he grew up in poverty and he learned that if he stole, that’s how he feed himself in his family.
00:15:10:55 – 00:15:31:27
Keith
I mean, if that’s your only means of eating, that’s your only means of eating, that’s a different background than somebody sitting behind a camera doing a webcast. I want to get that out of the way first. With that out of the way, 24 months does not seem like a lot for a gun charge alone. If you take away the wire fraud.
00:15:31:31 – 00:15:56:22
Keith
Now, if you add wire fraud to that gun charge, 24 months seems even more just way too lenient in my opinion. If you combine those, it just seems like it should be closer to about four years. Maybe they’ll should have been served consecutively, one for the gun charge and one for the wire fraud because he had already spent time in prison for the stuff he did prior.
00:15:56:22 – 00:16:19:22
Keith
Maybe. Maybe it was a more lenient sentence because Turner was a young man. He was 21 at the time of sentencing. He’s going to have plenty of time to turn his life around. He should be, what, 24 ish when he gets out and then 27 ish if he keeps his nose clean and be off supervised release. I mean, that’s young still, you’re not even 30.
00:16:19:22 – 00:16:46:44
Keith
Now, I want to come back to one thing where they talked about justifiable homicide for that killing outside his apartment. Now, I totally agree that if someone comes to rob you and you have a gun, you got to protect yourself, right. Under just generic circumstances. In this circumstance, he was running a scheme where he had check fraudulent check schemes and money and guns and all this other stuff.
00:16:46:44 – 00:17:09:58
Keith
So he caused the situation. He caused somebody to come over to rob him. If he wasn’t doing all that stuff, I doubt a gang member would come rob that apartment. So for that to be justifiable homicide, I get it on paper. I get it on paper. It is on paper. But it just seems so strange because Turner was the reason that guy came over to rob him and then he had to shoot him.
00:17:09:58 – 00:17:31:57
Keith
So if that crime never happened, a person would have never died in the end. And it just doesn’t seem so justified, at least morally. So that I’ve thought about a lot since I’ve researched this. So that’s it. I hope you enjoyed the case. If there’s anything in this episode you like, please like subscribe, thumbs up, follow whatever it is on your application
00:17:31:57 – 00:18:02:03
Keith
you’re either watching me on or listening to me on. If you haven’t been to our Web site, it’s eCrimeBytes dot com. Now bytes is spelled the computer way b y as in yellow milk t e s dot com. And you go, Why the fuck does he keep saying y as in yellow milk. Now go listen to my last episode season two episode 18 because I actually explain this in depth in-depth, and I also explain the Wendy’s hamburger in-depth in there.
00:18:02:08 – 00:18:28:32
Keith
And it’s it’s it’s worth a listen. Trust me, Back up one episode and check it out. You’ll like it. So with that, I want to give you a preview of next week. Hopefully that’s why you’re sticking around, because next week we have another cyberstalking case and I am infatuated with cyber stalking cases for many reasons. But probably one of the biggest is how much time cyber stalkers will spend stalking their victims.
00:18:28:36 – 00:18:51:10
Keith
And in next episode, we have cyber stalking with Parker Ryan Little. And you’re going to see it’s no different than the other cyber stalking cases that I brought you where it seems like it’s a full time job. Maybe two full time jobs for Parker Little to cyber stalk his victims and his victims. I don’t want to spoil it for you, but his victims,
00:18:51:10 – 00:18:51:50
Keith
they’re basically
00:18:51:50 – 00:19:07:24
Keith
acquaintances. They’re not. They’re not people you’d expect him to be cyber stalking. And it’s just a crazy, crazy story. So I do hope you come back next week and join me on this one because it is crazy and it’s going to be fun to listen to. And I hope to see you there. All right. Thanks.
00:19:07:37 – 00:19:08:25
Keith
Bye.
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