Man who killed Philadelphia jeweler vowed to escape from jail

AS A REPEAT offender with 13 arrests and three open gun cases, Kevin Turner was an inmate unlikely to live outside the bars and barbed wire of prison anytime soon.

Still, he told a girlfriend earlier this month: "I'm getting out, and I'm getting out soon!"

Within days of that promise, Turner sneaked out of a city jail and into his old life of crime.

But his life on the lam was short-lived: He and an accomplice got into a shootout Thursday morning inside a Lawndale jewelry store they tried to rob. When the gunfire subsided, both Turner and William Glatz, the 67-year-old jeweler, were dead.

As Glatz's relatives and friends mourned a "community pillar" and police continued to hunt for the elusive second gunman yesterday, authorities continued to stammer about how a violent inmate could so easily slip out of a maximum-security lockup.

Although authorities have been evasive about how Turner, 22, got away, a prison official offered more details yesterday.

Turner worked in the kitchen at Curran-Fromhold Correctional Facility in the Northeast and was last seen there at 3 a.m. on Oct. 12, prison spokesman Bob Eskind said. When officials discovered the morning head count was off about 8:30 a.m., they checked inmates' armbands and searched the prison to identify the absconder. With 2,800 inmates at the 25-acre site, those tasks took time, so police weren't alerted that Turner was the missing inmate until 11 a.m.

Eskind said investigators now believe that Turner escaped onto a loading dock and hid inside a vehicle on prison grounds. The unaware driver then delivered him to freedom, Eskind added. Investigators haven't determined what vehicle was involved.

Correctional officers are required to check all vehicles entering and exiting any city prison, and Eskind said that "policy appears to have been followed." So it's unclear how Turner escaped inside a vehicle.

Turner gave plenty of hints about his plans to escape.

He made telephone calls from jail "in preparation of his escape," Eskind said. But Eskind declined to specify whom he called or what was said.

Another source confirmed that Turner told his girlfriend earlier this month that he would escape. Police are seeking her.

Turner also told two Aramark employees, who deliver food to city prisons, of his escape plans, Eskind said. Those employees are no longer permitted to work on prison grounds, he said, adding that the employees are not suspected of aiding the escape.

A law-enforcement source said investigators suspect "in-house integrity challenges" and are eyeballing what role correctional officers may have had in the escape.

Eskind said investigators haven't determined whether correctional officers aided Turner.

Once Turner was free, police suspect he quickly resumed his lawless ways.

Deputy Police Commissioner William Blackburn said detectives believe that Turner and accomplices last Monday robbed the Gold Exchange on Cottman Avenue at Hanford Street.

In that stickup, the gunmen bound the worker with duct tape and fled with jewelry and $2,400 in cash, Blackburn said.

In the days after that robbery, police said, Turner and a cohort visited William Glatz Jewelers on Rising Sun Avenue and Passmore Street daily for three days, making no purchases.

When they entered the tidy two-story brick storefront shortly before 11 a.m. Thursday, the employees recognized them as the previous days' browsers.

It was soon clear that the pair wouldn't buy anything, and then they announced a robbery.

When an armed jewelry salesman drew his Walther 9-mm, the robbers barked at him to drop it. He did. But then Glatz emerged from a rear repair area, armed with the .357 Smith and Wesson revolver that he'd used to scare off another would-be robber about six months ago.

A 72-year-old female employee hurried for the front door. She later told police that Turner shouted at his accomplice: "Shoot her! Shoot her!" Gunfire erupted. It's unclear who fired first.

When the roar of gunfire subsided, two men lay bleeding. Turner, shot twice, died at the scene. Glatz, a father of two who lived with his wife, Donna, in Holland, Bucks County, was shot once in the abdomen. He died within the hour at the Albert Einstein Medical Center. It's unclear whether the second robber, who ran off, was injured.

The salesman and two other employees were uninjured. Police recovered Glatz's gun, the salesman's gun and a .45-caliber Ruger that Turner had used, Blackburn said. Glatz's neighbors remained in shock yesterday.

"I fished with him every Monday," said Gerry Blinebury, 50, who lived next door to Glatz. "He was an incredible man. I was lucky to have known him." Blinebury broke down, his eyes glossy, as he stared at photos of fishing trips with Glatz at Barnegat Bay. "It's hit this community pretty hard," he said. "The community has lost a great guy."

"Bill always helped me out with Christmas presents for my wife," said Rick Dembowski, 50. "He always picked out something she would like. That's why he was so successful."

Yesterday, Turner's sister Faith Spruill, 34, of Norristown, said she hadn't talked with or seen her brother since their grandmother's funeral in October 2009. "He was desperate. He was on the run. He's young. He obviously wasn't thinking clearly. I don't think it was his intention to kill somebody," Spruill said.

She said that Turner was a Jehovah's Witnesses youth minister as a teenager and that their father was strict. "But at 17, he started doing what he wanted to do, and my dad couldn't control it anymore," she said. "Once he got on that path, he was just gone."

Before his escape, Turner had been in the Curran-Fromhold facility since March 17, thanks to the suspicions of an off-duty police officer, Eskind and Blackburn said.

On March 15, Officer Michael Vargas, an off-duty patrolman was awaiting his food order at a Domino's Pizza on Broad Street near Lehigh Avenue. He overheard Turner talking with friends about a "job" that Vargas suspected was a planned robbery, Blackburn said.

Vargas alerted on-duty officers, who stopped Turner's car nearby and discovered two hidden guns, duct tape, masks, gloves and a Domino's Pizza hat and shirt. Turner was charged with various gun offenses.

Turner, of Lehigh Avenue near Front Street, had 13 arrests, most for narcotics and gun offenses, Blackburn said.

At the time of his escape, he had three open cases against him: a firearms arrest in March 2009; a burglary and firearms case in May 2009; and last March's gun case from the Domino's incident, Eskind said. He had posted bail in the first two arrests. His combined bail for all three cases was $105,000, Eskind said.

Turner allegedly burglarized Tarajee Horton's Olney home in May 2009. Since his escape, she has lived in fear.

"I'm glad he's off the streets," said Horton, 33. "Anything could have happened to me and my children . . . I really feel sorry for this man's [Glatz's] family. It could have been mine."

Staff writer Jan Ransom contributed to this report.