TS Arrested In 17-Year-old Murder

LOS ANGELES (Reuter) - Police believe they have their man in a 17-year-old
South Carolina killing, except the suspect is now a woman.

Valerie Nicole Taylor, who police believe used to be Freddie Lee Turner,
pleaded not guilty to murder Thursday, but the judge was confused even though
police say fingerprints prove that she is, or was, a he.

Judge Jacob Adajian referred to the defendant, who wore little makeup and has
long brown hair, first as ``Valerie Taylor'' and later as ``Mr. Turner.''

After Taylor, 40, refused to waive extradition to South Carolina, the judge
ordered a new fingerprint test before a scheduled May 28 hearing to determine
identification.

At the hearing in Los Angeles Municipal Court, Adajian declined to set bail
and in the meantime, Taylor was being held at a women's prison.

Acting on a tip, police in the Los Angeles suburb of Burbank arrested the
suspect last week, convinced she was Turner, wanted in the 1979 shooting
death of Billy Marshall Posey in Gaffney, South Carolina.

The suspect had been described by local police as ``a known cross-dresser
transvestite.''

``Upon the arrest, we actually had a medical evaluation performed to
determine what jail facility the inmate should be housed in,'' Burbank Police
Lt. Larry Koch said.

A warrant for Turner's arrest was issued a week after the murder, but Turner,
who was seen with the victim dressed as a woman, disappeared.

(Ed. Note: Associated press carried quotes from Turner's brother who said
 that the killing was in self-defense but Turner decided to run away because he
 feared police would not believe him.)

Two months ago Burbank police received a tip that a woman, Valerie Taylor,
had admitted once killing someone in Gaffney, police said.

The defendant's lawyer Walter Krauss said she had lived in California since
1991, when he represented her at a hearing to change her name.

``She is a very shy, quiet sort of person,'' he told the court, adding that
the crime she is accused of ``is totally out of character.''