A Lynn native was convicted more than 20 years ago of killing his lover’s husband in Florida. Now his daughter is trying to free him from prison, claiming that her father is innocent of the crime.
David Turenne, a 42-year-old Canadian Air Force major, was bludgeoned to death with a claw-hammer outside his Panama City, Fla., home in February 1996.
Ralph E. Crompton, a Lynn native and Lynn Vocational Technical Institute graduate, was convicted of first-degree murder later that year for allegedly striking the fatal blow. He is serving a sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole, per Florida law.
Crompton, a retired U.S. Air Force master sergeant, was having an affair with the man’s wife, Monique Turenne, who was convicted of second-degree murder in 2005 for orchestrating the homicide. She admitted to luring her husband outside that night where Crompton was waiting.
During the trial, defense attorneys maintained that it was actually Monique who killed her husband. But they conceded that Crompton and David Turenne had gotten into a fight the day of the murder, according to the Panama City News Herald.
This is essentially why Crompton’s daughter, Mandie Kadel, is arguing he should be freed from prison. She said her 63-year-old father has been incarcerated for 22 years and should have been convicted of manslaughter, which carries a 10-15 year sentence.
Kadel, 41, a Lynn Haven, Fla., resident, said her father is guilty of culpable negligence, but not first-degree murder, as he didn’t deliver the final fatal blow. She said her father was offered a plea deal, which gave him the opportunity to plead guilty to manslaughter, but he maintained that he didn’t kill anybody and believed that he would be found innocent after his trial.
Kadel and her two sisters have started an effort, “Rally to Free Ralph E. Crompton,” which includes a Facebook page and change.org petition with the same name. In Florida, the family has also invested in advertising on billboards.
Kadel said her father’s story has stayed the same throughout the years, but Monique’s has changed many times. She said Crompton and Turenne got into an altercation outside the home, but it was Monique who hit her husband from behind with a hammer.
She said Monique sent her husband to the grocery store that night to get her Midol, and told Crompton to come over. But Kadel said Monique never answered the door to let her father inside the house, and when Crompton was going back to his car, he saw Turenne coming home and decided to hide in the bushes.
Kadel said Crompton heard Turenne and his wife screaming, followed by Turenne coming back outside with a weapon. She believes Monique told her husband there was an intruder because she wanted an altercation. She said Crompton and Turenne got into a fistfight and the next thing her father knew, Monique hit her husband from behind with a hammer.
Kadel said Turenne was knocked out, face down in the dirt, but alive. She said Crompton turned him over to make sure he was alive and told Monique he was getting out of there. She said it’s her belief that Monique killed her husband for the insurance money.
“He should have gotten a manslaughter charge because he was negligent,” Kadel said. “He left. He should have called authorities. (He) didn’t know he was leaving a murder scene. We’re asking for a pardon.”
Kadel said her father left because he didn’t want her mother to find out about the affair. To this day, Kadel said her parents are still married. She also claims that two jurors said following the verdict that they were coerced into a guilty verdict.
“Right now we’re going to fight for him because we believe … he’s innocent of first-degree murder,” Kadel said. He’s done his time. It’s time for him to come home. He’s missed out on so much.”
But Glenn Hess, state attorney for the 14th judicial circuit in Florida, who presided over Crompton’s case as circuit judge at the time, said the jury found Crompton guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.
Hess said he’s heard the argument that Crompton hit the Canadian major, but he was still alive when he left and that Monique must have finished him off. But even if that were true, Hess said, Crompton would still be guilty.
Hess said on the day of the murder, Crompton was in South Carolina. He was a civilian contractor working there and told his co-workers that he wasn’t feeling well and wouldn’t be able to come into work the next day to give himself an alibi. That night, he drove in a rental car to Panama City to his lover’s house.
Hess said Crompton and Monique met at work. Turenne was on assignment at the Tyndall Air Force Base in Florida. He said Crompton and Monique had an affair and hatched a plan to get rid of Turenne.
Late that night, knowing Crompton was waiting outside with a hammer, Monique sent her husband to get Midol, claiming she wasn’t feeling well. Crompton attacked Turenne outside, killed him and then drove back to South Carolina in his rental car, where he was staying in a motel. There, Crompton attempted to commit suicide — he was found in the motel bathtub with his wrist cut.
To boot, Hess said Turenne’s blood was found in the door jamb of Crompton’s rental car, and the major was dead.
“It’s kind of hard to say he was not guilty under the circumstances,” Hess said. “My question would be exactly why did he rent a car and drive back to Florida in the middle of the night if he didn’t intend to kill Major Turenne? What possible explanation could you have for this?”
Hess said the case against Crompton came together very cleanly. Crompton had an illicit affair, which got the better of him and the pair hatched a plan to kill the major. He said Crompton went back to South Carolina, but the evidence linking him to Panama City was very clear.
“It’s hard to tell which person hitting a man with a hammer committed the fatal blow,” Hess said. “One thing we know is they acted in concert. It wasn’t a robbery. It wasn’t a fight. It was a murder and he was obviously in on it to come all the way back from South Carolina in a rental car.”
Hess said the hardest part of the case was getting Monique back from Canada. She got the insurance money from her husband’s death and went to Canada, but the Canadian government wouldn’t extradite her because Florida had the death penalty.
He said prosecutors had to agree that Monique would not face the death penalty so she could come back and be tried. Monique was sentenced to 22 years in prison in 2005 after being convicted of second-degree murder for conspiring to kill her husband.
Regarding the coercion claim, Hess said the jurors went home following the verdict and came back the following day when court reconvened to go through the mitigating and aggravating circumstances to see if life in prison or death was appropriate. When the jurors were faced with the possibility that Crompton may be getting the death penalty, he said that’s when the two wanted to recant their verdicts.
“God bless Ralph Crompton’s daughter for believing in her daddy and trying to help him, but the equities are not with Crompton at this point,” Hess said. “I’m proud of her for trying to help her daddy. She’s a good girl, but he doesn’t deserve it.”
But Kadel vowed to keep fighting, admitting that it’s probably just a shot in the dark.
“I want my dad home,” Kadel said. “My worst fear is getting that call that he passes away in prison. About once a month, I have that nightmare. We just need him home and we’re going to do whatever it takes. We need to see that justice is finally served after 22 years.”
Material from the Associated Press was used in this report.
