Dallas County Criminal District Attorney John Creuzot announced today that LaQuinton Dejuan Turner, 45, of Dallas, has been sentenced to 45 years in prison following his conviction for Aggravated Sexual Assault of a Child. A Dallas County jury returned the guilty verdict in a case dating back to 2001, which was solved through the dedicated work of the Dallas County District Attorney’s Cold Case Division and its federally funded Sexual Assault Kit Initiative (SAKI).
This successful prosecution marks a significant achievement for the DA’s SAKI email campaign, which empowers survivors of unsolved sexual assaults in Dallas County to inquire about the status of their sexual assault kits by directly contacting the Dallas DA Cold Case Team. Under District Attorney Creuzot’s leadership, this initiative aims to ensure that no survivor is forgotten and no kit remains untested.
“The purpose of the Cold Case and SAKI teams is simple: to make sure no sexual assault kit falls through the cracks, and every survivor gets the justice they deserve,” said District Attorney John Creuzot. “Our office remains committed to testing every kit, solving every case possible, and holding violent offenders accountable.”
Case Background: In the summer of 2001, a 16-year-old girl was walking to a bus stop near Peavy and Ferguson Road in Dallas when she was approached, followed, and violently assaulted by an unknown man. After the attack, she sought help and was taken by ambulance to a hospital, where a sexual assault examination was conducted. However, the collected evidence remained untested for over two decades.
On September 29, 2022, prompted by a public awareness campaign from DA Creuzot’s Cold Case Division, the survivor contacted the Dallas County DA’s Office to inquire about her case. Cold Case Investigator Jon Wakefield immediately launched an investigation.
“Once we discovered that this girl’s sexual assault kit had never been tested, we tracked it down, sent it to the crime lab, and paid for the DNA testing,” said Wakefield, who led the investigation and testified during the trial. “That DNA result was the smoking gun that solved the case.”
On June 21, 2023, the Southwest Institute of Forensic Sciences (SWIFS) developed a male DNA profile from the victim’s evidence. This DNA was submitted to the FBI’s CODIS database and, by July 24, 2023, it matched LaQuinton Turner. Turner, a documented Dallas gang member, was an adult at the time of the assault.
Trial and Verdict: During the trial, Turner argued that his rights were violated due to the delay in testing the kit, but the jury disagreed.
“The only rights violated in this case were the victim’s,” lead prosecutor Haley Pratt told the jury in her closing argument. “The only injustice was that LaQuinton Turner raped her when she was 16 years old. She waited 8,761 days for justice. That ends today.”
Co-counsel Assistant District Attorney Kristin Treager added, “Nearly 24 years later, she testified with nothing to gain except justice. Justice delayed will not be justice denied.” Both prosecutors are members of the DA’s Cold Case Team.
The Dallas County District Attorney’s Office expressed gratitude to the entire trial team, including ADAs Haley Pratt and Kristin Treager; Investigators Jon Wakefield and Lee Thompson; and Victim Advocates Mackenzie Kile and Sha’Lisa Carrier.
