One of two brothers took a plea deal in the shooting death of Omar Lott.
J’son Turk entered a guilty plea to manslaughter in front of 26th Judicial District Judge Parker Self Monday.
Assistant district attorney Hugo Holland says this was a compromise verdict “based on the lack of ‘clean hands’ by Mr. Lott.”
“While it would have been very easy to prove that Mr. J’son Turk shot Mr. Lott, our office believed that a jury would be hard pressed to convict Mr. J’son Turk of second degree murder and send him to prison for the rest of his life when Mr. Lott did not have what the law calls ‘clean hands,’” he said, “meaning that the victim, Mr. Lott, was in fact engaged in a felony himself at the time of his murder.”
Lott was shot and killed Aug. 24, 2014 in what Webster investigators called a possible drug deal gone bad. Holland says Turk shot and killed Lott, and his brother, Dylan Turk, helped hide the body.
“Omar had previously robbed one of the Turk brothers and the murder was in retaliation for the robbery,” Holland said. “The Turk brothers lured Mr. Lott to his death by convincing Mr. Lott that they, the Turk brothers and Mr. Lott, were going to rob another person of his money and drugs.”
Lott’s remains were recovered in a wooded area off Walter Lyons Road three days after the shooting.
Turk’s brother, Dylan, is charged with accessory after the fact, and gave a sworn statement against J’son Turk, Holland said in July.
Dylan Turk gained additional charges while out on bail for the charge of accessory after the fact. He was arrested in April following a disturbance at Minden Medical Center. Minden Police arrested Dylan Turk, but he continued to cause a disturbance at the police station where police chief Steve Cropper says at the time of his arrest in April, he tore up a bed in the holding cell and bit one of the officers, breaking the skin.
J’son Turk faces up to 40 years in prison, and sentencing is set for Feb. 1, 2016.
Holland says Dylan Turk is expected to take a plea agreement as well. He will be in court Monday, Oct. 19.