A man currently jailed in Arizona has been charged with first-degree murder in a 2013 shooting death in Omaha. Bernard “B.J.” Turner Jr., 25, is in the Maricopa County Jail in Phoenix, awaiting extradition to Omaha to face charges in the death of 19-year-old Julius Vaughn, his onetime friend, whose body was found inside a car in south Omaha in October 2013. Vaughn and Turner were members of the 16th Street Bloods, a gang in Omaha, The Omaha World-Herald reported.
Omaha Police Detective Dave Schneider, who leads the department’s cold-case unit, declined Tuesday to say what led to the arrest, or a possible motive in the shooting. Turner was a suspect in the 2016 death of Jarrell Haynes, 22, who was scheduled to testify in the double murder trial of a gang member. That case was dismissed after a key witness declined to testify.
He also was charged with attempted murder in Aurora, Colorado, but that case fell apart when a witness declined to testify. Turner has been in the jail in Arizona for a year and was scheduled to be released Thursday. It was not immediately clear why Turner was jailed in Arizona.
