The ex-boyfriend of a prominent banking executive who was found dead in her Reseda home in 2021 was convicted Tuesday, Aug. 12, of beating and strangling her to death, authorities said.
Anthony Duwayne Turner, 56, of Westchester was convicted by a Los Angeles Superior Court jury of first-degree murder, forcible rape and burglary in the killing of 48-year-old Michelle Avan, who was found dead in her bedroom on Aug. 5, 2021.
The jury returned its verdict after about a day of deliberations.
Prosecutors said they believed Turner killed Avan sometime after arriving at her home unannounced around 11:40 p.m. on Aug. 3, 2021. Turner had attended a party in Los Angeles and had agreed to go with a friend to another bar, but ditched the friend and instead drove 22 miles to Avan’s house unannounced that night, prosecutor Cindy Lee Wallace said during closing arguments last week.
During trial, prosecutors painted Turner as a controlling partner who became abusive when he felt he was disrespected.
Defense attorney Jovan Blacknell said the trial was a “referendum on the BDSM lifestyle,” which Turner testified he engaged in during some of his relationships, including with Avan.
Both Avan and Turner worked for Bank of America. Avan, a senior vice president, was also an advocate for women and underrepresented groups. The two were married to other people when they began having an affair in 2016, but they both divorced and had an off-and-on relationship, which Avan wanted to make public, but Turner did not, according to testimony during trial.
Turner testified he went to Avan’s house that night to end the relationship for good, arriving unannounced and using a key code to enter the front door, then disarming an alarm system once inside. He claimed Avan was happy to see it was him when he opened her bedroom door, but started crying shortly after the conversation.
He said he fell asleep in a chair next to the bed, waking around 4 a.m. to her still sitting on the bed with puffy eyes. He grabbed a trash bag from the kitchen, packed up his belongings, told her he’d check in on her and left while she stood near the bottom of the stairwell, he testified, adding that was the last time he saw her.
Turner testified that he engaged in certain BDSM practices, including dominant and submissive relationships. At his request, an ex-wife and Avan at different times got tattoos that read “Property of Anthony Turner” or “Property of King Anthony.”
Prosecutors argued he ended the relationship days prior over text by telling Avan the relationship “wasn’t getting the respect” either of them deserved, but went to Avan’s house to “assert his control over her.”
“The fear she must have been experiencing,” Wallace said. “She knows what’s happening. She knows what’s coming. She knows what he will want.”
Avan was found by her son the morning of Aug. 5, 2021. She suffered blunt force trauma to her head, internal bleeding and was strangled, prosecutors argued, citing evidence from the medical examiner.
Turner’s DNA was also found in and on Avan’s body and on her underwear, Wallace said.
Blacknell, during his closing argument, suggested that Avan was so distraught about the relationship ending, she could have caused the injuries herself by banging her head against the bathroom counter. However, prosecutors countered that it didn’t explain the internal bleeding, or that part of her cause of death was asphyxia.
“I don’t think she had any intentions of killing herself,” Blacknell said. “I do think she had intentions of harming herself.”
He criticized the investigation by Los Angeles police and said they were quick to focus on Turner and no one else.
Wallace argued that while Turner maintained an appearance of being calm, charming and charismatic, it was a mask for the darker side he displayed in relationships.
Turner is tentatively scheduled to be sentenced on Oct. 10.
City News Service contributed to this report.
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