Several witnesses testified Tuesday that they did not see Jahi Turner at a South Park playground on the day he was reported missing in 2002.
The two-year-old boy has not been found since he was reported missing by his stepfather on April 25, 2002 while playing at a park near 28th and Cedar streets.
That stepfather, Tieray Jones, was arrested earlier this year and faces one count of murder and one count of felony child abuse causing death.
This week in San Diego, a judge is hearing the prosecution's evidence in the 14-year cold case for the first time.
Among the evidence was a nearly 12-minute 911 call in which Jones told police that his stepson disappeared when he turned away from the playground to buy a soda from a vending machine. Listen to the full 911 call here.
SDPD Detective Dana Hoover testified she spoke with the defendant at the park after she searched the area for approximately 30 to 40 minutes.
Jones told Hoover he had left his house at 10 a.m. that day and that Jahi played with two other children at the playground with a woman nearby, she testified.
“As he was walking, he last saw Jahi approximately 30 feet away from the playground and he turned around and just continued walking to the bathroom area,” Hoover testified. “Jones turned back and walked back to the playground area and that is when he noticed Jahi was not there and the two other children and the woman were not there either.”
Local
She drove Jones back to his home the same way he walked to the park with Jahi and the defendant took her down Cedar Street.
She testified the apartment was “very clean” with some toys on the floor in one bedroom.
Katey Higgins lived in the apartment complex where Jahi Turner lived with his stepfather. She saw Jones take two black trash bags out of his apartment on Wednesday, April 24, 2002.
"They were kind of rounded, maybe like laundry," Higgins said.
She testified trash was collected Wednesday mornings at the complex. She said she did not see Jones with a little boy at the time.
Guadalupe Sauceda testified she was in the park at approximately 1:30 p.m. with her two-year-old son on the day Jahi Turner was reported missing. She recalls visiting the restroom with her son and leaving the playground at about 2:30 p.m.
She testified she saw several adults in the park near the picnic tables and under some trees but did not see the defendant or a boy wearing a Winnie the Pooh sweatshirt.
“No, that’s because back then at that age [my son] loved Winnie the Pooh,” Sauceda testified through a translator. “And when he would see Winnie the Pooh he would run to it.”
South Park resident Hong “Chris” Hom was with his son and his wife on that day as they walked from Date Street to 28th Street and continued to the playground area of the park. Hom testified Tuesday that he did not recall seeing the defendant or any African-American children in the park that day. He testified he saw an adult woman in the park area at the time.
Erika Cohoe-Fitzgerald lived in Golden Hill at the time of Jahi Turner’s disappearance. She walked to the post office on that day and walked along 28th Street to get home. She stopped in the park south of the bathrooms in the park after 2 p.m. with her infant son and she recalled seeing the police and helicopters.
Fitzgerald did not recall seeing the defendant or any children in the park that day. She described seeing several adults, both male and female, in the area at the time.
The child was being cared for by his stepfather while his mother, known then as Tameka Turner, was deployed aboard USS Rushmore.
Hundreds of volunteers and police officers spent weeks looking for Jahi near the playground. Law enforcement officers raked through 5,000 tons of garbage at the Miramar Landfill, but came up with nothing.
The child's mother, who now goes by the name Tameka Jones, testified Monday that she had moved her son from Maryland to San Diego four days before he was reported missing. The family rented an apartment in the Golden Hill area of the city.
She then returned to Maryland to report for duty, leaving Jahi in the care of the defendant.
She testified the defendant spoke with her by phone on Tuesday, April 23, 2002 and told her Jahi had suffered a bump on the forehead.
Detailed in the arrest warrant is a journal entry from that day.
According to the court document, Jones wrote, “Today for some reason he hasn’t been moving or really talking. Jahi is starting to act really funny he won’t get up off the floor. He’s not walking or talking when I tell him to get his cup he just looks at me. I know it’s going to take some time. But I don’t want him hating me for something I can’t control. The bump on his head has gone down I put ice on it. It’s gotten a little red.”
In the arrest warrant, authorities suggest that entry is evidence suggesting Jahi suffered a fatal physical injury while in Jones’ care.
Click here to read the search warrant.
Two days later Tieray called Tameka and said Jahi had disappeared from a nearby park, she testified.
Jones' attorneys have said they believe Jahi Turner is still alive.
Though prosecutors say new evidence has been uncovered in the case, authorities have not found Jahi's body or remains, police said.
Jones has pleaded not guilty to the charges. He faces a 25-years-to-life sentence if convicted.
