Stolen Art Watch, David Turner Released, Gardner Art Remains Elusive
Man suspected in Gardner museum heist set free
David Turner, a
longtime suspect in the Gardner museum heist, was released from federal
custody after serving nearly 21 years for plotting to rob an armored car
facility in 1999.Jonathan Wiggs/Globe Staff/Globe Staff
On a cold February day in 1999, David
Turner and several accomplices, armed with a hand grenade and six guns,
were on their way to rob an armored car depot in Easton when they were
arrested in an FBI sting.
Agents told Turner he was a suspect in
the infamous 1990 art heist at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum and
could receive leniency if he returned the stolen masterpieces, according
to court records. But Turner insisted he knew nothing about the theft
and was sentenced to 38 years in prison for attempting to rob the
armored car facility and firearms charges — which included a mandatory
30 years because the crew had a hand grenade.
Several years ago, the government secretly got that sentence trimmed by seven years,
making him eligible for release in 2025. Federal authorities declined
to say whether Turner had agreed to help authorities recover the
artwork, which includes works by Rembrandt and Vermeer and is worth an
estimated $500 million.
The masterworks have never
been recovered. But on Wednesday, Turner, 52, his dark hair now tinged
with gray, walked out of Boston’s federal court a free man after a judge
ruled during a resentencing hearing that the 21 years he already served
were enough.
“I deeply regret the actions I took
and the choices I made,” the Braintree native told US District Judge
Richard G. Stearns. “I am no longer that person. I cannot change the
past, but I have tried my best to change my future.”
Stearns, who had presided over
Turner’s trial decades ago, had vacated his prison term last month in
light of Supreme Court rulings that have eased federal sentencing
guidelines. On Wednesday, Stearns sentenced Turner to the time he had
already served and ordered his release.
“It’s rare for me to be fully
confident someone has fully rehabilitated himself,” he said to Turner.
“I believe you have and commend you for it.”
Last month, Stearns ordered the release of one of Turner’s codefendants, Stephen Rossetti, after ruling that he no longer qualified as an armed career criminal based on recent court decisions.
On Wednesday, Stearns rejected the
prosecution’s request to extend Turner’s sentence another 18 months,
instead placing him on probation for three years. He said it was the
first time he had ever received letters written in support of an inmate
on resentencing from Bureau of Prisons employees.
“What somebody does over time to
rehabilitate himself does count for something,” Stearns said, adding
that Turner “has done what I would expect from someone who did want to
change his life.”
Turner was transferred to Federal
Medical Center Devens four years ago to undergo cervical spinal surgery
and after his recovery volunteered as a hospital companion, providing
hospice care for critically ill inmates, according to a sentencing
memorandum filed by his attorney, Robert Goldstein. Previously, while at
a New York federal penitentiary, Turner was an instructor for the
Victim Impact Program.
Stearns said he was also impressed
that Turner had participated in 58 educational programs in prison,
ranging from vocational classes to Spanish and sign language courses.
Assistant US Attorney Robert
Richardson said Turner should serve additional time in prison because of
the “overall brazen and violent nature” of the 1999 plot to rob a
Loomis-Fargo facility of an estimated $50 million. It was thwarted
because the FBI had informants working with the crew and planted bugs
that captured Turner and his accomplices planning the crime.
FBI agents began targeting Turner and
one of his codefendants, Carmello Merlino, a Dorchester repair shop
owner with Mafia ties, in the early 1990s because they believed they
could lead them to the stolen Gardner art.
In the early morning hours of March
18, 1990, two thieves dressed as police officers talked their way into
the Gardner museum, tied up the guards, and fled with 13 pieces of
artwork.
Merlino died in prison in 2005, but
Turner’s suspected involvement in the ongoing Gardner investigation
surfaced three years ago in federal court proceedings in Hartford
involving Robert Gentile, a Connecticut mobster who was suspected by the
FBI of having access to the stolen paintings.
In late 2010, Turner wrote Gentile
from prison, instructing him to call Turner’s girlfriend. She then asked
Gentile to meet with two of Turner’s associates about recovering the
artwork, Gentile’s lawyer said.
Gentile, who was cooperating with the
FBI then, refused to meet with the pair and introduce them to an FBI
informant because he feared for his safety, according to court filings.
Gentile, who was snared in two FBI stings designed to pressure him into recovering the artwork, was released from prison in March after serving 4½ years on gun charges.
In a brief telephone interview
Tuesday, Gentile’s attorney, A. Ryan McGuigan, said his client has no
information about the stolen artwork, but he suggested that Turner did,
at least at one time
“Based on the information that I have
seen in disclosures from the government, also from third-party sources,
it’s fairly apparent that the last living person to have possession of
the paintings is David Turner,” McGuigan said.
He also said Gentile would be willing
to meet with Turner to talk about the missing artwork if he’s
interested. The museum is offering a $10 million reward for the safe
return of the masterworks.
Outside the courtroom, Turner’s lawyer declined to comment on the
paintings or allegations that Turner may have been involved in the heist.
Dressed in a gray sweatsuit, Turner
left the courthouse with his girlfriend. Asked by a reporter how it felt
to be free, he replied, “Wonderful. I’m going to Disneyland.”
From
this article: "Several years ago, the government secretly trimmed that
sentence by seven years, making him eligible for release in 2025." Why
several years ago, why not exact date? Because it never happened.
Last
month when Turner's criminal associate Rossetti was released the Globe
reported: “In recent years, the government quietly reduced Turner’s
prison term by seven years, for reasons that remain under seal, raising
questions about whether he had agreed to help authorities try to recover
the artwork. He is scheduled to be released in March 2025.”
Hm.
“quietly,” the Globe states, but when this story was first reported in
the Globe in 2016, it was said they had “secretly” reduced his sentence.
Now it is merely quietly.
Is that supposed to be an actual
phenomenon, federal inmates bartering time after they have begun their
sentence for information about other crimes? Judges have the power to
secretly reduce sentences and keep that reduction under seal?
Why would Turner wait until after serving ten years to share what information he had?
A guy who has already been incarcerated 20 years for an attempted armed robbery had a sentence reduction?
From
the Globe 2016 : "There are no details about Turner’s sentence
reduction on his criminal case docket in federal court in Boston,
indicating that records relating to the reduction are sealed.
Indicating
to whom? And three years later the “indicated” in the Globe had
evolved into an established fact, David Turner’s sentence had been
reduced and the reduction had been sealed.
An alternative
possibility is that Turner did not get a secret, quiet or any sentence
reduction since the Boston Globe acknowledged in 2016, “the only public
record of Turner’s reduced sentence is the Bureau of Prisons website.
So
the records are sealed, but somebody sent the information to the people
at the public Bureau of Prison website, who dutifully updated their
record, we can presume "secretly" or at the very least “quietly.”
Last
Seen Podcast said that in 2016 Shelley Murphy, who wrote this story
“made a sharp discovery: “I was hearing some things about whether or
not he might cooperate,” Murphy said, “and I looked at the Bureau of
Prisons' website, which shows a release date. And when I looked at it, I
knew. I said that wasn't the release date that was there before. And I
noticed that the release date had changed. So that's how I saw it, that I
knew that he initially was supposed to get out on one date. And
suddenly, they just took off a bunch of years.”
“Suddenly,” but
the Boston Globe twice in 2013 reported the, sentenced reduced, 2025
release year for Turner, including one story that had Shelley Murphy on
the byline.The claim hinges on something Murphy thinks she remembered
from a website over three years previously.
Furthermore the
BOP.gov that serves as the sole source for the Boston Globe’s secret
sentence reduction states that: “the projected release date displayed
reflects the inmate's statutory release date (expiration full term minus
good conduct time)” and not the full sentence the person received from
the judge. https://www.bop.gov/inmateloc/about_records.jsp
The
Globe which cannot even get Turner, his lawyer or anyone in government
to acknowledge that he received a sentence reduction, which could also
be for a variety of other things given his prolific record, reported
last month that this sentence reduction “is raising questions about
whether he had agreed to help authorities try to recover the artwork.”
Raising
questions with whom? The authorities know if he received a sentence
reduction and for what reason. Raising questions with nonexistent
inquisitors, who would know anyway, over a nonexistent sentence
reduction, possibly, possibly, because of his nonexistent connection to
the Gardner Museum Heist. A trifecta!
Man suspected in Gardner museum heist set free
From this article: "Several years ago, the government secretly trimmed that sentence by seven years, making him eligible for release in 2025." Why several years ago, why not exact date? Because it never happened.
Last month when Turner's criminal associate Rossetti was released the Globe reported: “In recent years, the government quietly reduced Turner’s prison term by seven years, for reasons that remain under seal, raising questions about whether he had agreed to help authorities try to recover the artwork. He is scheduled to be released in March 2025.”
Hm. “quietly,” the Globe states, but when this story was first reported in the Globe in 2016, it was said they had “secretly” reduced his sentence. Now it is merely quietly.
Is that supposed to be an actual phenomenon, federal inmates bartering time after they have begun their sentence for information about other crimes? Judges have the power to secretly reduce sentences and keep that reduction under seal?
Why would Turner wait until after serving ten years to share what information he had?
A guy who has already been incarcerated 20 years for an attempted armed robbery had a sentence reduction?
From the Globe 2016 : "There are no details about Turner’s sentence reduction on his criminal case docket in federal court in Boston, indicating that records relating to the reduction are sealed.
Indicating to whom? And three years later the “indicated” in the Globe had evolved into an established fact, David Turner’s sentence had been reduced and the reduction had been sealed.
An alternative possibility is that Turner did not get a secret, quiet or any sentence reduction since the Boston Globe acknowledged in 2016, “the only public record of Turner’s reduced sentence is the Bureau of Prisons website.
So the records are sealed, but somebody sent the information to the people at the public Bureau of Prison website, who dutifully updated their record, we can presume "secretly" or at the very least “quietly.”
Last Seen Podcast said that in 2016 Shelley Murphy, who wrote this story “made a sharp discovery: “I was hearing some things about whether or not he might cooperate,” Murphy said, “and I looked at the Bureau of Prisons' website, which shows a release date. And when I looked at it, I knew. I said that wasn't the release date that was there before. And I noticed that the release date had changed. So that's how I saw it, that I knew that he initially was supposed to get out on one date. And suddenly, they just took off a bunch of years.”
“Suddenly,” but the Boston Globe twice in 2013 reported the, sentenced reduced, 2025 release year for Turner, including one story that had Shelley Murphy on the byline.The claim hinges on something Murphy thinks she remembered from a website over three years previously.
Furthermore the BOP.gov that serves as the sole source for the Boston Globe’s secret sentence reduction states that: “the projected release date displayed reflects the inmate's statutory release date (expiration full term minus good conduct time)” and not the full sentence the person received from the judge. https://www.bop.gov/inmateloc/about_records.jsp
The Globe which cannot even get Turner, his lawyer or anyone in government to acknowledge that he received a sentence reduction, which could also be for a variety of other things given his prolific record, reported last month that this sentence reduction “is raising questions about whether he had agreed to help authorities try to recover the artwork.”
Raising questions with whom? The authorities know if he received a sentence reduction and for what reason. Raising questions with nonexistent inquisitors, who would know anyway, over a nonexistent sentence reduction, possibly, possibly, because of his nonexistent connection to the Gardner Museum Heist. A trifecta!
Welcome to Chernobyl https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2019/10/04/after-years-prison-stephen-rossetti-goes-free-bu-gardner-art-heist-remains-unsolved/hh9zpoPvTq5b2iCLnV3ctM/story.html