The Alabama Supreme Court has upheld a capital murder conviction and death sentence for Donald Emile Deardorff who forced Spanish Fort minister Ted Turner into a death march into a densely wooded area north of Stockton in September 1999 and shot him in the head at least four times, according to court testimony.

The Supreme Court’s ruling handed down last week affirms the state Court of Criminal Appeals’ 2004 upholding of the death sentence.

The panel rejected Deardorff’s argument that aggravating circumstances surrounding the killing was not especially heinous.

Aggravating factors were presented to the jury during Deardorff’s trial. The jury recommended the death sentence by a 10-2 margin after deliberating 50 minutes.

“Being threatened with death, being held in captivity and confined to a closet, being transported by car while his head was hooded and his hands taped, being forced to walk down the dirt road while hooded and taped, and the events immediately preceding Turner’s killing constitute psychological torture so as to meet the standard for a murder that is ‘especially heinous, atrocious or cruel’,” the 20-plus page document stated.

“There was no error here, and Deardorff is not entitled to any relief on this claim.”

The court also rejected Deardorff’s challenge that admission of previous “bad” acts was improper.

Deardorff, 39, of Bay Minette, was sentenced to death in December 2001. Turner, 56, was a founding minister of a nondenominational church in Montrose called Unity of the Eastern Shore.

Millard Lee Peacock, of Atmore, an accomplice, was sentenced in January 2002 to 15 years in prison on theft charges after testifying for the state, and leading lawmen to Turner’s decomposed body in June 2001.

Turner leased a storage warehouse in 1998 to Deardorff, who received a default judgment for failure to make rental payments. One month before his death, Turner locked a storehouse he had rented to Turner. Evidence suggests arguments over business dealings may have created friction between the two, according to court records.

On Sept. 22, 1999, Deardorff and Peacock entered Turner’s unoccupied home and began looking through file cabinets. Peacock testified Deardorff sought revenge for the soured real estate relationship with Turner.

When Turner arrived, Deardorff drew a handgun, bound Turner with duct tape and placed him in a closet, according to court testimony.

Peacock testified that Deardorff forced Turner to write a personal check and four credit card checks early the next morning.

The two accomplices spent the rest of the day and night at Turner’s house watching TV and eating pizza purchased with Turner’s money. Deardorff used Turner’s computer to order automobile parts and to visit several pornographic Internet sites.

Before dawn broke the next morning, Deardorff told Turner they were going to leave him at a park and call police to pick him up.

Turner’s hands and mouth were duct taped, and a pillowcase was taped over his head. Deardorff drove to a densely wooded area north of Stockton.

Turner, who recently had knee surgery and was required to wear a brace, was led to the end of a logging trail. Peacock testified that Deardorff told him to wait while he walked Turner a few more feet.

Deardorff then forced Turner to his knees and shot him in the head four times in rapid succession, according to testimony.

Deardorff was arrested Oct. 5, 1999, at the Bay Minette Wal-Mart Superstore with $19,200 in cash and a pistol.

The Alabama Bureau of Investigation traced the money, still bound by bank bands and the initials of tellers, to Peacock.

Deardorff fingered Peacock as the trigger man during his two-week trial. He also defiantly told Circuit Judge Lang Floyd to impose the death sentence.

“I am not afraid to die and I maintain my innocence,” Deardorff told Floyd before sentencing. “Bring the death penalty. “We will work it out in appeals. We can’t do it (justice) here in Baldwin County.”