Lamar County Man Gets Death Penalty In 2015 Killing Of Ex-Wife

VERNON, AL — A Vernon man was found guilty Tuesday of capital murder and has been sentenced to death in the 2015 disappearance and death of his ex-wife in Lamar County.

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After a three-week trial, a Lamar County jury recommended the death penalty for Brandon Sykes, 40, on Wednesday for the killing Keisha Turner — a mother of three — in February 2015 during the commission of a burglary, kidnapping and robbery.

District Attorney Andy Hamlin referred to the case as an unusual one, due to Turner's body never being found.

"But the evidence clearly shows the defendant committed this senseless murder and went to great lengths to cover it up," he said in a press release on Wednesday.

Sykes was first charged three months after Turner went missing from her home, before her vehicle was recovered a week later after it had been burned and abandoned around New Hope, Mississippi.

Hamlin said investigators discovered blood in her home and in the bed of Sykes' truck. He also mentioned a witness at trial said Sykes confessed to killing his ex-wife, which was presented as evidence to the jury along with cell phone records and data proving his guilt.

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