PERRY, Ga. — Jurors sat through several hours of in-depth scientific testimony on Monday as medical examiners in the case against Julia Lynn Turner explained why they reversed their initial reports and ruled that the deaths of her husband and boyfriend were homicides.

Antifreeze — the automotive product that contains 95 percent ethylene glycol — is what prosecutors believe Lynn Turner used in 1995 to kill her husband, Cobb County police officer Glenn Turner.

Turner's body was exhumed six years after his death when Lynn's boyfriend, firefighter Randy Thompson, died in 2001 under similar circumstances. Calcium oxalate crystals — a hallmark of ethylene glycol poisoning — were found in both men's kidney tissues.

Cobb County medical examiner Dr. Brian Frist said that when he first examined Turner's body in 1995 the only thing that seemed remarkable about his condition was that his heart was large at 500 grams (a normal heart weighs about 350 grams).

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Because there was no indication of foul play, he said he didn't "pay much attention" when he viewed calcium oxalate crystals in Turner's tissues under a microscope.

"In retrospect, I realize that there's more significance to them," Frist said. "I do believe they are the result of ethylene glycol toxicity."

Dr. Brian Frist showed jurors how to make a lethal concoction.

Frist initially ruled the cause of death as heart failure.

It was only after he learned that another man romantically linked to the defendant had died under similar circumstances in 2001 that he became concerned about the validity of his initial findings and ordered Turner's body exhumed.

New tests showed that Turner had ethylene glycol in his system, and Frist changed the cause of death to homicide by ethylene glycol toxicity. But he still struggled with the question of how the toxin was ingested, he said. His curiosity led to a series of antifreeze experiments.

Over offense objections, jurors were shown photos Frist took depicting chicken soup, lime green Jell-O, lemon-lime Gatorade and iced tea, all mixed with varying amounts of Firestone antifreeze. He discovered that adding antifreeze to Jell-O had no effect on its ability to properly gel.

In one photo, an unadulterated bottle of Gatorade sat beside a tall glass of bright green Gatorade that also contained about 3 ounces of antifreeze — an amount that would be sufficient to kill a human being. The two containers appeared identical in coloration.

Mathematical errors

Jurors also heard testimony from Dr. Mark Koponen, the medical examiner who autopsied Randy Thompson in January 2001.

Koponen, who had previous experience in ethylene-glycol poisoning cases, knew right away that the presence of calcium oxalate crystals in Thompson's kidneys was worth looking into, even though there was no evidence of foul play in the firefighter's death. But when a blood test came back "negative for a significant finding" of ethylene glycol, Koponen was not satisfied.

"I was incredulous," Koponen said. He initially listed the cause of death as heart failure, but continued to pour through his medical books to find any instances in which crystals could appear in the absence of ethylene glycol. "I was trying to come up with a satisfactory explanation for this gentleman's death," Koponen said.

The real explanation, however, turned out to be a mathematical error on the part of the lab that had tested Thompson's blood. Additional tests revealed that Thompson did indeed have a significant amount of ethylene glycol in his blood. Results from Frist's second autopsy and toxicology reports on Turner revealed the same finding.

In May 2002, Koponen changed his ruling to homicide.

Although Lynn Turner has not been charged in Thompson's death, the judge had ruled that jurors may hear evidence in his case due to the similar nature of the deaths.

Embalming fluids not at fault

To counter testimony heard on Saturday about the presence of ethylene glycol in certain embalming fluids, expert witnesses also testified Monday that the ethylene glycol found in Turner's body could not have come from the embalming fluids which were presumably used by the funeral home that prepared his body for burial in 1995.

"We do not have ethylene glycol in our products," said Mark DeBenedetto, senior chemist at Dodge, one of two chemical companies that provided fluids to the Patterson funeral home. "I've looked back in the records as far back as they were written, all the way back to 1988, and we have never purchased ethylene glycol."

A chemist from the other company, Pierce, also testified that ethylene glycol was never used in any of its products.

Records about the exact kinds of fluids used in Turner's body are unavailable because a pipe burst in the funeral home many years ago, and the embalming record for Turner was thrown out among other water-damaged records. But Patterson's director, Steve Vermilya, stated Monday that he was able to procure invoices which indicated that only Pierce and Dodge embalming fluids were purchased during the period of Turner's death.

On Tuesday, an out-of-state witness who is unable to travel due to medical reasons is expected to offer testimony via teleconference at another location. As such, jurors will be have short day and the taped testimony will likely be shown on Wednesday, when prosecutors expect to complete their case.

Court TV is broadcasting the trial, which is expected to last another week.