Turner, of Bloomington, Ind., is serving an 82-year sentence for killing Evans in his parked car outside a Virginia Beach nightclub in 1995. Another trainee, Billy Joe Brown, changed his story to say that he alone killed Evans.
The Attorney General's Office has two weeks to ask for the full court to make a decision or a month to appeal the ruling to the Virginia Supreme Court. If the attorney general does not protest the ruling, Turner would be released from Powhatan Correctional Center.
Turner's attorney and mother said they were cautiously optimistic about Tuesday's ruling.
"We're very pleased, and we like our chances moving forward, but at this point we're not exactly sure what forward will be," Turner's attorney David Hargett said.
David Clementson, a spokesman for the attorney general's office, said only that officials there are reviewing the opinion.
Turner is the first person in Virginia to get a murder conviction overturned under a 2004 law that allows nonbiological evidence of innocence to be considered more than 21 days after sentencing.
Turner met Evans, of Tucker, Ga., at a Virginia Beach nightclub in June 1995. He claims they were sitting in the front seat of his car talking when a drunken and belligerent Brown got into the back seat and reached around to strangle Evans.
Brown, now serving a 72-year prison term, signed a sworn statement in 2003 saying he alone killed Evans. At first the confession did Turner no good because state law required any newly discovered non-DNA evidence to be submitted within 21 days of sentencing. The 2004 law eliminated that deadline, allowing Turner to pursue his claim in court.
The appeals court found Turner guilty of being an accessory after the fact for helping conceal Evans' body. A hearing is set to determine his punishment for that crime, a misdemeanor that has a maximum punishment of one year in jail.
