Michael Taylor Guilty of Rape/Murder
DOG3
I'm sure the details of this case have been posted in the past but I have not
found any followup info posted. If there is, and I've missed it I apologize
for the duplication. Michael Taylor, diagnosed with behavior disorders was
accused of the brutal beating, rape and drowning (in the toilet)of then 15 year
old Christine Smetzer in the restroom at Mcluer North High School in Florissant
Missouri on January 24, 1995. Taylor was then 15 years old and can not receive
the death sentence. What I find disturbing about the situation is, DNA
evidence and fingerprints suggesting another party was involved has basically
been ignored. Story below.
Teen attaced, drowned girl in high school restroom
[Life in prison is only option]
By william C. Lhotka
Of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch
A jury in St. Louis County Circuit Court convicted Michael Taylor Saturday of
beating, raping and drowning Christine Smetzer in a third-floor restroom at
McCluer North High School in Florissant, where both were students.
The sequestered jury of five men and seven women deliberated less than three
hours before finding Taylor, 18, guilty of first-degree murder and the rape of
the 15-year-old Freshman.
Judge Larry L. kendrick set sentencing for April 3. Because Taylor was 48
days short of his 16th birthday when Smetzer was killed on January 24, 1995,
the state couldn't seek the death penalty.
The only punishment available to the judge for first-degree murder is life in
prison without parole. The jury also recommended life in prison on the rape
conviction.
After the verdict, Smetzer's mother, Mary Kay Harries of Florissant, said: "I
wish he could have gotten the death sentence, to be honest with you. He
sentenced her (Christine) to death for no purpose."
Harries sat in the first row during closing arguments, surrounded by family
members and friends. On the other side of the courtroom sat Taylor's family.
Both sides heard prosecutor Carrie Costantin tell the jury that Taylor
committed "a premeditated, cold-blooded--not just cool reflection--but
cold-blooded murder. Christine Smetzer was a victim of opportunity; she was in
the wrong place at the wrong time."
"This was his time to kill and his time to rape; there was no other reason to
walk up those stairs and into that restroom."
Citing the testimony of 27 prosecution witnesses over the past four days,
Costantin said physical evidence showed that Taylor had broken into the last
stall in the restroom, punched Smetzer in the face to disable her, shoved her
head in the toilet and raped her as she was dying.
The prosecutor said five finger-prints police found in the restroom matched
Taylor's; DNA evidence linked Smetzer's blood and saliva to Taylor's clothes;
and Taylor made contradictory statements to police.
Defense attorney Lucy Liggett urged the jurors to put aside the emotional
aspects of the case and to consider the facts on their merits.
Liggett conceded that Taylor raped Smetzer. She said someone else had beaten
Smetzer and raped her before Taylor had found her unconscious. Smetzer's head
had fallen into the toilet as a result of the beating by an unknown assailant
and she had later drowned, Liggett said.
Liggett cited a mystery sample of DNA evidence that pointed to the
possibility of a third person having sexual contact with Smetzer and two
fingerprints in the restroom that police could not account for.
"You can theorize all you want outside the courtroom but someone else's DNA
is there," Liggett told the jury. "That's reasonable doubt. Don't put Michael
Taylor in prison forever."
"Forever is a long time to go to prison," said Costantin in rebuttal.
"Christine Smetzer already got her forever."
Costantin said the DNA experts, both state and defense, had testified the
mystery DNA sample could have been transferred to Taylor's boxer shorts by
contact with clothing that contains semen, blood or urine. The boxer shorts
were seized by police from a laundry basket in the basement of Taylor's home in
Cool Valley.
"You will never see a more brutal and random killing," Costantin concluded.
"The maximum of life in prison without parole is the only appropriate
punishment for murdering someone in a high school bathroom."
*********************************************
~Lovers come and go
@The dogs are always faithful
*********************************************
JBrown6000
dog3 says:
**Seems pretty straightforward to me. Do you think this kid just happened to
wander into the girl's restroom, found a dead girl fortuitously "waiting" for
him, and only raped her because, "what the hell, why not? She's already dead?"
That there might possibly another person involved does not lessen his guilt.
jb
DOG3
>**Seems pretty straightforward to me. Do you think this kid just happened to
>wander into the girl's restroom, found a dead girl fortuitously "waiting" for
>him, and only raped her because, "what the hell, why not? She's already
>dead?"
> That there might possibly another person involved does not lessen his
>guilt.
>
>jb
There is no question of Taylor's guilt in this case and I did not mean to imply
I thought otherwise. I just found it odd the other DNA evidence did not play a
larger role. According to news reports after the crime, Taylor's capacity to
reason is greatly challenged and I am curious if someone else was not involved
or perhaps coerced Taylor to commit the crime.
Michael