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Thread: Skyler Jefferson Moore Sentenced to LWOP in 2001 CA Murder of Crystal Taylor

  1. #1
    Administrator Helen's Avatar
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    Skyler Jefferson Moore Sentenced to LWOP in 2001 CA Murder of Crystal Taylor


    Crystal Taylor and Derek Paul Smyer


    Did baby daddy order girlfriend’s hit because she refused abortion?


    By Toni McCallister
    mynewsLA.com

    A man accused of finding someone to shoot his pregnant girlfriend in the head is again on trial, alongside the alleged gunman, as two juries listened to opening statements.

    Prosecutors said Derek Paul Smyer, 36, had 27-year-old Crystal Taylor killed after she refused to have the abortion he demanded.

    “Her only crime in life was to want another child,” Deputy District Attorney Danette Meyers told jurors Monday.

    Smyer, who was arrested and charged with murder a decade after the Sept. 25, 2001, killings of Taylor and her unborn son, is facing life in prison without the possibility of parole if convicted.

    A mistrial was declared for Smyer in August,
    when an earlier set of jurors declared a deadlock.

    This trial includes co-defendant Skyler Jefferson Moore, 35. Moore is serving a life prison sentence without the possibility of parole for an unrelated 2001 killing and prosecutors are seeking the death penalty against him.

    Prosecutors said Smyer and Moore met at the basketball courts at Anderson Park in Redondo Beach.

    Moore was a member of the East Coast branch of a Southern California gang and new to the area, according to Deputy District Attorney Rosa Zavala.

    “He was looking to build a reputation for himself” and offered to kill Taylor in exchange for Smyer’s loyalty, Zavala said.

    Defense attorney Richard Everett told the jury panel there was “little or no evidence” that Moore knew Smyer.

    “There were no witnesses … no DNA recovered, no fingerprints … no evidence to connect the killing of Crystal Taylor to Skyler Moore,” Everett said.

    Moore had been walking his little brothers and sisters to school that morning in the neighborhood of the shooting, Everett said.

    After Moore had been in solitary confinement for “several years,” cold case detectives approached him with an offer to move him to a safer facility to serve out his life sentence.

    In exchange, “he gives them this story about how he was hired by Mr. Smyer,” Everett said.

    Moore later recanted that story over concern about helping to “convict an innocent person,” Everett said. “He didn’t kill Crystal Taylor.”

    Though prosecutors said Smyer was always a suspect, he wasn’t arrested until after Moore named him.

    Jurors at Smyer’s first trial were shown video of a 2011 interview with Moore in which he confessed to shooting Taylor in the head. In it, Moore said Smyer told him Taylor was “trying to trap him.”

    Moore told a prosecutor, “I killed Crystal, this is how it happened, this is why I did it,” Zavala said.

    Moore was also identified by a neighbor, who said he saw him walking up and down the street before he heard a gunshot at the complex and then saw the same man run off.

    Prosecutors said Smyer’s history confirmed his guilt.

    “Crystal is not the first girlfriend that defendant Smyer has hurt,” Zavala told jurors.

    An ex-girlfriend from high school, Traci Williamson, was the mother of two of Smyer’s children, prosecutors said. During each pregnancy, when she was about 7-8 months along, she was attacked by an unknown assailant.

    “That relationship had domestic violence written all over it,” Meyers said.”He pleaded with her to have an abortion.”

    In the first attack, a man cut her throat with a knife, prosecutors said.

    “The (second) attacker focused on kicking and punching her in the stomach,” Zavala said.

    “(Smyer) has this unreasonable paranoia about pregnancy,” Zavala said.

    Smyer’s attorney, Calvin Schneider III, offered jurors a different perspective on this “horrible, horrible crime.”

    Schneider showed photographs of Smyer in the delivery room with Williamson and smiling with his two children, who lived with him until he was arrested, according to the defense attorney.

    His client dropped out of high school at 17 so that he could support Williamson while she finished high school, the defense attorney said.

    Schneider said Williamson lied about one of the attacks to gain favor with her own family, who didn’t like the fact that she wasn’t working to support her child.

    As for Taylor, Schneider said Smyer spoke to her for about two hours the day after he found out she was pregnant.

    “(There was) nothing to indicate that she was ever threatened or hurt during that conversation,” Schneider said.

    There was only about a week between that conversation and the time that Moore was jailed for 30 days for firearm possession.

    “Think about the timeline,” the defense attorney said.

    And the man seen fleeing from the scene of Taylor’s shooting got into a black Thunderbird, the defense attorney told the jury panel, adding that neither Smyer nor Moore had access to such a car.

    “Mr. Smyer’s waited a long time for you to decide this case. He’s waited a long time to vindicate himself,” Schneider told the jury panel.

    http://mynewsla.com/crime/2017/04/10...used-abortion/
    "I realize this may sound harsh, but as a father and former lawman, I really don't care if it's by lethal injection, by the electric chair, firing squad, hanging, the guillotine or being fed to the lions."
    - Oklahoma Rep. Mike Christian

    "There are some people who just do not deserve to live,"
    - Rev. Richard Hawke

    “There are lots of extremely smug and self-satisfied people in what would be deemed lower down in society, who also deserve to be pulled up. In a proper free society, you should be allowed to make jokes about absolutely anything.”
    - Rowan Atkinson

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    Two Men Found Guilty in 2001 Murder-for-Hire of Pregnant Woman

    Los Angeles District Attorney's Office

    A man accused of arranging the murder of his pregnant girlfriend more than a decade ago and the hired hitman were both convicted today, the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s office announced.

    Derek Paul Smyer, 36, was found guilty today of one count each of first-degree murder with the special circumstances of murder for financial gain and multiple murders, second-degree murder and conspiracy and two counts of solicitation of murder.

    A separate jury found Skyler Jefferson Moore, 35, guilty today of two counts of first-degree murder with the special circumstances of lying in wait and multiple murders and one count of conspiracy.

    Deputy District Attorneys Danette Meyers and Rosa Zavala prosecuted case SA079068.

    The penalty phase to determine whether the jury will recommend the death penalty or life in prison without the possibility of parole for Moore is scheduled to begin on May 10 in Department 101 of the Foltz Criminal Justice Center.

    Sentencing for Smyer is scheduled on June 1. He faces life in prison without the possibility of parole.

    In August 2001, Smyer became upset when he learned his girlfriend Crystal Dejuanna Taylor, 27, was pregnant and refused to have an abortion, according to court testimony. Smyer then arranged for Moore to kill her, prosecutors said.

    The victim was fatally shot on Sept. 25, 2001 in her Hawthorne apartment. She was between 21 and 22-weeks pregnant at the time, prosecutors added.

    The case was investigated by the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.

    http://da.co.la.ca.us/media/news/two...pregnant-woman
    "I realize this may sound harsh, but as a father and former lawman, I really don't care if it's by lethal injection, by the electric chair, firing squad, hanging, the guillotine or being fed to the lions."
    - Oklahoma Rep. Mike Christian

    "There are some people who just do not deserve to live,"
    - Rev. Richard Hawke

    “There are lots of extremely smug and self-satisfied people in what would be deemed lower down in society, who also deserve to be pulled up. In a proper free society, you should be allowed to make jokes about absolutely anything.”
    - Rowan Atkinson

  3. #3
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    Edited:

    Jury deadlocks on death penalty for man who killed pregnant woman in Hawthorne


    By City News Service
    The Daily Breeze

    A jury deadlocked Thursday on whether to recommend the death penalty or life in prison without the possibility of parole for a man convicted of the 2001 killings of a pregnant woman and her unborn son at her Hawthorne apartment.

    The Los Angeles Superior Court jury was split 7-5, with the majority favoring a life prison term for Skyler Jefferson Moore, according to Ricardo Santiago of the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office.

    Moore, 35, was convicted May 8 along with co-defendant Derek Paul Smyer, 36, of the Sept. 25, 2001, killings of Crystal Taylor and her fetus.

    Prosecutors contended that Smyer arranged for Moore to commit the killing because the 27-year-old woman was pregnant with Smyer’s baby and refused to have an abortion.

    MOORE GUILTY ON TWO MURDER COUNTS


    Moore was found guilty of two counts of first-degree murder and one count of conspiracy. The panel also found true the special circumstance allegations of lying in wait and multiple murders, along with gun allegations.

    Moore already is serving a life prison sentence without the possibility of parole for an unrelated 2001 killing.

    He is due back in court June 1, when the District Attorney’s Office is expected to announce whether it wants to retry the penalty phase.

    Smyer is also due back in court the same day for sentencing. He is facing life in prison without the possibility of parole.

    A separate jury convicted Smyer of first-degree murder for the fetus’ death and second-degree murder for Taylor’s killing, along with two counts of solicitation of murder and one count of conspiracy to commit a crime.

    Jurors who heard the case against Smyer also found true a special circumstance allegation of multiple murders and financial gain involving the fetus’ killing.

    The first jury to hear the case against Smyer last year deadlocked on the charges.

    http://www.dailybreeze.com/general-n...n-in-hawthorne
    "I realize this may sound harsh, but as a father and former lawman, I really don't care if it's by lethal injection, by the electric chair, firing squad, hanging, the guillotine or being fed to the lions."
    - Oklahoma Rep. Mike Christian

    "There are some people who just do not deserve to live,"
    - Rev. Richard Hawke

    “There are lots of extremely smug and self-satisfied people in what would be deemed lower down in society, who also deserve to be pulled up. In a proper free society, you should be allowed to make jokes about absolutely anything.”
    - Rowan Atkinson

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    Moderator Ryan's Avatar
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    October 22, 2017

    Thug hired HITMAN to kill pregnant girlfriend and unborn child because she wouldn't have abortion

    Crystal Taylor, 27, was shot dead by a gunman hired by Derek Paul Smyer.

    A man who hired a hitman to murder his girlfriend and their unborn child because she wouldn't have an abortion has been convicted of double murder.

    Derek Paul Smyer, 36, hired a gunman to shoot dead 27-year-old Crystal Taylor who was around 22 weeks pregnant with their child.

    Crystal was blasted by a mystery man as she was walking to her car to go to work in 2001.

    Neither the mum-to-be nor her unborn baby boy survived.

    Prosecutors say Skyler Jefferson Moore, 35, was the killer.

    A verdict in his case is expected on Monday afternoon, NBC reports.

    But a jury found Smyer guilty of second-degree murder in Crystal's killing, first-degree murder of the fetus, two counts of solicitation of murder and one count of conspiracy to commit a crime.

    A court heard he evaded justice for years until Moore confessed to what happened in 2011.

    Moore was already serving a life sentence when he was approached by cold case detectives.

    Jurors were shown video of Moore's confession in which he told police Smyer wanted Crystal dead because she was "trying to trap him" with the pregnancy.

    "I killed Crystal, this is how it happened, this is why I did it," he told a prosecutor.

    He later recanted his confession.

    It also emerged that a previous ex-girlfriend of Smyer had also suffered violence while pregnant.

    Traci Williamson, mother to two of his children, said she was assaulted at around 7-8-months pregnant by random attackers.

    "That relationship had domestic violence written all over it," said Deputy District Attorney Danette Meyers

    "He pleaded with her to have an abortion."

    Smyer faces life in prison without parole.

    http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-n...gnant-11386878

  5. #5
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    Moore is serving life without parole.

    https://inmatelocator.cdcr.ca.gov/De...aspx?ID=T89083
    "I realize this may sound harsh, but as a father and former lawman, I really don't care if it's by lethal injection, by the electric chair, firing squad, hanging, the guillotine or being fed to the lions."
    - Oklahoma Rep. Mike Christian

    "There are some people who just do not deserve to live,"
    - Rev. Richard Hawke

    “There are lots of extremely smug and self-satisfied people in what would be deemed lower down in society, who also deserve to be pulled up. In a proper free society, you should be allowed to make jokes about absolutely anything.”
    - Rowan Atkinson

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