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Thread: David Ray Taylor - Oregon

  1. #11
    Weidmann1939
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    It's possible, I agree. However Oregon like California is quirky in some ways when it come to law and order. I would be rather surprised if Mr. Taylor skated on the death sentence three times.

  2. #12
    Administrator Moh's Avatar
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    Convicts testify on behalf of Taylor

    A serial rapist and three killers say they don’t recall him causing trouble while in prison

    By Jack Moran
    The Register-Guard

    Three murderers and a rapist who served prison time with twice-convicted killer David Ray Taylor told a Lane County jury on Wednesday that they never knew him to cause any problems while behind bars.

    Taylor’s attorneys called the four men — three of whom remain imprisoned — to testify in support of their position that the 58-year-old Eugene man should be sentenced to life in prison, but not death, for the August 2012 slaying of Celestino “Tino” Gutierrez Jr.

    Prosecutors will ask the jury to impose the death penalty. They say that’s appropriate based on the circumstances of Gutierrez’s killing and their belief that Taylor poses a continued threat to society, even in a prison community.

    The convicted criminals who testified Wednesday during the sentencing phase of Taylor’s trial spoke highly of Taylor when recalling their interactions with him at the high-security Oregon State Penitentiary in Salem.

    One of the men, former Coquille resident David Peel, called Taylor an intelligent, “caring individual” who mentored younger inmates before being granted parole in 2004. Before his release, Taylor had served 27 years in prison for the murder of a young Eugene woman in 1977.

    Peel, meanwhile, is serving a lifetime prison sentence for fatally shooting a Coos County woman in front of her children during a robbery in 1991.

    Last week, the jury convicted Taylor of planning and helping to carry out Gutierrez’s murder, to steal the 22-year-old victim’s car and use it in a bank robbery. After Gutierrez was slain, his body was dismembered and buried in a forested area southwest of Eugene.

    In addition to Peel, jurors on Wednesday heard testimony from Ronald Weaver, who is serving up to 70 years in prison for a series of forcible sex offenses in the Portland area in the early 1980s; and from Dwaine Little, who murdered a woman when he was a teenager, won his release and eventually went back to prison for rape and attempted murder. Little is now serving life in prison.

    Also testifying was Raymond Roy, a Salem man who was paroled in 2008 after serving 24 years in prison for killing his brother and sister-in-law. Roy, who said he is married and works for a recycling firm, testified that he knew Taylor as an even-tempered inmate. “He was very approachable,” Roy said. “I don’t recall seeing David in trouble or in an argument.”

    Taylor’s attorneys also called to the witness stand a former prison warden who has conducted risk assessment reviews of thousands of inmates. The expert witness, James Aiken, said he had read Taylor’s prison records from his first stint in the penitentiary, and that he believes Taylor “can be safely incarcerated in a high-security environment for the rest of his life.”

    Other witnesses included Taylor’s former parole officer, who testified that the killer “was very compliant” before being released from post-prison supervision in 2007; and forensic psychologist Tom Reidy, who said there is no scientific model that can accurately predict an inmate’s future violence risk.

    Both Reidy and Aiken told the jury that older inmates, including those in Taylor’s age group, generally are less prone to violent behavior in prison than are younger ones.

    Taylor has not testified during either phase of his trial, but he may offer the jury a statement today, prior to attorneys’ closing arguments in the case. Prosecutors would not be allowed to cross-examine him.

    After hearing the arguments, the jury will begin deliberations.

    For the death penalty to be imposed, jurors must agree unanimously that Taylor poses a continued threat to society, that he deliberately killed Gutierrez, and that he should be sentenced to death.

    While presenting their case in support of a death sentence, prosecutors on Tuesday called several police officers to testify about Taylor’s criminal record and had members of Gutierrez’s family tell the jury about the murder’s effect on their lives.

    http://registerguard.com/rg/news/loc...eath.html.csp#

  3. #13
    Administrator Heidi's Avatar
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    Jury condemns David Ray Taylor to death

    A 12-person jury has unanimously decided that David Ray Taylor should be sentenced to death for the killing of 22-year-old Eugene resident Celestino Gutierrez Jr. in August 2012.

    Lane County Circuit Judge Charles Zennaché read the jury’s verdict around 1:45 p.m. Jurors deliberated slightly longer than one hour before reaching their decision. Zennaché will impose the death sentence on Tuesday.

    Gutierrez’s family said minutes after the verdict was read that they want Taylor to be executed, and hope that his case is not delayed by a lengthy appeals process that is all but certain.

    The family also criticized Gov. John Kitzhaber for not allowing any executions to occur while he is in office.

    Kitzhaber “should carry out what Oregon people voted in,” the victim’s mother, Rose Gutierrez, said in reference to the death penalty.

    Taylor will join 34 men and one woman on Oregon’s death row. The last time a state prisoner was executed was in 1997.

    The seven-woman, five-man panel rendered its verdict after hearing closing arguments this morning.

    While defense attorney Chris Burris told jurors that Taylor should be sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole, prosecutors said the only appropriate punishment is death.

    “This is a rare, extreme case, and exactly what the death penalty was intended for,” Lane County Deputy District Attorney David Schwartz told the jury.

    Taylor declined to make a statement to jurors prior to the attorneys’ closing arguments. He nodded his head in the jury’s direction after Zennaché read the verdict.

    The jury last week convicted Taylor of three counts of aggravated murder in Gutierrez’s death. Taylor planned and help carry out the killing at his home, in order to steal Gutierrez’s car and use it as a getaway vehicle in a bank robbery.

    After Gutierrez was slain, his body was dismembered and buried in a forested area southwest of Eugene. Taylor previously served 27 years in prison for the murder of a young Eugene woman in 1977. He was released in 2004.

    In order for the death penalty to be imposed, jurors had to agree unanimously that Taylor poses a continued threat to society, that he deliberately killed Gutierrez, and that he should be sentenced to death.

    If any juror had voted “no” on any of those issues, the panel would have considered whether Taylor should serve life in prison without parole, or be sentenced to a lifetime term with the possibility of parole after 30 years.

    http://registerguard.com/rg/news/loc...rison.html.csp
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  4. #14
    Senior Member Member OperaGhost84's Avatar
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    If they had given him the Hot Shot for the 1977 murder, Gutierrez would still be alive today. Turns out the death penalty is a deterrent after all.
    I am vehemently against Murder. That's why I support the Death Penalty.

  5. #15
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    If I were his defense attorney, I'm not sure I would have called those particular witnesses. I would have probably tried to find some offenders who were doing long terms for nonviolent stuff like possession with intent to distribute. Even an armed robber who didn't actually shoot someone would be more effective character witnesses than rapists or murderers. Especially the guy who re-offended, which would remind jurors of Taylor. Calling them doesn't make a lot of sense to me.

  6. #16
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    Jury saw Taylor as threat to others in prison

    Longtime local insurance agent Ron Crawford said he's satisfied with the work that he and 11 other "regular citizens" put into ensuring that the world will forever be protected from two-time convicted murderer David Ray Taylor.

    Crawford served as jury foreman in a monthlong, two-phase trial that ended Thursday in Lane County Circuit Court. The seven-woman, five-man panel ruled that Taylor should be sentenced to death, after previously convicting him of robbing two banks and murdering 22-year-old Eugene resident Celestino Gutierrez Jr. in 2012.

    http://www.hermistonherald.com/news/...03b238806.html
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  7. #17
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    Convicted killer Taylor sentenced to death

    A judge this morning sentenced convicted murderer David Ray Taylor to death, in accordance with a jury’s verdict.

    Taylor, 58, will now become the 35th member of Oregon’s death row.

    Earlier this month, a Lane County jury convicted Taylor of three counts of aggravated murder in the August 2012 death of 22-year-old Eugene resident Celestino Gutierrez Jr. The same jury voted last week in favor of imposing a death sentence in the case.

    The jury also convicted Taylor of committing two bank robberies in 2012.

    Taylor previously served 27 years in prison for the shotgun slaying of a Eugene gas station attendant in 1977.

    Just two inmates have died via lethal injection since Oregon voters reinstated capital punishment in 1984. The state’s last execution was carried out in 1997. Under state law, Taylor’s death sentence is automatically appealed to the state Supreme Court.

    Taylor decided against making any statement during his sentencing hearing, but appeared to listen intently as Gutierrez’s parents and two brothers spoke to him in the courtroom.

    The victim’s mother, Rose Gutierrez, told Taylor that he doesn’t “deserve due process. You don’t deserve anything.”

    She called her son’s killer “a disgusting thing” and said that she prays Taylor will “go to hell.”

    “You should do everybody here a favor and kill yourself,” Rose Gutierrez told Taylor.

    According to trial testimony, Taylor planned and helped carry out the murder at his Eugene home, in order to steal Gutierrez’s car and use it as a getaway vehicle in a bank robbery.

    After Gutierrez was slain, his body was dismembered and buried in a forest southwest of Eugene.

    http://registerguard.com/rg/news/loc...state.html.csp
    An uninformed opponent is a dangerous opponent.

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  8. #18
    Weidmann1939
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    Quote Originally Posted by OperaGhost84 View Post
    If they had given him the Hot Shot for the 1977 murder, Gutierrez would still be alive today. Turns out the death penalty is a deterrent after all.
    The people of Oregon voted to abolish Capital Punishment in their state in the mid 60's The people of Oregon then voted in another referendum to restore Capital Punishment in the late 70's In short The State of Oregon had no death penalty statute on the books in 1977.

  9. #19
    Administrator Helen's Avatar
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    Juror misconduct claim complicates death row appeal in Eugene case

    It’s been nine months since a Lane County jury convicted Eugene resident David Ray Taylor of murder and instructed a judge to send him to Oregon’s death row.

    Case closed, right?


    Not quite.

    Aside from a potentially lengthy appeals process that will at least temporarily delay Taylor’s execution, a bizarre allegation of juror misconduct has now brought the case back to a courtroom in Eugene.

    Part of the issue involves whether a Lane County Circuit Court clerk who served as an alternate juror in Taylor’s trial lied under oath when she told attorneys during the jury selection process that she knew “really nothing” about the case at the time — despite an email that suggests she felt Taylor “needs to die.”

    While that’s a potentially criminal allegation, there’s an even bigger question now under investigation.

    It deals with whether the now-former court clerk — who as an alternate heard all trial evidence but did not participate in the jury’s closed-doors discussions that produced the unanimous verdicts last May — said anything to other jurors during Taylor’s trial that might have influenced the subsequent deliberations.

    The Oregon Supreme Court in January ordered a probe into the matter, which first arose last fall when Lane County Circuit Judge Charles Zennaché obtained a copy of an email that Holly Moser purportedly sent to another person about her jury summons.

    The email was written last February, two months before Moser was picked to serve as an alternate in the capital murder case.

    The email recites the basic allegations against Taylor and mentions that the writer had read search warrants filed in the case.

    “He needs to die,” the email reads, apparently speaking of Taylor.

    Moser, however, said during jury selection that she hadn’t formed any opinions about the case.

    It’s unclear how Zennaché came into possession of the email, a copy of which is now part of Taylor’s court file.

    Court Administrator Liz Rambo said Monday that Moser resigned in September. Rambo said she is not authorized to immediately answer additional questions regarding Moser’s departure.

    Moser could not be reached for comment.

    Taylor, 59, on Monday returned to court in Lane County for the first time since Zennaché sentenced him to death for masterminding a plot to rob and kill 22-year-old Eugene resident Celestino Gutierrez Jr. in August 2012.

    The court appearance came after Taylor’s attorneys convinced the state Supreme Court that an investigation should be conducted to determine whether Moser’s conduct tainted other jurors’ consideration of the case.

    Moser was one of two alternate jurors during the trial. Alternates in felony cases participate in deliberations only when one or more members of a 12-person jury are unable to complete their service during a trial. All jurors, including alternates, are ordered by trial judges to avoid discussing cases amongst themselves outside of deliberations.

    Zennaché scheduled a March 6 hearing to question jurors about their interactions with Moser during Taylor’s trial. The judge will decide in the interim whether Moser should be called to testify.

    Lane County Assistant District Attorney David Schwartz said Monday in court that he is “pretty confident” that prosecutors would not charge Moser with perjury if it’s shown that she lied during jury selection. But Zennaché said that if the investigation reveals that Moser had inappropriately discussed the case with other jurors before deliberations, a contempt charge could apply.

    The seven-woman, five-man panel in Taylor’s case ruled that he should be sentenced to death, after convicting him of robbing two banks and murdering Gutierrez.

    According to trial testimony, Taylor enlisted two much-younger acquaintances to lure Gutierrez to Taylor’s home off Highway 99, where the victim was slain. The three suspects then used Gutierrez’s car as a getaway vehicle in a violent, takeover-style robbery at a bank in Mapleton. Gutierrez’s dismembered remains were later found buried in a forested area southwest of Eugene.

    One of Taylor’s accomplices, Mercedes Crabtree, is serving a lifetime prison sentence for the murder. A trial for the third suspect, A.J. Nelson, is scheduled for February 2016.

    As a member of Oregon’s death row, Taylor now lives in a one-person cell at the Oregon State Penitentiary in Salem, isolated from the prison’s general population.

    Taylor previously served 27 years in prison for the slaying of a Eugene gas station attendant in 1977. He was granted parole in 2004, and released from post-prison supervision three years later.

    http://registerguard.com/rg/news/loc...-case.html.csp
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  10. #20
    Administrator Heidi's Avatar
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    Jurors in Lane County murder case return to court as witnesses

    Members of a jury that convicted a Eugene man of murder and sent him to death row last year faced the killer in a courtroom this morning, where a judge quizzed them about their conversations with an alternate juror who apparently knew details of the gruesome slaying prior to trial but claimed ignorance of the case during jury selection.

    The unusual post-trial hearing in David Ray Taylor’s case didn’t appear to yield any evidence that the alternate juror, Holly Moser, had shared information with others on the panel that could have influenced the guilty verdict and death sentence.

    “She kind of kept to herself” during the trial, juror Sharon Hodges said of Moser, in response to one of the 10 questions that Lane County Circuit Judge Charles Zennaché posed to her and the other jurors regarding their interactions with Moser.

    As an alternate, Moser didn’t participate in deliberations that produced the unanimous verdicts last May. But she did spend about four weeks with the rest of the jury during the trial, which — as parties to the case later learned — began two months after Moser had sent another person an email that suggests she felt Taylor “needs to die” as punishment for the murder of Celestino Gutierrez.

    Moser, who at the time worked as a Lane County Circuit Court clerk, wrote in the Feb. 14, 2014, email that she had read search warrants filed in the case. But she said in court during jury selection that she knew “really nothing” about the allegations and hadn’t formed any opinions about them.

    Moser resigned from her job at the courthouse in September, around the same time that Judge Charles Zennaché learned of the email’s existence.

    Based on the email’s discovery, the Oregon Supreme Court in January ordered a probe into potential juror misconduct involving Moser.

    Moser wasn’t called today to testify, and Zennaché said he hasn’t yet decided if she should at some later date.

    “I’m having a hard time imagining what she could tell us that we haven’t heard” from the other jurors, Zennaché said in court.

    But Taylor’s attorneys want Moser to testify. They say her potential misconduct allegation might arise as part of the post-conviction appeals process that Taylor is allowed to pursue.

    Zennaché said he will decide whether to require Moser to testify after reviewing written arguments from attorneys on both sides. Lane County prosecutors say they don’t think it’s necessary for Moser to be questioned.

    Because Moser could potentially face charges of perjury or contempt of court, it’s possible that she would invoke her constitutional right against self-incrimination if subpoenaed.

    Taylor, 59, appeared at ease during the hearing despite being handcuffed and shackled at the waist. Five armed guards maintained courtroom security during the hearing, which the victim’s family did not attend.

    Taylor became the 35th member of Oregon’s death row last May, after the seven-woman, five-man jury ordered him to be executed for masterminding a plot to rob and kill the 22-year-old Gutierrez in August 2012.

    According to trial testiony, Taylor enlisted two much-younger acquaintances to lure Gutierrez to Taylor’s home, where the victim was slain. The three suspects then used Gutierrez’s car as a getaway vehicle in a bank robbery in Mapleton. Gutierrez’s dismembered remains were later found buried in a forested area southwest of Eugene.

    One of Taylor’s accomplices, Mercedes Crabtree, is serving a lifetime prison sentence for the murder. A trial for the third suspect, A.J. Nelson, is scheduled for next February.

    Taylor previously served 27 years in prison for the slaying of a Eugene gas station attendant in 1977. He was granted parole in 2004 and released from post-prison supervision three years later.

    http://registerguard.com/rg/news/loc...esses.html.csp
    An uninformed opponent is a dangerous opponent.

    "Y'all be makin shit up" ~ Markeith Loyd

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