Witness in murder trial changes story

Another denies trying to get a female friend to alter her testimony

By Bill Byrd

FAIRMONT — A witness whose information helped lead Fairmont police to two of the four men charged with murder and conspiracy in a Memorial Day 2007 shooting changed his story Friday.

Saying he was high on drugs at the time and was scared of having his parole revoked and being sent back to prison, Gary Tacy of Randolph County said he made up many of the details he gave city detectives in a July 3, 2007 statement.

He got some of the details from police themselves before he gave them a tape-recorded statement, Tacy claimed.

Tacy was called by the state to testify against a friend, Lincoln S. Taylor.

Taylor, 24, of Huttonsville is being tried before Marion Chief Circuit Judge David R. Janes on murder and conspiracy charges for his alleged role in the fatal shooting of Derrick D. “Lil D” Osborne, 22.

Osborne was shot and wounded three times shortly before midnight on May 28, 2007. The shooting occurred outside Osborne’s girlfriend’s apartment on Highland Drive in Bellview.

Taylor’s trial, which started last Monday, will continue at 9 a.m. Monday.

In another development Friday, Sarah Barrickman, 20, also of Randolph County and a state witness, denied trying to get a female friend of hers to change her upcoming testimony.

Paul J. Harris, Taylor’s defense lawyer, clashed with Barrickman. Harris said the woman Barrickman allegedly tried to influence is expected to provide an alibi for Taylor. The woman will claim Taylor was with her in Buckhannon on the night of the murder, Harris has told the jury of eight women and four men.

In his opening statement last Monday, Harris said the defense will call witnesses who will say they didn’t see Taylor at the scene. The state also does not have a “shred of forensic evidence . . . no fingerprints . . . no blood evidence” and no DNA evidence against Taylor.

The defense will also call witnesses who will say Donnell D. “Nels” Lee, 24, told them he was the one who shot Osborne, Harris claims. The evidence will show that Lee and Osborne had argued over money and a woman, Harris said.

Tacy and Barrickman are among several young adults in Randolph County who have been called to testify against Taylor by Marion Prosecutor Patrick N. Wilson.

In the state’s theory of the case, Taylor was the triggerman.

Steven H. Podolsky, 25, also of Randolph County and Barrickman’s boyfriend at the time, has agreed to plead guilty to lesser charges. Earlier this week, Podolsky said he was Taylor’s getaway driver on the night Osborne was shot.

Podolsky testified Taylor agreed to do the hit to erase a drug debt he owed Lafayette Y. “Goldy” Jenkins Jr., 25, of Fairmont.

In his cross-examination of Podolsky, Harris stressed that Podolsky didn’t actually see Taylor shoot Osborne. Podolsky was parked about 75 yards away from Osborne’s apartment. It was dark and the car — Podolsky said he was driving Taylor’s gray Dodge Stratus — was facing away from the murder scene.

Jenkins, who also has a plea agreement pending for lesser charges, was the leader of a drug crew in Fairmont. Lee, also a member of Jenkins’ crew, was found guilty of murder and conspiracy in a trial that ended Aug. 29.

Earlier this week, Wilson played a tape of a key statement Lee gave police in June 2007 for the jury. Lee is standing on his 5th Amendment rights against self-incrimination and is appealing his conviction.

In that statement, Lee said Jenkins wanted to get rid of Osborne and that Jenkins found Taylor to do the shooting. Osborne was “coming up” as a drug dealer in Fairmont and he had threatened Lee and Jenkins, Lee said. Lee also said “Linc” or Taylor was buying drugs from Jenkins.

When Tacy told Wilson on Friday that he couldn’t remember what he had told city police detectives on July 3, 2007, the prosecutor got Tacy declared a “hostile” or adverse witness. A witness who offers adverse testimony to the calling party during direct examination may be questioned as if on cross-examination.

Working on clues and information they had gathered from other sources, city police detectives went to Randolph County on July 3 with search warrants for Taylor’s car and his mother’s house. Taylor was living with his mother that summer.

With help from State Police in the Elkins detachment, the detectives found Taylor and Tacy in Taylor’s car near Huttonsville.

During questioning early on the evening of July 3, including an examination by a State Police polygraph operator, Tacy gave up several key details about the crime, the polygraph operator testified.

State Police Sgt. Joseph Utt said Tacy said Taylor had told him that he had killed a man in Fairmont. Tacy also said that Taylor had told him the murder weapon was a .40 caliber Glock pistol and that the victim was shot in the neck.

Utt also said Tacy told him that Steven Podolsky was the driver for Taylor on the night of the murder. Tacy’s statement about Podolsky was the first time police had an identity for a “white dude” who was known to run with Taylor.

Utt and Lt. Kelley Moran, the lead city detective on the case, then took a taped statement from Tacy.

In the statement, Tacy said he and Taylor went to high school together and that they were “pretty good friends.”

Taylor lived about a half-mile from him, Tacy said. Tacy said he had lost touch with Taylor when Taylor went to the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, but when Taylor was released from West Point and returned home, they had renewed their friendship. Tacy also said he had been in prison for much of the time while Taylor was away.

When Taylor returned for the summer from classes at Fairmont State University, Tacy said he was out on parole. When they were stopped by police earlier that day, the two friends were coming home from a landscaping job, Tacy said.

Taylor had told him that he took a job as a “hit man” and that he “had shot him (the victim) in the neck . . . he had newspap er clippings” to prove it. Taylor’s admission came in a conversation in late June, Tacy said.

“He said it was a Glock .40 caliber pistol . . . he said he had been getting drugs from some Haitian guys, serious dudes, in Fairmont,” and that Taylor’s drug connection wanted the victim killed.

“He said he waited for this guy . . . (and) he was hiding behind the bushes,” when he ambushed the victim, Tacy told Utt and Moran.

Tacy said it sounded to him “like some ‘Soprano’ TV stuff . . . I thought he was kidding.” Taylor also asked him about jail, asking Tacy if he, Taylor, could make it in prison.

And Taylor also told him that Podolsky had been the driver that night. Podolsky owed Taylor money for drugs, Taylor said.

Tacy said he asked Taylor what he was thinking when he took the hit job. Taylor told him “all I was thinking about was the money,” Tacy said.

Tacy did not appear to be inebriated or on drugs when he gave the statement, Utt also testified.

Barrickman said she was talking to Podolsky on a cell phone on the night of the murder.

She heard gunshots during the conversation and she started asking him what was happening. Podolsky hurriedly said he was OK, that he had to go and would call her later and then ended the conversation, she said.

She said she had seen Taylor use drugs. Although she stopped being Podolsky’s girlfriend about two years ago, they remain friends, she said. She said she “really doesn’t have anything against” either man. She said she had an addiction to pain pills stemming from several back operations she has had in recent years.

She knew Podolsky was selling drugs. The day after the murder she saw him. He cried and said Taylor had shot somebody.

“I just didn’t want to hear it,” she said.

Podolsky told her not to tell anyone. He was afraid of what Taylor would do if he knew he had told her, he said.

On cross-examination, Harris said Barrickman had earlier testified in Taylor’s first trial — it ended in a mistrial last September — that she had not seen Taylor using drugs.

“Which is the lie and which is the truth?” the defense lawyer asked her about her contradictory testimony.

“This is the truth,” she said about her testimony Friday. “I have no reason to lie . . . (I said that then) because I was nervous and didn’t understand your questions.”

Harris then asked her about going to see the woman who plans to testify that Taylor was with her on the night of the murder.

Barrickman said her motivation for talking to the woman was not to influence her or tamper with her upcoming testimony. They are good friends and she was worried about her, she said.

“I wasn’t influencing anybody. ... I don’t want her to get in trouble for lying.”

Harris said the woman has consistently and “repeatedly told you (Barrickman) that she was with Taylor” that night.

E-mail Bill Byrd at bbyrd@timeswv.com.