Taylor found innocent of conspiracy

Mistrial declared on murder charge after jury deadlocks

By Bill Byrd

FAIRMONT — A Huttonsville man on trial in Marion County for conspiracy and murder charges was found innocent by a jury Friday of the conspiracy charge.

But a mistrial was declared on the murder charge against Lincoln S. Taylor, 24, after the jury said it was deadlocked on the charge.

Taylor and three other men were arrested and charged last year for the fatal shooting of Derrick D. “Lil’ D” Osborne, 22 on Memorial Day 2007. The slaying was drug-related, the result of a “beef” or argument between an established drug dealer and Osborne, a new drug dealer in town, according to the state’s case.

Paul J. Harris of Wheeling, Taylor’s defense lawyer, said later the verdicts show there is reasonable doubt that Taylor committed the crime.

The jury of nine women and three men “looked at Lincoln and saw he was not a killer,” he said.

“It has to be a victory,” Harris said. “We almost got this boy home today.”

Misty Taylor-Cross, one of Taylor’s three sisters, said her brother doesn’t “have a mean bone in his body,” and certainly not “murder in his heart.”

“He’s thankful to God and to our father. He knows they are watching over him.” Their father died unexpectedly at Christmas 2000 when Taylor was 16. Taylor-Cross also expressed the family’s condolences to Osborne’s family. Jerry Osborne, Osborne’s father, his mother-in-law and another family relative also attended the trial.

Harris said he will ask that Taylor be allowed to live with his mother in Randolph County on home confinement until the murder charge is resolved.

Taylor is “obviously not a threat to the community,” Harris said. Until he was arrested July 4, 2007, Taylor had never been accused by anyone of wrongdoing, Harris said.

Taylor hugged Harris and shook his hand after the verdicts were returned shortly after 5 p.m.

But the murder charge against Taylor is still pending, Marion Chief Judge David R. Janes ruled.

The judge set a retrial on the first-degree murder charge for the February term of court. Marion Prosecutor Patrick N. Wilson said later he intends to re-try Taylor on the charge.

Taylor, who testified in his own defense Thursday, and an old girlfriend who also testified for him, both said he spent the night of the murder with her in Buckhannon.

Taylor said he left a Bellview restaurant about 10:30 p.m. that night, arriving at Carrie Short’s home about an hour later.

Osborne was shot three times outside the Highland Drive home of his girlfriend shortly before 11:47 p.m. on May 28, 2007, according to call records kept by the county’s 911 center.

In his closing argument Thursday, Wilson said the alibi was “absolutely unbelievable.”

Short had testified that she didn’t find out until October 2007 — and her first visit to see Taylor in jail — that Osborne was murdered on Memorial Day last year. She didn’t go to police with her information. Instead, she went to the defense, she told the jury.

Wilson also argued it’s unbelievable that Taylor didn’t immediately tell police at his arrest to go find Short and ask her if he was with her on the night of the murder.

Asked about the prosecutor’s characterization of the alibi, Harris said Taylor had told him shortly after his arrest about it.

“I may have to take the witness stand at some future point,” in the case to explain the delay, Harris said. Wilson said Friday he will not comment on what appears to be a matter of confidential attorney-client privilege between Taylor and Harris.

Harris also said the defense had to find Short and other witnesses and talk to them. He said Taylor wasn’t indicted until October for his alleged role in Osborne’s murder.

He praised Frank Streets, the private investigator for the defense, and a second-year law student who assisted the defense team, for their work on the case. Joseph Wallace of Elkins also represented Taylor.

Harris also charged that “every time the defense uncovered the truth in this case, the other side attempts to undermine it.”

In his closing, Harris argued that four people who said Taylor confessed to them were either testifying with plea deals or who stood to gain by testifying for the state.

Wilson said after the verdicts were returned that he always respects a jury’s verdict.

While the jury cleared Taylor on the conspiracy charge, apparently one or more jurors believed he did the crime, the prosecutor said.

Included in the murder charge was an option. The charge included a provision for finding Taylor an accessory before the fact of murder.

In his closing, Wilson said if the jury believed Taylor was not at the scene, it could still find him guilty of first-degree murder.

To do so, the jury would have to find that Taylor was an accessory, by helping to plan it, or instigating it, or implementing it — all acts supported by the evidence, Wilson argued.

An earlier trial for Taylor on the charges also ended in a mistrial in September. But that mistrial was due to a juror’s misconduct and the case never went to the jury.

Two of Taylor’s co-defendants agreed to plead guilty earlier this year, while the third, Donnell D. “Nels” Lee, 24, was found guilty of first-degree murder and conspiracy in August.

Steven H. Podolsky, 25, and Lafayette Y. “Goldy” Jenkins Jr., 25, testified that Taylor was involved.

Podolsky said he was Taylor’s getaway driver that night. Taylor had agreed to shoot Osborne to erase a drug debt, Podolsky said. The two were buying drugs for resale in Randolph County, he said.

Their connection in Fairmont was Jenkins, he said. Jenkins and Lee wanted to get rid of Osborne, he said.

Lee is appealing his conviction. Lee exercised his Fifth Amendment rights and did not testify in the trial, which started on Nov. 10. The verdicts came on the ninth day of the trial, since it was suspended for one day, for Veterans Day on Nov. 11.

The state won the right to play a 27-minute recording made by city police of a June 2007 statement they obtained from Lee.

Lee told police that Jenkins “found Link” to do the job.

The jury asked to listen again to the recording on Friday.

The jury deliberated from shortly after 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., taking an hour off for lunch. Around 4 p.m., it told the judge it had reached a verdict on one count but was deadlocked on the other count.

Over Harris’ objection, Janes gave it an “Allen” instruction, urging the jury, if it could, to reach a verdict.

At 4:30 p.m., the jury told the judge it would keep trying to get a verdict.

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