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Man who killed victim over drugs loses appeal

ANNIE YAMSON
Special to the Legal News

Published: September 15, 2014

In a recent opinion released by the 2nd District Court of Appeals, the judgment of Ohio’s Montgomery County Court of Common Pleas was affirmed, upholding the conviction of Gudonavon Taylor on several counts of murder and felonious assault.

Taylor had appealed last year but his convictions were affirmed and his 41-year-to-life sentence was upheld.

He filed a motion to reopen his appeal and, after denying it initially, the Second District agreed to address the appeal a second time.

In the opinion, authored by Judge Mary Donovan on behalf of a three-judge panel, a summary of the case indicates that the events leading to Taylor’s arrest occurred on Dec. 7, 2007 when Taylor, also known as DonDon, shot and killed Jerod Bryson, or JB, after an argument over drugs and money.

Taylor, 18 at the time of the shooting, shot Bryson twice in the back, once in his right hand, once in the chest, once in the head, and once in the pelvis and neck.

Several witnesses testified at Taylor’s trial with slightly different versions of the events that transpired that night.

It was undisputed that the night began with Taylor drinking with Bryson and other friends in the common room of a boarding house when an argument broke out.

The group was ordered to leave and Taylor and Bryson continued arguing outside for about 10 to 20 minutes, according to one witness.

A resident of the boarding home then testified she heard two gunshots and looked outside to see Bryson “dancing from foot to foot out in the middle of the street.”

She then stated that she saw “a man in black slacks or jeans and a black parka coat with a fur hood running across the field” that was located across the street.

The resident testified that Bryson moved down the street then fell to the ground and Taylor, whose face she could partially see under the streetlights, returned to shoot Bryson five or six more times.

The black parka would eventually become a pivotal component in the state’s case against Taylor.

Almost every witness testified that the shooter was wearing the parka, which had fur around the hood.

Chris Brown was another witness who testified during Taylor’s trial.

He told the trial court that, on the night of the shooting, he was acting as a “runner,” bringing customers to Taylor and Bryson to purchase crack cocaine.

Brown stated that Taylor and Bryson got into an argument about money from their drug sales.

Once the fight moved outside, Brown said Taylor got in his car and left, only to return about six minutes later.

When he got out of the vehicle, Taylor walked directly to Bryson, shot him twice, pushed him down and shot him six more times. Taylor then ran back to the car and drove off.

Two weeks before Taylor’s trial, Brown was incarcerated at the Montgomery County jail, where he ran into Taylor. According to Brown, Taylor asked him not to testify.

“Don’t testify,” Brown told the trial court. “He said my name was in his discovery packet. He said don’t testify against him because his life is on the line. And he said if I don’t testify against him, he’ll have his girl put $40 on my books.”

Brown was also among the witnesses who identified Taylor as wearing the black parka during the shooting.

Michael Daborde, a homicide detective with the Dayton Police Department, testified that he interviewed Taylor four days after the shooting.

When Taylor’s mother arrived at the police station she was “wearing a coat that fit the description that we had from the initial scene of the homicide.”

Daborde told the court that the coat was black with a fur hood and was ill-fitting on Taylor’s mother.

“We thought that to be strange,” he said, noting that the coat was taken and presented as an exhibit during trial.

In his reopened appeal, Taylor argued that he was denied a fair trial when he was not allowed to try on the parka in the presence of the jury.

He also asserted that the trial court’s comment to the jury that “people can change sizes over time” was an attack on his credibility.

“Significantly, the court later reversed its ruling before the end of the trial and allowed Taylor to try on the jacket,” wrote Judge Donovan. At that point, however, Taylor declined to don the coat.

In regard to the trial court’s remark about size, the appellate panel ruled the comment was improper but harmless “in light of the trial court’s instruction to disregard any remarks by the court that the jury considers an indication of the court’s view on the facts, which the jury is presumed to follow.”

Taylor also contended the trial court erred when it failed to merge his convictions for felonious assault and murder.

He was originally convicted of three murder counts, which were merged for sentencing, and two felonious assault counts also merged.

“Specifically, Taylor points out that there was only one victim in this case, and he asserts that the felonious assault was not committed separately from murder,” wrote Judge Donovan.

After reviewing the facts of the case, the appellate panel ruled that they supported the trial court’s determination that the murder and felonious assault were not subject to merger.

“We conclude that the evidence adduced at trial established that Taylor committed a separate and distinct felonious assault against Bryson and then murdered him,” wrote Judge Donovan.

Specifically, the appellate panel determined that there were two separate shootings — the first disabled Bryson causing him to move down the street before either falling or being pushed to the ground and killed.

Testimony from the coroner established that it was the second set of shots that proved fatal.

“Accordingly, the trial court did not err when it refused to merge Taylor’s separate convictions for felonious assault and murder,” wrote Judge Donovan.

The court of appeals went on to address Taylor’s arguments regarding effective assistance of counsel, prosecutorial misconduct and manifest weight of the evidence.

It overruled all of them after finding that no prejudice or manifest miscarriage of justice occurred.

Taylor’s sentence and the judgment of the Montgomery County Court were affirmed with Presiding Judge Jeffrey Froelich and Judge Michael Hall joining Judge Donovan to form the majority.

The case is cited State v. Taylor, 2014-Ohio-3647.

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