Opinion ID: 1936088
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 6

Heading: 1987 and September 1, 1987

Text: Taylor spent most of the day of July 11, 1987, with his girlfriend, Fairy Warren. They went to garage sales until about 3:00 p.m. Shortly after they left the last garage sale, his car ran hot and he had to get somebody to boost him off. He drove Warren to her home and left. He telephoned her at 7:00 p.m. and suggested that they get dressed and go out. He went to her house about fifteen or twenty minutes later and they went out to a restaurant. When they left the restaurant they stopped by her sister-in-law's house to pick up her children, but the children had already made it back to the house. They then drove to Taylor's home to pick up a fan to take to Warren's house. After Taylor returned to the car with the fan, his car wouldn't start so they walked from his house to Warren's. Taylor stayed the night with Warren; he slept in his clothes and was gone when she arose. He returned to her house on foot about 10:00 a.m. with a starter for his car. Warren asked about scratches on his face and he told her that he and Edith had been in a fight at his house. Taylor left Warren and when he came back, he had a note from the police which had been left on his door. On Sunday, July 12, Detective Patsy Knowles began the investigation into Mildred Spires' disappearance after leaving Edith's house. Detective Knowles went to Taylor's home, and finding no one there, left a note for him to call her. He telephoned her about 5:00 p.m. from Fairy Warren's house. Taylor told Detective Knowles that his estranged wife thought he had something to do with Mildred's disappearance. In response to Detective Knowles's questions about where he had been during the weekend, Taylor said he had been with Fairy Warren. When asked about any contact or conversation with Mildred Spires, he said that he had talked to Mildred but that she had not shown up at his house to bring an auto part as he had asked. At Detective Knowles' request, Warren accompanied Taylor to police headquarters and, as they got out of the elevator there, he told Warren that if asked about the scratches on his face, she should say she put them there. Detective Knowles noticed what appeared to be fresh scratches on Taylor's face and his right hand; she asked him to take off his shirt and observed what appeared to be fresh claw marks on his chest. When Detective Knowles asked for an explanation of the scratches, Taylor said that he and Warren had had an argument early Saturday morning over a woman; he had slapped Warren, and that she had scratched him. When Detective Knowles questioned Taylor, she pointed out to him that if he had anything to do with Spires's disappearance, his fingerprints would be on Spires' car. During questioning of Warren, when Detective Knowles pointed out that Warren's nails were not long enough to scratch, Warren changed her story. Warren told Knowles that she had not scratched Taylor and that he had asked her when they were in the elevator to say she had done so. Warren said she had lied for Taylor because she was afraid of him. When she left the police department, Warren went to work. Taylor later telephoned Warren and asked her what she had told Detective Knowles. She told him that she had told the detective that she had not put any scratches on him. Taylor had told Warren that somebody that he was messing around with had put the scratches on him, [a] girl named Tiffany, or somebody, I don't know, work on Minerva Street. When Detective Knowles confronted Taylor with what Fairy Warren had told her, he told Knowles that it was Tammy or Tiffy, a prostitute living on Minerva Street who had scratched him. When Detective Knowles asked Taylor to accompany her to Minerva Street to verify his story, they went to a duplex pointed out by Taylor and spoke to Tammy Robertson, who answered the door. Taylor said that Tammy Robertson was not the person who had scratched him. On Sunday night, July 12, the police, with Taylor's permission, searched his house and automobile and found no evidence to connect him with Mildred Spires' disappearance. On the Tuesday following Mildred's disappearance, Taylor went to the house of Beatrice Young and offered her fifty dollars to find a prostitute who would tell the police that she had put the scratches on his face. On August 9, 1987, Taylor went to the home of Josephine Magee, a woman he had known and had been a close friend for fourteen years. He told Magee that he had a problem: He asked me why do the people he loved the most he hurts, he always hurt. So then he told me that  said that he had killed his step-daughter and  told me that he had carried her out on Highway 80  Taylor told Magee that he had telephoned Mildred and asked her to bring him a starter for his car. He told Mildred to look in the garage for the starter but that she had not been able to find it. He said that Mildred had asked him if he wanted her to bring the car over for him to go and get a starter and he had told her to do so. Taylor told Magee that he and Mildred had gone riding on Highway 80 and that he had killed Mildred. He did not tell her where Mildred's body was, but offered to tell or show her where the body was if she wanted to collect some award [sic] money. She wasn't interested in a reward and he did not tell her the location of the body. She did not go to the police with this information because she was afraid of Taylor but was later contacted by Detective Knowles and gave the detective that information. On September 1, 1987, twelve year old Michael Evans, accompanied by a friend, was cutting across a wooded area on his way home from school when he came across an abandoned automobile and saw a body inside. He and his friend ran to another friend's house and his companion's mother called the police. Police investigation identified the vehicle as the car Mildred Spires had been driving on the day she disappeared. The partially decomposed body, found with the trunk and legs across the back seat and the head and upper torso off the seat in the foot well, was identified by clothing and personal effects as that of Mildred Spires. The gas tank of the car was full, the windows were open, and the car contained an empty bag which had contained Doritos Ranch chips and an unopened gallon of milk. There was white spray paint on the steering wheel, dashboard, doors and door handle of the car. The item which normally hung on the rearview mirror was elsewhere in the car, an ashtray was broken, and some of Mildred's personal effects were found under the backseat cushion. An autopsy was performed and the pathologist concluded that the cause of death was probably strangulation.
Taylor challenges the legal sufficiency of the evidence to support a guilty verdict and also contends that the verdict was against the overwhelming weight of the evidence. He maintains that, because the State had no eyewitnesses to the crime, had no fingerprints or other physical evidence linking him to the crime, the jury must have based its verdict on incriminating statements that Taylor supposedly made to a number of unsavory strangers and impermissible conjecture and speculation. He contends that the evidence was insufficient and weighed in favor of acquittal.