Opinion ID: 1936088
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: While Engaged in the Commission of Kidnapping or Flight after Committing Kidnapping.

Text: The majority maintains that because the car in which the victim's body was found was not located for some months after her disappearance and because the windows were open when the car was found, it is not possible to say with certainty that the conditions existing in the car were caused by Taylor's actions in holding Mildred against her will. The State argued that Mildred Spires left her home intending to return shortly. There was evidence offered the jury supporting this contention. On September 1, her body was found in her car five miles from her home in an overgrown field by a frightened youth, taking a shortcut home. Is the majority suggesting that someone else has tampered with Spire's car between her disappearance on July 11 and September 1, when she was found dead in her car? What more does the majority want? An eyewitness maybe? The State seldom has such a luxury. Mildred Spire's body was found in the back seat with half a bra on her body and the other half on the front seat of her vehicle. The ashtray had been jerked out and broken. A stuffed heart pillow had been torn from its usual position on the rear view mirror. Her keys to the vehicle and a gold chain which she wore around her neck were found underneath the back seat cushion of the car. The majority forgets the important factor of the spray painting of the dash, steering wheel, doors, and door handles, all of which when considered with the oral testimony concerning this factor, suggests an obvious attempt to cover-up fingerprints. Who else but the killer would conveniently first select, then spray paint the most likely areas where fingerprints might be left on the vehicle. Certainly it is reasonable to say that the jury could have inferred from the evidence that Taylor did all these things intending to avoid detection or lawful arrest. There was sufficient evidence given to the jury supporting these two factors. I suppose the majority is suggesting that this is all the work of vandals or someone else who spray paints only certain strategic spots on this vehicle, rips down the heart pillow, but leaves the car keys and a gold chain hidden under the back seat cushion. All of this being done, mind you, with a dead body in the vehicle. Vandals? Someone else other than the killer? I do not think so, and neither did the jury. It is far more logical to believe that anyone who stumbled across this vehicle hidden in a over grown field, as did 12 year old Michael Evans, would have immediately fled the scene and reported their findings to police. Overall, there was sufficient evidence presented to the jury on these aggravating factors.