Defense: Witnesses will back Taylor

By Bill Byrd
Times West Virginian

FAIRMONT November 11, 2008 12:08 am

— A Randolph County man on trial this week on murder and conspiracy charges stemming from a fatal shooting late on Memorial Day 2007 will call witnesses who will say they didn’t see him at the scene, his defense lawyer said.
The state also doesn’t have any forensic evidence linking Lincoln S. Taylor, 24, of Huttonsville to the shooting of Derrick D. “Lil’ D” Osborne, 22, said defense lawyer Paul J. Harris.
“This is a case about courage and whether this young man has the courage to stand up against the government in a case like this,” Harris said Monday.
Osborne collapsed and died in the backyard of a Highland Drive home after being shot and wounded three times.
The shooting occurred shortly before midnight on May 28, 2007. The trial before Marion Chief Judge David R. Janes will resume Wednesday since the courthouse will be closed today for the Veterans Day holiday.
Harris said in his opening statement that he will call one of Taylor’s old high school girlfriends.
The woman will testify that Taylor was at her house that night. The two had a long friendship based on their common loss of their fathers while they were still in high school, Harris said.
Taylor had erected a cross in honor of her father near Snowshoe. She bought a star on an Internet registry for his father, Harris said.
“They get together on Memorial Day, the evidence is they got together on Father’s Day and they’re friends — and that’s all.”
The state doesn’t have “a shred of forensic evidence,” he said.
“The evidence will be there are no fingerprints in this case ... there are no fingerprints on the (ammo) clip that was found, there are no fingerprints on the shell casings that were found, no fingerprints of Lincoln Taylor’s on any of the evidence in this case,” Harris said.
“There’s no blood evidence ... there’s no blood evidence found in Lincoln Taylor’s vehicle, no ‘bloody footprint’ where the shooting occurred, no blood evidence on any clothing or anything belonging to Lincoln Taylor,” he said.
The defense also has witnesses who will say that Donnell D. Lee, 24, of Martinsburg, one of three other men also charged in the slaying, told them he was the one who shot Osborne, Harris said.
Lee was found guilty by a jury on Aug. 29 of first-degree murder and conspiracy for his role in the murder. The two other co-defendants — Stephen Podolsky, 24, of Randolph County, and Lafayette Y. “Goldy” Jenkins Jr., 25, of Fairmont — have agreed to plead guilty to lesser offenses.
Marion Prosecutor Patrick N. Wilson said Taylor changed after he “failed out” of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. Taylor had been the valedictorian of his graduating class at Tygarts Valley High School and captain of the football team.
Taylor then enrolled at Fairmont State University, but he got into the drug culture, the prosecutor said. He was running with “drug dealers, thieves, burglars and murderers.”
“He’s counting on the fact that you’re going to think he doesn’t belong to that group” of criminals, Wilson said.
“It won’t wash when you hear the testimony. He was involved with them, he knew it, he conspired with them, and it’s too late, too late, for him to try and distance himself at this point.”
Calling Taylor an “assassin” who drew on his military training to execute Osborne, Wilson said a lengthy police investigation unraveled the mystery behind his murder.
Taylor and Podolsky, a longtime friend, began selling drugs in Randolph County. They got the drugs from Lee and Jenkins in Fairmont.
When Osborne came to Fairmont from Columbia, S.C., in late 2006 or early 2007, he and Lee were friends at first, Wilson said. The two men and their girlfriends lived together in the same Highland Drive apartment for a while. Osborne, a gang member, was also selling drugs.
“That friendship was fairly short lived,” Wilson said. The dispute grew to where Lee and Jenkins wanted Osborne killed.
The evidence is that they enlisted Taylor to do the killing, Wilson said.
“They talked about and planned how ... to get Osborne out of the picture,” he said.
Taylor had a need “to prove himself ... and to show he was tough,” and he agreed to do the shooting. Taylor also owed Jenkins money for drugs, the prosecutor said.
Wilson said Taylor’s alibi defense “flies in the face of evidence.” Even if Lee was at the scene, it won’t take away Taylor’s responsibility, Wilson said.
His old high school girlfriend didn’t come forward until November 2007, he said.
“You know, Taylor was arrested in July of ‘07 ... you weigh the credibility of that” of her alibi statement coming at a point when all four defendants had seen the evidence which police had gathered, he said.
E-mail Bill Byrd at bbyrd@timeswv.com.