Published: November 17, 2008 11:15 pm         

Witnesses for Taylor set to take stand today

FAIRMONT — The defense team for a Randolph County man accused of fatally shooting another man on Memorial Day 2007 in Fairmont is expected to put its witnesses on the stand today.

Marion Prosecutor Patrick N. Wilson stopped short Monday of resting the state’s case against Lincoln S. Taylor, 24, of Huttonsville for his alleged role in the slaying of Derrick D. “Lil’ D” Osborne, 22.

Wilson called Lafayette Y. “Goldy” Jenkins Jr., 25, the leader of a drug crew and one of Taylor’s three co-defendants, on Monday. Also testifying was Lt. Kelley Moran, the lead detective in the case from the Fairmont Police Department.

Also testifying for the state was Alex Neville, a deputy U.S. marshal who specializes in the geographical tracking of cell phone calls. Neville told the jury of eight women and four men about calls made between a cell phone used by Taylor and two used by Jenkins.

From May 7, 2007 through June 10, 2007, there were 234 calls or text messages made between the cell phones used by the two men, Neville said. The tracking analysis shows the cell phone used by Taylor on the night of the murder was in the Bellview neighborhood where Osborne was shot. The one used then by Jenkins was in his Fairmont neighborhood, Neville said.

Although Wilson said Lt. Moran would be the state’s last witness, he did not say before Monday’s adjournment that the state had rested its case. Wilson is expected to do that today.

Paul J. Harris, Taylor’s defense lawyer, who has been joined by Joseph Wallace of Elkins in this new trial for Taylor, continued Monday to challenge the state’s witnesses. Taylor’s first trial ended in a mistrial Sept. 18 because an unidentified juror violated a jury instruction. The violation is being kept confidential to ensure Taylor gets a fair trial, Marion Chief Judge David R. Janes has said.

As he has with most of the witnesses who have testified against Taylor since the trial started Nov. 10, Harris is stressing that the state lacks an eyewitness to the actual shooting. Harris also has stressed that Jenkins and Steven Podolsky, also a co-defendant and an old friend of Taylor’s, are testifying under pending plea deals. Jenkins and Podolsky, 25, who told the jury last week he was Taylor’s getaway driver, agreed earlier this year to plead guilty to lesser offenses.

Taylor will have an alibi defense, Harris has told the jury. A former girlfriend will testify that he was with her at her home in Buckhannon on the night of the shooting.

But Jenkins, also known as “Goldy,” and Ralph Boston, who is currently serving a prison sentence for a drug offense, said Taylor told them he was at the scene. Osborne was shot and wounded three times outside the Highland Drive apartment where he was living with a girlfriend. Osborne collapsed and died in the backyard of a nearby home after running from his assailant.

Taylor made the alleged admissions while he was being held in jail with them, Jenkins and Boston said.

But Jenkins contradicted Podolsky’s testimony last week on two key points.

Jenkins said it was his understanding that Donnell D. “Nels” Lee, 24, the fourth man charged with the crime, was at the scene. Jenkins also contradicted Podolsky’s account that he, Jenkins, had taken part in a “drive-by” of the ambush scene about a week and a half before the shooting.

Jenkins also said Taylor “might have” owed money to Lee for drugs, but not to him.

Podolsky said Taylor owed Jenkins about $2,000 for drugs and that Lee was not with him and Taylor on the night of the shooting. Podolsky also said Taylor told him the idea to kill Osborne came from Jenkins and Lee, who was a member of Jenkins’ drug crew.

But Jenkins said Lee and Taylor came up with the actual plan to kill Osborne.

When they were together in jail, Jenkins said Taylor told him that Lee “froze up” at the scene. Taylor said he had to shoot Osborne, Jenkins said.

Taylor said he also fired a couple of rounds at a neighbor who had been out walking a dog “to keep him running” away from the scene, Jenkins said.

Taylor also claimed to have a girlfriend who would provide him with an alibi, Jenkins said. The woman would “stick with him through thick and thin ... and make sure he was not guilty,” Taylor told him, Jenkins said.

Taylor had promoted himself for the job of killing Osborne, saying he had military experience. Taylor had withdrawn from West Point for academic reasons and enrolled at Fairmont State University in the fall of 2006.

Jenkins agreed to plead guilty to charges of voluntary manslaughter and conspiracy in May.

Jenkins said he had been selling drugs to Taylor in the spring of 2007. Jenkins said he had supplied the murder weapon to Taylor and Lee the day before the shooting. But he wasn’t at the scene and he didn’t pull the trigger, Jenkins has said.

Jenkins said he had pressured Lee to get rid of Osborne.

The dispute between Osborne on one side and Lee and Jenkins on the other started when Lee and Osborne got into an argument over a woman, Jenkins said.

Lee had introduced Osborne to an old girlfriend of his when Osborne came to Fairmont in late 2006 or early 2007, Jenkins said.

Lee and Osborne and their respective girlfriends were living together at the Highland Drive apartment, Jenkins said.

But while Lee had a new girlfriend, he was still having a relationship with his old girlfriend at the same time, Jenkins said.

When Lee and Osborne had an argument over money, and Osborne learned that Lee was still seeing his girlfriend, things “really went south” between the two men, Jenkins said.

Lee moved out the apartment and word of the rift became public, he said.

Jenkins said he told Lee to “take care of the situation” after Osborne, a member of “The Bloods” gang in his hometown of Columbia, S.C., flashed a gun at him several weeks before the murder.

After the murder, Jenkins said he asked Lee if he had been the shooter, but Lee never gave him a clear answer, Jenkins said.

Boston said Taylor never “flat out said he did it,” that he was the shooter.

But when the two men shared a cell in the summer of 2007, Taylor told him that he and “Nels” were standing outside Osborne’s apartment when Osborne answered the door.

Osborne had a gun, a revolver pistol, but he “didn’t get a chance to use it,” Taylor told him, Boston said. Both Lee and Taylor were supposed to fire, Taylor indicated to him, Boston said.

Taylor said “apparently he was the only one shooting because Nels froze up.”

Taylor also told him he did the shooting because “he needed to clear a debt he had with Goldy,” Boston said.

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

     

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