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Yvette
TAYLOR
Classification: Murderer
Characteristics: Argument
Number of victims: 1
Date of murder:
February 11, 2012
Date of arrest:
Same day
Date of birth: 1965
Victim profile:
Theodore Crew, 62 (her roommate)
Method of murder:
Multiple
sharp and blunt force traumas
Location: Columbia
County, Georgia, USA
Status:
Sentenced to life in prison without parole on February 8, 2013
A Martinez woman was sentenced
to life in prison Friday after being convicted of killing her
roommate last year.
A Columbia County jury convicted Yvette Taylor,
47, of felony murder, but acquitted her on a malice murder charge
in connection to the February 2012 death of Theodore Crew, 63.
Superior Court Judge Carl. C Brown Jr.
sentenced Taylor to life in prison without the possibility of
parole because he believed she is a threat to the community.
The trial began Wednesday and jurors
deliberated nearly four hours before the verdict Friday afternoon.
Taylor called 911 early Feb. 11, 2012, stating
her “friend was dead.”
Crew was found nude inside the bathroom of his
home in Applecross Apartments. Blood was found on a chair and
around it in the floor and walls in the living room and on the
floor and walls down the hallway to the bathroom. The bathroom
floor, where Crew was found, was wet with water and bleach, but
little blood.
Dr. Daniel Brown, a Georgia Bureau of
Investigation medical examiner, testified Thursday that Crew died
from multiple sharp and blunt force traumas. He had numerous cuts
to his face, neck arms and hands and blunt force injuries that
resulted in lacerations to his head. Crew also suffered several
fractured ribs and bruises including a black eye.
During a videotaped interview with
investigators, Taylor repeatedly denied any involvement in Crew’s
death.
“We believe (Taylor) is a threat to the
community,” District Attorney Ashley Wright said as she asked for
life without the possibility of parole at the sentencing hearing
following the verdict. “We believe that’s the only way to protect
the community from (Taylor).”
Taylor’s attorney, Amanda Morris, said a
pre-trial psychological evaluation showed Taylor is schizophrenic.
After her arrest, Taylor spoke about the
incident to jailers in the Columbia County Detention Center
admitting a level of guilt in Crew’s death.
“‘I cut him, I admit that, but I didn’t kill
him,’” Deputy April March said Taylor told her during a smoke
break at the jail. “‘I asked him if he wanted me to take him to
the hospital because he freaked me out. He said he had it and went
back to the bathroom.’”
Neighbors testified Wednesday that they heard
cursing, grunting, and scuffling noises coming from Taylor’s
apartment.
Taylor opted not to testify on her own behalf
and the defense presented no evidence or witnesses.
The arrest for Crew’s death was not the first
murder charge Taylor faced. In 1992, she was charged with murder
in the death of her 22-year-old brother, Jerry Taylor. In February
1991, authorities found Taylor, then 25, kneeling over her
brother’s body in their home. She told investigators they were
fighting over a gun when it when it accidentally went off,
according to The Augusta Chronicle archives. Her brother
had been shot three times in the right eye.
Just prior to trial, Taylor pled to involuntary
manslaughter and was sentenced to 10 years in prison.
Taylor was arrested again in 2004 for
aggravated assault after attacking her roommate in Harlem with a
broken beer bottle. Though he sustained injuries, the case wasn’t
prosecuted at the victim’s request.
Wright said she asked for the maximum penalty
because of Taylor’s long-time pattern of aggression.
Jury deliberating murder charges
By Valerie Rowell - NewTimes.augusta.com
February 8, 2013
A Columbia County jury is
deliberating the guilt or innocence of a Martinez woman accused of
killing her roommate last year.
Yvette Taylor, 47, is charged with murder in
the February 2012 death of Theodore Crew, 63.
The trial began Wednesday. Prosecuting and
defense attorneys gave closing arguments Friday morning and the
jury began deliberations at about noon.
Taylor called 911 early Feb. 11, 2012, stating
her “friend was dead.”
Crew was found nude inside the bathroom of his
home in Applecross Apartments. Blood was found on a chair and
around it in the floor and walls in the living room and on the
floor and walls down the hallway to the bathroom. The bathroom
floor, where Crew was found, was wet with water and bleach, but
little blood.
Taylor’s attorney, Amanda Morris, said the
investigators “targeted” Taylor early as an easy suspect.
“Why should the police thoroughly investigate a
case because they’ve already picked out an easy target,” Morris
said during her closing arguments. “The most important part of
this investigation is what was not done.”
Morris said investigators did “sloppy police
work” by not collecting and testing all of evidence they should
have. They didn’t send samples of blood from all spattered walls,
floors and other surfaces to be tested and didn’t fingerprint
front and bathroom door knobs. Testing of that and other evidence
could have led to the identification of a suspect other than
Taylor, Morris said.
District Attorney Ashley Wright said Crew’s
death was a very personal and passionate crime and referred to the
idea of a stranger, an intruder, as the killer as “preposterous,
fanciful, ridiculous and unsupported by evidence.
Taylor initially told investigators that she
left the apartment she shared with Crew at about 1 a.m. and spent
the night at her mother’s nearby home. She said she found Crew
dead in the bathroom several hours later.
“How convenient she wasn’t there the one time
her roommate is brutally beaten to death,” Wright said. “In this
case, the silent witness continues to lead us to the truth.”
The “silent witness” Wright refers to is
several reports from neighbors who heard noises and the copious
amount of blood inside the apartment that showed Crew was
initially injured in a chair in the living room and walked himself
to the bathroom where he later died.
Dr. Daniel Brown, a Georgia Bureau of
Investigation medical examiner, testified Thursday that Crew died
from multiple sharp and blunt force traumas. He had numerous cuts
to his face, neck arms and hands and blunt force injuries that
resulted in lacerations to his head. Crew also suffered several
fractured ribs and bruises including a black eye.
During a videotaped interview with
investigators, Taylor repeatedly denied any involvement in Crew’s
death.
After her arrest, Taylor spoke about the
incident to jailers in the Columbia County Detention Center
admitting a level of guilt in Crew’s death.
“‘I cut him, I admit that, but I didn’t kill
him,’” Deputy April March said Taylor told her during a smoke
break at the jail. “‘I asked him if he wanted me to take him to
the hospital because he freaked me out. He said he had it and went
back to the bathroom.’”
Neighbors testified Wednesday that they heard
cursing, grunting, and scuffling noises coming from Taylor’s
apartment.
Taylor opted not to testify on her own behalf
and the defense presented no evidence or witnesses.
Jurors will continue deliberating until they
reach a verdict or until they decide they can’t reach a unanimous
verdict.
Murder trial to conclude
Friday
By Valerie Rowell - NewTimes.augusta.com
February 7, 2013
Testimony is finished in the trial of a
Martinez woman charged with murdering in roommate last year.
Yvette Taylor, 47, was charged with murder in
connection to the February 2012 death of Theodore Crew, 63.
The trial began Wednesday and is expected to
conclude Friday.
The prosecution played Taylor’s videotaped
interview with Columbia County Sheriff’s Office investigators for
the jury. Despite heated exchanges, Taylor repeatedly denied any
part of Crew’s death.
“I don’t have anything to hide,” Taylor told
investigators hours after Crew died. “I didn’t kill him.”
Taylor called 911 early Feb. 11, 2012, staying
her “friend was dead.”
Crew was found nude inside the bathroom of his
home in Applecross Apartments. Blood was found on a chair and
around it in the floor and walls in the living room and on the
floor and walls down the hallway to the bathroom. The bathroom
floor, where Crew was found, was wet with water and bleach, but
little blood.
Taylor initially told investigators that she
left the apartment she shared with Crew at about 1 a.m. and spent
the night at her mother’s nearby home. She said she found Crew
dead in the bathroom several hours later.
Dr. Daniel Brown, a Georgia Bureau of
Investigation medical examiner, testified that Crew died from
multiple sharp and blunt force traumas. He had numerous cuts to
his face, neck arms and hands and blunt force injuries that
resulted in lacerations to his head. Crew also suffered several
fractured ribs and bruises including a black eye.
After her arrest, Taylor spoke about the
incident to jailers in the Columbia County Detention Center
admitting a level of guilt in Crew’s death.
“‘I cut him, I admit that, but I didn’t kill
him,’” Deputy April March said Taylor told her during a smoke
break at the jail. “‘I asked him if he wanted me to take him to
the hospital because he freaked me out. He said he had it and went
back to the bathroom.’”
Neighbors testified Wednesday that they heard
cursing, grunting, and scuffling noises coming from Taylor’s
apartment.
Taylor opted not to testify on her own behalf
and Amanda Morris, Taylor’s defense attorney, presented no
evidence.
Jurors will return Friday morning to hear the
attorney’s closing arguments and begin deliberations.
Trial of woman accused of roommate's death
to continue Thursday
By Valerie Rowell
- NewTimes.augusta.com
February 7, 2013
The murder trial of a Martinez woman began
Wednesday and will continue Thursday.
Yvette Taylor, 47, is charged with murder in
the February 2012 death of her roommate, Theodore Crew, 63.
Taylor called authorities early on the morning
of Feb. 11. She told the dispatcher, "When I woke up this morning,
my friend was dead."
But first responders found a bloody scene
inside the Applecross Apartments residence.
"Throughout this apartment from the very
entrance, there was blood everywhere," District Attorney Ashley
Wright said.
Jurors learned about blood patterns from
Columbia County sheriff's Sgt. Ken Summers.
Taylor initially told authorities that she left
the apartment she shared with Crew at about 1 a.m. and returned
seven hours later to find Crew unresponsive on the bathroom floor.
Taylor was Crew's friend and caregiver.
"Nobody saw this crime occur, so no one can say
what happened," Taylor's attorney Amanda Morris said. "I don't
think anyone who called 911 would be trying to cover up anything."
Authorities found Crew's nude body on a very
wet bathroom floor, but very little blood in the bathroom. Bleach
was used in an attempt to clean the bathroom and a carpet in the
main living area.
Taylor's mother and aunt, who lived in an
apartment across the Applecross Apartments complex, initially said
Taylor spent the night but later recanted and told investigators
that she arrived that morning with a bag. The bag, that
investigators say contained bloody clothes, and a box cutter were
found in a wooded area behind the complex.
Investigators found a plastic lawn chair with
blood on and around it and a trail of blood leading to the
bathroom inside the apartment.
Crew was found lying nude on the bathroom
floor, which also was covered in blood, and his clothes were in
the bathtub.
Taylor's mother, Irene, said Taylor woke her
the next morning and said Crew was dead. She and a family friend
went to the apartment before Taylor called 911.
"I saw (Crew) laying on the bathroom floor,"
Taylor's mother said. "I saw a cut on his face.
Crew had a large gash to his face and another
on his arm. He died from a combination of sharp and blunt force
trauma, Columbia County Coroner Vernon Collins said after an
autopsy.
Wright said Crew suffered from several health problems, but
"was doing just fine until the night the life was literally beat
and cut out of him."
Some of Taylor's neighbors told deputies they
heard noises coming from the apartment early that morning
including grumbling and what sounded like someone moving something
heavy across the floor.
Lorenzo Nealious, Taylor's neighbor, said he
heard cursing, grunting and scuffling through his bathroom wall,
which abuts Taylor's apartment. Nealious said he was disturbed by
what he heard and planned to call authorities the next day.
"Guilty or not, I just know how I felt,"
Nealious said. "I felt weird."
After her arrest, Taylor told jailers, "I cut
him," and that she was in an abusive relationship. She'd told
neighbors that she was tired of cleaning up after Crew.
Taylor has been held in the Columbia County
Detention Center without bond since her arrest.
Testimony is expected to continue Thursday
morning.
Martinez woman's murder trial to begin today
By Valerie Rowell
- NewTimes.augusta.com
February 6, 2013
The murder trial of a Martinez woman accused of
killing her roommate is expected to begin today in Columbia
County.
Prosecutors are expected to begin choosing a
jury Wednesday to try Yvette Taylor, 47, who is charged with
murder.
She was arrested Feb. 11 in connection with the
death of Theodore Crew, 63.
Taylor initially told authorities that she left
the apartment she shared with Crew at about 1 a.m. and returned
seven hours later to find Crew unresponsive on the bathroom floor.
Taylor was Crew’s friend and caregiver.
Taylor’s mother and aunt, who live in an
apartment across the Applecross Apartments complex, initially said
Taylor spent the night but later recanted and told investigators
that she arrived that morning with a box cutter and a bag of
bloody clothes.
Deputies found the items behind a fence in a
wooded area behind the complex.
An investigator said at a February 2012
preliminary hearing that deputies found an overturned plastic lawn
chair with blood on and around it and a trail of blood leading to
the bathroom inside the apartment Taylor and Crew shared.
Crew was found lying nude on the bathroom
floor, which also was covered in blood, and his clothes were in
the bathtub. Deputies also smelled bleach.
Crew had a large gash to his face and another
on his arm. He died from a combination of sharp and blunt force
trauma, Columbia County Coroner Vernon Collins said after an
autopsy.
Some of Taylor’s neighbors told deputies they
heard noises coming from the apartment early that morning
including grumbling and what sounded like someone moving something
heavy across the floor.
After her arrest, Taylor told jailers, “I cut
him,” and that she was in an abusive relationship. She’d told
neighbors that she was tired of cleaning up after Crew.
Taylor has been held in the Columbia County
Detention Center without bond since her arrest.
Judge denies bond to murder
suspect
By Valerie Rowell - NewTimes.augusta.com
February 17, 2011
A judge denied bond Friday for a Martinez woman
suspected of killing her roommate.
Yvette Taylor, 46, was arrested Feb. 11 in
connection to the death of Theodore Crew, 62.
“I think she poses a threat to the community,”
Superior Court Senior Judge Bernard J. Mulherin Sr. said at the
bond hearing in Evans.
Taylor told Columbia County sheriff’s
investigators that she left the apartment she shared with Crew at
about 1 a.m., briefly went to a neighbor’s home and spent the
night with her mother. She said she returned about seven hours
later to find Crew unresponsive on the bathroom floor.
Assistant District Attorney Sam Nicholson said
investigators found blood on and around an overturned lawn chair
in the living room and a “trail of blood lead from the chair to
the bathroom.”
Crew was naked in the fetal position on the
bathroom floor, where there was more blood.
Columbia County Coroner Vernon Collins said
Crew died from blunt force trauma, but gave no indication of the
murder weapon.
One of Taylor’s neighbors told investigators
that she’d seen Taylor on the verge of tears earlier in the
evening. Taylor allegedly told her that she and Crew were arguing
and she was frustrated with being his caretaker.
The neighbor also said she heard sounds from
Taylor’s apartment between 1-2 a.m. “that sounded like someone was
falling on the floor,” Nicholson said.
According to the Georgia Department of
Corrections, Taylor was previously incarcerated for involuntary
manslaughter in connection to the death of her younger brother in
Richmond County.
In February 1991, when she was 25, police found
Taylor kneeling over her brother’s body in the kitchen. She told
deputies at the time that they had been fighting over a gun when
it accidentally went off, according to Augusta Chronicle
archives.
Her brother, Jerry Taylor, 22, had been shot
three times in the right eye.
She was sentenced to 10 years in prison, but
served a total of eight years from 1993 to 1996, and again from
1998 to 2002.
Woman accused of murder in
Columbia Co. has violent past
By Katie Beasley - Wrdw.com
February 13, 2011
MARTINEZ, Ga. -- It's Columbia County's first
murder of the year, a 63-year-old man found beaten and cut with a
knife inside his Martinez apartment.
We're learning more about Yvette Taylor, the
woman accused of murdering her roommate. Investigators say she's a
violent woman with quite the criminal background.
It did not take deputies long to figure out
that 63-year-old Theodore Crew was a murder victim.
"He died of blunt force trauma. He also had
some lacerations. We did recover a box cutter near the scene,"
explained Columbia County Sheriff's Cpt. Steve Morris.
Crew's roommate, 46-year-old Taylor, is the one
who called 911.
"She stated that she was with him about 1:30
Saturday morning, left ... came back about 8 o'clock that morning
and found him deceased in the bathroom," Morris said.
But investigators say after finding blood
spatter in the living room, her story didn't exactly add up.
"Every crime scene tells a story. The story
this one was telling and what she told us were worlds apart,"
Morris said.
It turns out, Taylor is no first-time accused
criminal. According to district attorney records, a 25-year-old
Taylor pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter in the death of
her younger brother in 1991.
Documents show she shot him in the head after
claiming it was an accident. Then in 1997, Taylor was arrested for
pulling a knife and threatening to kill a woman. That charge was
reduced from aggravated assault to simple battery.
In 2006, Taylor, who also sometimes goes by
Candice, was accused of busting her boyfriend in the face with a
beer bottle in Columbia County. He decided not to press charges.
"It gives us a little perspective on who we're
dealing with and their past and their background and that always
helps ... especially in the interviews," Morris said.
Neighbors spent the weekend in shock that their
Martinez apartment complex had become a crime scene.
"A quiet neighborhood, nothing bad ever happens
here. To hear this was a big shock," said neighbor Roberto
Rodriguez.
Taylor is charged with murder and is awaiting
her first appearance hearing in Columbia County. Investigators say
she and Crew were just roommates, she may have even been his
caretaker, but they don't believe they had a romantic
relationship.
Originally, Taylor was charged with murder in
her brother's death, but pleaded down to a lesser charge of
involuntary manslaughter. She was sentenced to 10 years but served
only three.
