Nearly one month after a federal jury in Chattanooga convicted a 24-year-old of first-degree murder, proceedings resumed this morning to decide if he lives or dies.

Rejon Taylor, who is from Atlanta, could be sentenced as early as next week, but not until the defense puts on at least 18 witnesses consisting of his family and friends, who are expected to beg jurors to save the young man’s life.

The trial, which started on Aug. 25, has been riddled with questions of media coverage, a possible “racist” verdict and the opinion expressed by Mr. Taylor in a recorded phone conversation that those who convicted him were “rednecks.”

Yet little attention had been paid to victim Guy Luck until this morning, when a young woman, who had grown up with him in the Atlanta restaurant he owned, described him as “fun to work with, so French, and so smart.”

“He was like a stepfather to me,” said Robin Belcher, whose mother, Stephanie Belcher, was romantically involved with Mr. Luck for about 10 years and ran Atlanta restaurant Violette with him.

Mr. Luck was a French national who was kidnapped from the driveway of his Atlanta home in 2003, driven to Collegedale and shot in the mouth on the side of a secluded road in broad daylight. He was the victim of identity theft and stalking perpetrated by Mr. Taylor and his friends for more than a year prior to his death.

Jurors convicted Mr. Taylor, who was 19 at the time of the crime, of first-degree murder, kidnapping and carjacking, and now they must decide if he is to be put to death or to stay in prison for the rest of his life.

The prosecution maintains that Mr. Taylor has never taken responsibility for his crime, despite the guilty pleas in 2006 of his friends Joey Marshall and Sir Jack Matthews, who participated in the crime and are expected to receive life sentences when they are sentenced in coming months.

Letters written by Mr. Taylor after his conviction in mid-September provide insight into a young man who believes he will eventually be granted a new trial and then acquitted and permitted to walk free some day.

But as the sentencing phase began this morning, defense attorney Bill Ortwein, in an effort to convince jurors not to put him to death, pointed out several times that “Rejon Taylor will never ever walk the streets of a city or town as a free individual again.”

For complete details, see tomorrow’s Chattanooga imes Free Press.

Comments