A man charged with strangling an 11-year-old Washington Terrace girl last summer will take the stand in his own defense later this week and will admit having been in the apartment where the girl's body was found, a defense attorney said Monday.
But testimony will also indicate he was alone, was in the apartment to commit a burglary and that he touched a telephone where a fingerprint was later found by police, said defense attorney Don Redd during Monday's opening arguments.John Albert Taylor, 30, is charged with strangling and sexually abusing Charla N. King, whose nude body was found in her apartment by her mother on June 23. She was found with a telephone cord wrapped around her neck.
Taylor waived a jury trial, so the case is being heard by 2nd District Judge David Roth. If convicted, Taylor could be sentenced to die.
"It should be obvious why the defendant denied being in the apartment," Redd said in reference to the prosecution's assertion that Taylor denied ever being in the apartment during police questioning following his arrest.
Redd stressed that the fingerprint is the only evidence linking Taylor to the crime. Prosecutors say Taylor's fingerprint was found on the telephone, and witnesses say they saw the defendant outside the victim's apartment building.
Deputy County Attorney Bill Daines said there is no question King was sexually abused and the telephone cord found around her neck had been attached to the telephone where Taylor's fingerprint was found.
Not since 1949 has a Weber County jury or judge sentenced a person to death row.
Ray Dempsey Gardner was the last person ordered to die in Weber County for the murder of 17-year-old Shirley Gretzinger, Ogden. The 28-year-old defendant faced a firing squad on Sept. 29, 1951.
Pierre Dale Selby and William Andrews were the last two men sentenced to die for crimes committed at Ogden's Hi Fi Shop in Weber County. But the case was moved to Davis County because pretrial publicity.