The sister of a man accused of sexually assaulting and strangling to death an 11-year-old Washington Terrace girl last summer, testified on Tuesday that her brother was arrested for the murder after she tipped off police.
John Albert Taylor, 30, Ogden, is standing trial on a first-degree murder charge for the June 23 murder of Charla N. King. The case is being heard by 2nd District Judge David Roth, and if convicted, Taylor could receive the death penalty.Taylor's sister, Laura Galli, told Roth that her brother had been staying with her at the same apartment complex where the young victim was killed.
She said that on the day of the murder, she and other family members left their apartment about 12:30 p.m. and returned home before 3 p.m. so she could watch a soap opera. She said Taylor remained behind alone in the apartment.
King's lifeless body was found by her mother around 3:20 p.m., when Sharon King walked into her apartment and found the body of her daughter.
Galli said that when she and her family returned from running errands that afternoon, Taylor was sitting on the couch. She said her brother was wearing a black T-shirt with a Harley-Davidson motorcycle emblem on it. She later gave the shirt to police.
"He was very solemn, very quiet," she said.
She said that a few minutes later her daughter told her that police and an ambulance were outside so she left the apartment to see what was going on.
After the ambulance left with the body of the dead girl, Galli said that Taylor joined her and other neighbors outside and he said to her, "When they catch him, they'll just slap him on the hand, let him plead insanity, then let him go in three to five years."
Galli said that she then took Taylor to his Ogden home, where he was living with another sister. She said she couldn't get the murder out of her mind, so after talking to family members, she called the police.
The defendant was arrested a few days later and charged with capital homicide after police found his fingerprints on a telephone inside the victim's apartment. He has remained in the Weber County Jail ever since.