Elliot King has a challenge for John Albert Taylor: face the firing squad if you're man enough.
"I'd like to see him do it," King said. "But I don't believe he will."Taylor, 36 was convicted of sexually assaulting and strangling King's 11-year-old niece, Charla Nicole, in 1989. When it was announced late last month that Taylor would end his death sentence appeals and die by firing squad, King called the Department of Corrections.
"I just wanted to know if family members could be on the firing squad," he said. Officials told the 40-year-old Hill Air Force Base mechanic the sharpshooters had to be Utah police officers. He asked about watching Taylor's execution.
"Sherron (Charla's mother) said she really wished I wouldn't do it," King said. "I said, `I really wanted to do it. I wanted to witness him dying.' "
So Sherron King obliged her youngest brother. He said now that he's had time to think about it, he'd rather watch Taylor die than actually kill him.
"I just wanted the peace of mind," he said. "I wanted to make sure that justice does go through. I want to make sure he's really dead. I think someone in the family should represent us because of the cruel way Charla was killed.""I'm not doing it out of hate for him," he added. "I'm just doing it out of hate for what he did to Charla."
Charla and Elliot King had a special relationship. He used to shower at his big sister's apartment when Charla was just a little girl.
"I lived with my mom and she only had a bathtub," he said. "Charla would get up on my shoulders and comb my hair. I'd lay on the floor and she'd lay on my back. We were real close."
Elliot still wishes he could have done something to protect Charla, to change what happened to her 61/2 years ago. He doesn't believe people can understand how he feels unless they've been there. He's particularly offended by Gov. Mike Leavitt's recent public criticism of the firing squad.
His mother, Ruth Cacazier, said that when people complain about Taylor's demise being barbaric, she wants to remind them how Charla met her death.
"If they think it's so inhumane that he die by firing squad, then I say do the humane thing," she said. "Let's kill him like he killed my granddaughter."
Elliot added, "And Charla didn't get to choose how she died."
The family is angry that the way Taylor is dying has generated more ire than why he's dying. The massive media coverage opens wounds for the family that they've spent years trying to heal.
"It's just a constant reminder to Sherron that he's still alive," Elliot King said. "(Choosing the firing squad) is his way of punishing people. I believe he's doing it for the attention."
Sherron King and her family have relived Charla's death on camera, in print and in their minds nearly every day since Taylor's execution date was announced in December.
"This story needs to be put to rest so Charla can be put to rest," Elliot King said.
During the execution, he will sit with the government witnesses. He said he doesn't know if watching Taylor die will bother him.
"I guess you have to have the experience before you know," he said. Elliot's older brother Ellis, 42, would like to watch the execution, but he said he's been told no.
"They won't let me because I'm too hostile," Ellis King said. "I might start applauding."
"I think it's unfair that they make innocent people shoot him when the family would love to do it," he said. "They (the state) haven't got the right to take it out of our hands."
Each family member deals with Charla's death and Taylor's upcoming execution in their own way. Sherron King has said a number of times that she had to find it in her heart to forgive Taylor for killing her daughter.
As for Elliot King, he doesn't know if he's forgiven Taylor.
"My only feeling about the situation is that he needs to die."