Nineteen-year-old Fred Taylor has maintained from the start that he didn’t shoot his good friend, Javon Knaff on Memorial Day in 2016.
A Summit County jury didn’t believe him, but decided he didn’t mean to do it.
After deliberating for about 3½ hours, the jury of four men and eight women found Taylor not guilty of a murder charge defined as “intentionally causing the death” of another, but guilty of a murder charge that involves causing a person’s death in the commission of a felony. In this case, the felony is felonious assault.
Taylor, who is from Akron, faces up to 21 years to life when he is sentenced at 9 a.m. Tuesday by Summit County Common Pleas Judge Mary Margaret Rowlands. He plans to appeal.
Before the jury’s verdicts were read, Rowlands took the unusual step of coming down from the bench and talking to family members of both Taylor and Knaff, who snipped at each other during the week-long trial and while waiting for the verdict Friday. She warned them to maintain their decorum or be removed from the courtroom.
“Whatever the outcome is, there’s nothing but loss,” she told them. “There’s loss for everyone. Nothing can erase that loss.”
“You all have my deepest sympathy,” she continued. “But I have a job to do.”
The family members, however, had no outbursts during the verdict reading and left the courtroom, staffed with extra sheriff’s deputies, without incident.
Paula Brooks, Knaff’s mother, was pleased with the verdict and said it didn’t bother her that the jury found him innocent of the one murder charge. The penalty was the same for the two murder charges.
“I’m relieved,” she said, wiping away tears. “There’s justice for him.”
Brooks said she has no doubt that Taylor shot and killed her son.
“I’m just glad my son can rest tonight,” she said. “Prayer is an amazing thing.”
Knaff, 23, was shot at a holiday cookout in a parking lot at the Rosemary apartment complex on Nadia Court in Akron May 31 of last year. A witness testified that Taylor was the shooter and Knaff answered “Fred” when asked who shot him while riding in the ambulance after the shooting. He died on the operating table.
Edwards Smith and John Alexander, Taylor’s attorneys, however, claimed this was a case of mistaken identity and that one of the other similarly dressed African-American males at the cookout shot Knaff. They argued the witness who identified Taylor had a view obstructed by vehicles in the parking lot.
“Is there enough evidence to convict if it was your child sitting here?” Alexander asked jurors during his passionate closing argument Thursday afternoon.
The jury began deliberating about 8:30 a.m. Friday and announced they had a verdict about noon.
Besides being convicted of murder, the jury also found Taylor guilty of felonious assault and having a weapon while under disability, which means he had a firearm when he wasn’t supposed to because of a prior criminal conviction.
Smith said he was disappointed in the verdict and feels bad for Taylor’s family, with whom he and Alexander maintained close contact with leading up to and during the trial. He said Taylor is young and he hopes he can get out of prison and live a productive life. He said he was impressed with the calm attitude Taylor maintained throughout the trial, showing little reaction even as the verdicts were read.
“He handled a tough situation well,” he said. “He was in the fight of his life.”
Stephanie Warsmith can be reached at 330-996-3705 or swarsmith@thebeaconjournal.com. Follow on Twitter: @swarsmithabj and on Facebook: www.facebook.com/swarsmith.
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