Couple’s Fatal Fall Off Cliff Seen as an Accident

A divorced couple who fell to their deaths from a Corona del Mar cliff over the weekend had been “rekindling their relationship,” the woman’s first husband said Wednesday.

Gary Taylor, 44, of Mission Viejo said he believes the deaths were accidental because of the reconciliation attempt, along with the police investigation and evidence provided by his family.

Police have said Robyn Liebman Taylor, 41, and her ex-husband, Robert Leslie Hammontree, 29, fell from the jagged cliff accidentally. Their bodies were found 100 feet below by beach strollers on Sunday just before midnight.

Gary and Robyn Taylor were married for seven years until 1980 and had two children together. Gary Taylor said that news reports suggesting that Robyn’s relationship with Hammontree at the time of the deaths was in “less than amicable terms” differed from what he knew of the couple.

“They had been attempting to reconcile their relationship for several months prior to this incident,” Gary Taylor said. “In fact, they had been dating each other as early as January.”

Orange County Superior Court records show that at one time, Robyn Taylor received a restraining order against Hammontree, whom she accused of beating her while they were married. The couple were divorced in July, 1992, 14 months after they were married.

Gary Taylor said his ex-wife had been married and divorced four times. She had attempted to reconcile with each of her former husbands except him, he said.

He said he believes the deaths were accidental because his ex-wife had paid three months’ rent in advance for her Santa Ana apartment and had made plans to visit her aunt on Monday.

“There is absolutely no evidence or reason to suggest that their deaths were nothing more than accidental,” he said.

Gary Taylor, who almost broke into tears while reading from a prepared statement at the Newport Beach Police Department, said he wanted to tell what he knew for the sake of his and Robyn’s two teen-age children.

He said he and his sons tried to “stay out of her life as much as we could.”

“All her moves were very traumatic” to the children, he said.

Robyn Taylor, who was born in Tustin and lived in Santa Ana, graduated from high school and held many jobs, the latest of them as a loan officer, Gary Taylor said. He would not say where she worked as a loan officer.

Newport Beach Police Sgt. Andy Gonis said investigators found several bottles and cans of beer and “a small amount of marijuana” in a plastic bag at the top of the cliff. He said the car that police found near the cliff was registered in Robyn Taylor’s name.

An autopsy showed the couple died of injuries from the fall. A toxicology report will not be available for at least another week, according to police officials.