Businessman’s Killers Linked to Robbery Ring

The Woodland Hills businessman killed in a February follow-home robbery that turned into a botched kidnapping was the victim of a robbery ring suspected in a number of crimes, authorities said Thursday.

Convicted robber Kirell Francis Taylor, 24, of Pacoima, is one of two men who Los Angeles County prosecutors now say followed Christopher Rawlings--who was driving home in his Bentley--kidnapped him and eventually killed him when a high-speed police chase ended in a fiery crash.

Los Angeles Police Department Det. Rick Swanston, who heads the West Valley homicide unit, said Taylor is suspected in other similar robberies across the county.

Prosecutors charged Taylor with five felonies Thursday, including special-circumstance murder charges that make him eligible for the death penalty. Taylor was already in custody for a parole violation.

While authorities initially investigated the possibility that Rawlings’ killing was connected to his business dealings--federal authorities were investigating him for fraud--they now say he was simply a random crime victim.

“He drove a Bentley. It was a follow-home robbery,” said Shellie Samuels, assistant head deputy for the district attorney’s office in Van Nuys. “It had nothing to do with his business.”

She said she did not yet know the details of how LAPD West Valley Homicide Dets. Andrew Purdy and Terrill West came to accuse Taylor in the case.

Samuels, who was assigned the Taylor case late Thursday afternoon, said a second potential suspect has been identified.

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Purdy declined to discuss the case in detail until a news conference scheduled for noon today.

He did confirm, however, that a second potential suspect in the slaying has been identified and is in custody.

“We have somebody who we’re looking at that’s in custody for something else, but we haven’t confirmed that he’s involved,” Purdy said.

Rawlings’ death was featured on the television show “America’s Most Wanted” in April. Swanston said the show was fruitful, but would not elaborate.

Rawlings, 30, was killed Feb. 8 after a trip to a grocery store in his $200,000 car to buy diapers and baby formula, among other items. Two men followed Rawlings to his home in a neighborhood of half-million-dollar homes and attacked him in the garage, authorities said.

Wondering why he was taking so long to get in the house, Rawlings’ wife, Barbie, opened the garage door and found two masked men beating up her husband. She ran away, taking her daughters to the roof of the house, and dialed 911.

Police arrived as the Bentley sped from the garage, with Rawlings in the trunk. The kidnappers led police onto the Ventura Freeway, then exited on Tampa Avenue, heading north.

It was there that Rawlings’ attackers collided with another car, then into a power pole. The impact ejected Rawlings from the car, causing mortal injuries.

Police said the attackers fled in different directions. One of them, who prosecutors now identify as Taylor, carjacked a Mazda on Wilbur Avenue. The car was later recovered on the Foothill Freeway near Maclay Avenue. Both kidnappers were at large for months.

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Rawlings, co-owner of Gentleman’s Quarters clothing store in Woodland Hills, was transported to Northridge Hospital Medical Center, where he later died.

Taylor is accused of murdering Rawlings, robbery and carjacking. He is also charged with evading police and carjacking the Mazda in which he made his getaway.

Taylor was arrested at his parole office on a violation July 13 and has been in custody ever since, said another prosecutor familiar with the case who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Taylor had been convicted in 1993 of another robbery in Van Nuys Superior Court and was sentenced to seven years in prison, but had been released early on parole.

Samuels said Taylor had been “identified as a suspect for some time,” but that police only recently uncovered enough evidence to warrant murder charges.

Physical evidence recovered at the crime scene has been matched to Taylor through DNA, and a search of various locations connected with the defendant has uncovered property stolen during the robbery, according to prosecutors.