Killer Goes Berserk After Conviction

A Van Nuys courtroom degenerated into pandemonium Monday when a man just convicted of first-degree murder spat at the prosecutor, causing armed bailiffs to drag him away, kicking and cursing, while his screaming mother also had to be forcibly removed.

“This is the most violent I’ve ever seen anyone react [to a verdict] in my 30 years of police work,” said Det. Rick Swanston, who supervises homicide investigators for the Los Angeles Police Department’s West Valley Division.

Moments earlier, a jury had found Kirell Taylor, 26, guilty in the 1999 robbery, kidnapping and murder of Christopher Rawlings, a 30-year-old Woodland Hills businessman.

Taylor, who represented himself during the trial and faces life in prison without the possibility of parole, laughed quietly to himself as jurors left the courtroom. He asked Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Michael Hoff for a retrial. Then, in an abrupt about-face, he said: “I want to get sentenced today.”

As Hoff denied his request, Taylor made cow-like chewing motions with his closed mouth. He turned toward Deputy Dist. Atty. Shellie Samuels, cocked his head back and spat.

Samuels dashed away as the 11 bailiffs stationed around the courtroom rushed toward Taylor and his mother, Janice Taylor, who stood up and shouted: “Don’t you touch me! The system has scandalized my son! It’s not over till death takes me away!”

The sobbing, shaking woman also screamed at LAPD Det. Andrew Purdy across the courtroom. Later, after the woman was detained, Purdy said he would seek to press charges against her of making terrorist threats.

Samuels, against whom Kirell Taylor had made a number of derogatory remarks during trial, declined to comment. After the mother and son were dragged away, the victim’s family hugged and wiped away tears.

The family is “extremely happy” with the verdict, said Barbie Rawlings, who witnessed the Feb. 8, 1999, attack on her husband by two masked men in the family’s garage.

That night, Kirell Taylor and an accomplice forced Christopher Rawlings into the trunk of his white Bentley, stole jewelry from the house and drove away, according to testimony. After a high-speed police pursuit, the two men crashed the Bentley, and Rawlings was thrown from the trunk into a brick wall. Rawlings died two days later.

At the crime scene, police found a ski mask containing DNA from Taylor’s saliva, and witnesses helped a police artist sketch a composite that bore a remarkable resemblance to Taylor’s round, boyish face. Police also found Barbie Rawlings’ jewelry in Taylor’s bedroom.

A second man, Boris Graham, has also been charged in the case but remains at large.

For his defense, Taylor presented a witness who testified she was with him, miles away from Woodland Hills, at the time of the crime. He also unsuccessfully argued that the police, prosecutors and the judge conspired against him and that he had been framed by fabricated evidence.

Jurors, who deliberated about five hours, said Monday they thought that Taylor tried to deceive them, and that his verbal attacks on police and the court backfired on him.

“He not only had not much respect for the whole American way of life, he had no respect for the judicial system, which is the best in the world,” said the jury’s forewoman, an aerospace project manager who lives in the West Valley. “His demeanor, his behavior and his lack of respect for everybody really made him lose credibility.”

Jurors praised Samuels, the prosecutor, and Purdy, the LAPD detective. They rolled their eyes when asked about Taylor’s courtroom performance.

“His defense was terrible. I think he was lying about everything,” said a 37-year-old Northridge man, a phone company service technician.

Jurors, who learned about Taylor’s outburst afterward from court staff, said they were not surprised.

“That’s what happens when you believe your lies,” said a female juror, a 37-year-old textile engineer. “It was pretty consistent with his behavior in court. He always seemed to be on the edge of hostility.”

Taylor is due to be sentenced Oct. 17.