Before a Nelson County jury found Randy Allen Taylor guilty on May 8 for the murder of 17-year-old Alexis Murphy, Commonwealth’s Attorney Anthony Martin had urged them to not reward Taylor “for disposing of this child’s body.” They didn’t, and Martin accomplished something extremely rare: a murder conviction without a body. “There’s precedent, but such […]
In little more than six hours, a Nelson County jury found Randy Allen Taylor guilty of abduction with intent to defile and first-degree murder in the commission of an abduction for the death of 17-year-old Alexis Murphy, who disappeared August 3 and whose body has not been found. A grim-looking jury that avoided looking at […]
Both the prosecution and the defense rested their cases on May 7 in the trial of Randy Allen Taylor, 48, charged with the murder and abduction of Alexis Taylor, who was last seen with Taylor at the Liberty gas station in Lovingston on August 3. After closing arguments, during which both sides agreed on only […]
A week after 17-year-old Alexis Murphy was last seen at the Liberty gas station in Lovingston and her DNA had been found in his camper, Randy Taylor finally admitted Murphy had been at his property on August 3, the evening she disappeared, and claimed she was with a black man with cornrows who’d been driving […]
Randy Allen Taylor said he’d never seen 17-year-old Alexis Murphy before. He said he wasn’t at the Liberty gas station in Lovingston on August 3, the day the Nelson County teenager disappeared. And he said she had never, ever been in his camper in two separate interviews with police, recordings of which were played in […]
On the second day of the murder trial of Randy Allen Taylor, Commonwealth’s Attorney Anthony Martin’s 40-minute opening statement laid out his case against Taylor, accused of slaying 17-year-old Alexis Murphy, who was last seen on August 3 at the Liberty gas station in Lovingston. Martin detailed the physical evidence found in Taylor’s camper—Murphy’s blood, […]
The murder trial of Randy Allen Taylor, accused of the murder and abduction of 17-year-old Alexis Murphy, began May 1 in Lovingston with the selection of a jury in a case with no trace of the victim since she was last seen August 3. Members of Murphy’s family already were seated in the Nelson County […]
The Lockn’ music festival’s food concession contractor faced three charges at an April 30 disciplinary hearing at the Virginia Alcoholic Beverage Control office in Lynchburg, but time ran out before testimony could be heard about the topless woman or the dim lighting that threaten the festival’s ABC license. Instead, the six-hour hearing only covered one […]
After former Food Lion manager Mark Weiner was convicted of abduction with intent to defile last May, his attorney alleged in court that the prosecutor kept out cell phone records that would have cleared his client. Weiner’s new attorney has gone further, contending in a new motion filed April 14 that the alleged victim fabricated […]
Albemarle County Sheriff Chip Harding has always approached his work as a cop through his background as a social worker and through his Baptist faith. But after a four-decade law enforcement career that includes nearly 30 years putting criminals behind bars as a Charlottesville Police Department investigator, he had a come-to-Jesus moment reading John Grisham’s […]