A Texas appellate court headquartered in Texarkana affirmed nine felony convictions and the 85-year sentence a Cass County man received last year for sexual misconduct with a 13-year-old girl.
Jarrod Michael Taylor, 32, was found guilty by a jury in November of sexual assault of a child, two counts of indecency with a child and six counts of online solicitation of a minor. The following day, 5th District Judge Bill Miller sentenced Taylor to 20 years for sexual assault and 20 years on each of the two indecency charges with all three terms to run consecutively.
Miller sentenced Taylor to 15-year terms for three of the online solicitation cases to run concurrently to one another but consecutive to the final indecency term. Concurrent 10-year terms were ordered for three of the solicitation cases but ordered to run consecutively to the 15-year term. In total, Taylor received 85 years.
On appeal, Taylor argued that there was insufficient evidence to convict him, that a juror who knew the victim should have been excused and that the jury should have been given an instruction regarding an insanity defense. In an 11-page opinion issued Tuesday, the 6th District Court of Appeals in Texarkana rejected Taylor's arguments and affirmed his convictions and sentences.
The higher court's opinion states that Taylor's appellate lawyer's claim that the evidence against Taylor was insufficient was unsupported by any legal analysis with respect to the law, was not fleshed out through argument and made no references to relevant case law.
"He does not identify which of the offense elements is lacking evidentiary support and omits any discussion about how the evidence adduced at trial fails to satisfy the state's burden of proof," the opinion states.
In addition to testimony from the victim, the jury learned that Taylor sent the victim at least 14 pictures of his penis, videos of himself engaged in self-gratification and exchanged more than 1,000 text messages with the teenager. Taylor's texts included acknowledgement that he was breaking the law and instructions to the victim to delete texts. A Cass County Sheriff's Office member testified that during an interrogation Taylor admitted he knew what he was doing was wrong.
Taylor complained on appeal that a juror who knew the victim lied to get seated on the jury. The higher court rejected that argument based on a review of the record.
The trial transcript shows that neither Taylor's defense attorney nor a representative of the Cass County District Attorney's Office ever asked the jury panel during the selection process whether they knew the victim and that the victim was referred to at that time by a pseudonym, as is commonplace to protect the identity of sexual assault victims and children.
The juror saw the victim in a courthouse hallway during the lunch recess and before any testimony was heard in the trial. The juror informed the court that the victim had been a student in class she taught at a local elementary school about five years before. After answering questions about whether her former student/teacher relationship with the victim would affect her ability to remain objective and impartial, Miller ruled that the juror did not need to be excused.
Taylor's final complaint on appeal was that the jury should have been instructed on the defense of insanity. Taylor argued that he is intellectually challenged and functions as a child and consequently cannot be held to account for his behavior. While some evidence at trial suggested Taylor had intellectual limitations, Miller ruled that the evidence required to warrant an insanity instruction just wasn't there. To be granted an insanity defense instruction, defendants must show through some type of evidence that they didn't know what they were doing was wrong because of a mental disease or defect.
The higher court agreed with Miller that the defense failed to present evidence that would support such a claim and pointed to text messages from Taylor to the victim in which he laments the law prohibiting his conduct and in which he suggests she delete text messages to conceal his misconduct.
Taylor is being housed at the McConnell Unit of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice in Beeville, Texas. According to TDCJ's website, Taylor will be eligible for parole April 4, 2027, and will have completely served his time April 4, 2102.