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ReligionNewsBlog.com • Item 21449 • Posted: Saturday May 17, 2008  

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A Napa County jury on Thursday found Alex Taylor not guilty by reason of insanity in the shooting of George Davis last spring.

Taylor, 26, showed little emotion as the court clerk read the verdict Thursday morning. The decision means Taylor will be housed in a mental institution for what could be the rest of his life.
Court officials will decide exactly what will happen to Taylor at a May 29 hearing.

On April 30, the same jury found Taylor guilty of first degree murder, sparking the insanity phase of the trial to determine whether Taylor would spend time in prison or a mental institution.

The jury came to its second verdict after days of testimony by mental health experts.

Prosecutors and the defense both agreed that Taylor was mentally ill, most likely suffering from schizophrenia. Taylor has said he suffers from the disease.

“I think he was mentally ill,” Napa County Deputy District Attorney Gary Van Camp said after the verdict,” (But) I think he knew what he was doing was morally wrong.”

Experts testifying on the matter were split, but Deputy Public Defender Jess Raphael said the jury’s verdict clearly indicated that jurors were swayed by defense experts.

“Numerically they were split, but by quality and persuasiveness of their opinions there was no contest,” he said. “This is the right result.”

Raphael described Taylor as a “good kid” who had no prior record before the murder and suffered from mental illness.

Part of Taylor’s defense focused on Davis’ study of so-called black magic and his efforts to bring youths like Taylor into a cult based on his teachings. Raphael argued that Taylor believed Davis, 62, had special powers over him and the demons inside Taylor’s head had taken on the identity of Davis — prompting an internal struggle to rid Taylor’s body of Davis’ spirit, culminating in Davis’ murder.

Van Camp has said there were more terrestrial motives for Taylor to shoot Davis, including that Taylor owed Davis $6,000 and he believed Davis raped him when he was 4 years old.

The prosecution said the night of the shooting, Taylor planned out how he would execute Davis. Van Camp said Taylor armed himself with a rifle, went to Davis’ apartment and talked him into going into the bedroom where he shot him once in the back and then four more times in the head.

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