On August 3, 2013, 17-year-old American teenager Alexis Tiara Murphy from
Nelson County, Virginia
Nelson County is a county located in the Commonwealth of Virginia, in the United States. As of the 2020 census, the population was 14,775. Its county seat is Lovingston. Nelson County is part of the Charlottesville, VA Metropolitan Statistic ...
disappeared after being seen at a gas station in
Lovingston, Virginia
Lovingston is a census-designated place (CDP) in and the county seat of Nelson County, Virginia, United States. The population as of the 2010 Census was 520.Shipman, Virginia, to travel to Lynchburg. She was last seen at a Liberty gas station in Lovingston, Virginia, on the evening of August 3, where she was driving a white 2003 Nissan Maxima. In the following days, she was reported as missing and a search was launched. Murphy's car was found on August 6 in Albemarle County, where it had been abandoned in a theater parking lot. On August 10, the police announced that they were trying to identify photographs of persons seen in close proximity to Murphy. The following day, a suspect, later identified as Randy Taylor, was arrested.
Investigation
Prior to arresting Taylor, police investigated him as one of several people who appeared on the gas station's surveillance video. The police searched Taylor's camper, where they found a strand of Murphy's hair. As Taylor lived near a river, dive teams and canine units conducted a search and found a red sweater. The sweater was initially speculated to have belonged to Murphy, but an investigator later stated otherwise. Several cell phones were also found and sent to the FBI lab in Quantico for testing. Authorities found DNA evidence that Murphy had been in Taylor's camper.
On September 24, 2013, Taylor was indicted on two felony charges. In January 2014, Taylor was indicted on charges of first-degree murder, first-degree felony murder and abduction with the intent to defile, as well as an unrelated grand larceny charge. Investigators searched Taylor's property shortly before he was set to be
tried
In law, a trial is a coming together of parties to a dispute, to present information (in the form of evidence) in a tribunal, a formal setting with the authority to adjudicate claims or disputes. One form of tribunal is a court. The tribunal, w ...
.
Trial and sentencing
Taylor's case was brought to trial on May 1, 2014. Jury selection took about eight hours to complete and the trial was presided over by Judge Michael Gamble. Judge Gamble issued a gag order to prevent law enforcement officials, lawyers and their employees from speaking publicly about the case. Taylor pleaded not guilty to the charges of murder, stating that while Murphy had been in his camper, she had arrived with another man, Damien Brown, in order to buy
marijuana
Cannabis, also known as marijuana among other names, is a psychoactive drug from the cannabis plant. Native to Central or South Asia, the cannabis plant has been used as a drug for both recreational and entheogenic purposes and in various tra ...
and that the two had left together. His lawyer, Michael Hallahan, argued that law enforcement did not fully investigate this claim and focused predominantly on Taylor despite Brown leaving the state shortly after Murphy disappeared.
Evidence brought against Taylor included testimony from a cashier at the gas station, a bloody T-shirt; and evidence pulled from Taylor's camper, which included the strand of hair, a torn fingernail, and a diamond earring stud. Hallahan had made a pretrial attempt to suppress statements and the evidence found via search warrants, but this was denied.
On May 8, Taylor was found guilty on the charges of first-degree murder in the commission of an abduction and abduction with intent to defile in connection with the disappearance of Murphy. During the sentencing, Taylor tried to bargain for a lesser sentence. He said that a third person had been involved and that he would reveal the location of the body in exchange for a twenty-year sentence; Taylor's offer was declined.
On July 23, 2014, Taylor was given two life sentences.
Jesse Matthew link and appeal
In October 2014, shortly after the remains of Hannah Graham were discovered, Taylor requested that authorities perform a DNA test on Jesse Matthew. Taylor's lawyer alleged that because Matthew had been linked to several disappearances, including that of
Morgan Dana Harrington
Morgan Dana Harrington (July 24, 1989 – October 17, 2009) was a 20-year-old Virginia Tech student who disappeared from the John Paul Jones Arena while attending a Metallica concert at the University of Virginia (UVA) in Charlottesville, Virg ...
, he could have been responsible for Murphy's disappearance. Hallahan also requested a social media analysis to see if Murphy had ever contacted Matthew via any of her social media accounts. Nelson County Commonwealth's Attorney Anthony Martin remarked there was nothing to tie the two cases together but ran the requested tests, which ruled Matthew out as a suspect.
In December of the same year, Taylor filed an appeal, claiming that he did not receive a fair trial and that he received poor representation from Hallahan. His appeal was denied in May 2015 and a second appeal was filed with the
Supreme Court of Virginia
The Supreme Court of Virginia is the highest court in the Commonwealth of Virginia. It primarily hears direct appeals in civil cases from the trial-level city and county circuit courts, as well as the criminal law, family law and administrative ...
. His second appeal was denied in February 2016.
See also
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List of kidnappings
The following is a list of kidnappings summarizing the events of each individual case, including instances of celebrity abductions, claimed hoaxes, suspected kidnappings, extradition abductions, and mass kidnappings.
Before 1900
1900–1949
...