The Indiana Court of Appeals has ordered a partial retrial for a Hammond man sentenced to 150 years in the double slaying of a Gary mom and her teen son in the city’s Miller section.
Darren “Duke” Taylor, 41, was convicted Oct. 1, 2021, in the March 23, 2019, shooting deaths of Temia Haywood, 35, and her son, Lavell Edmond, 13, in their Gary home.
Taylor’s father had allegedly been in a relationship with Haywood at points for several years, and had been arguing with Haywood the day of the killings, court records state.
Taylor was sentenced to 60 years each on two murder counts, 10 years on armed robbery and 10 years each on two firearms enhancements. He is currently at the Wabash Valley Correctional Facility, records show.
Taylor argued he did not personally waive his right to a jury trial on the two firearms enhancement charges. Rather, his lawyer Lakeisha Murdaugh indicated they would go with a bench trial.
Appeals Judge Edward W. Najam, Jr. agreed, saying the late Lake Superior Judge Diane Boswell, who oversaw his trial, failed when she did not make sure he personally agreed to give up the right to a jury trial on that part.
The case is now returned to Lake Superior Court with orders to be retried on the two firearms enhancements, which would reexamine 20 of his 150-year term, documents show. Each enhancement count carries a possible penalty of 5-20 years.
The “waiver by Taylor’s counsel was invalid, and the court’s failure to confirm Taylor’s personal waiver before proceeding to a bench trial was fundamental error,” Najam wrote.
Haywood’s then 16-year-old daughter was home when she thought she heard gunshots, according to the charging affidavit. Her brother, Edmond, ran to her room, saying, “Mom is shot.” The girl then “jumped from the window in her second-floor bedroom, climbed over the neighbor’s fence and hid,” court records state.
At sentencing, Boswell admonished Taylor, saying he had “no remorse” and appeared to have a “nonchalant look on his face,” even as violent crime scene photos were shown.
“You need to feel something when you see people you know,” she told him.
Boswell died Oct. 19, 2021, after an illness.
Officers were called around 8 p.m. March 23, 2019 to Haywood’s residence in the 6800 block of East 3rd Avenue where police found Haywood on the floor and her son behind a door in a bedroom, a probable cause affidavit states.
Taylor’s father told police he “was really hurt” when he heard about Haywood’s death, the affidavit states. The man said “he heard from a few people that his son killed Temia,” but his son told him that he didn’t do it and not to believe anything that he has heard, the affidavit states.
A post made on Taylor’s Facebook page after the double homicide stated, “Y’all know (expletive) well I ain’t did no (expletive) like that,” court records state. Another person commented on the post, “That’s your picture ringing her doorbell around the time of the shooting,” according to the affidavit. The Facebook page was later deactivated, the affidavit states.
Officers from the U.S. Marshals Task Force, along with the Indianapolis Metro Police Department, arrested Taylor around 9:50 p.m. April 4, 2019, in Indianapolis, where he lived at the time.
