
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, February 7, 1991                   TAG: 9102070577
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B-2   EDITION: EVENING 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: JACKSONVILLE, FLA.                                LENGTH: Medium

PROSECUTORS SAY SAILOR WAS SANE WHEN HE KILLED 2

Prosecutors said today that a Virginia sailor should be convicted of first-degree murder for killing a mother and her young daughter despite having endured an Iraqi missile attack that killed 37 shipmates in the Persian Gulf in 1987.

Assistant State Attorney Angela Corey said the evidence showed that Walter Thomas Taylor Jr., of Salem, Va., was guilty of both premeditated and felony first-degree murder in the Aug. 8, 1987 deaths of 21-year-old Paula Smits and her 3-year-old daughter, Amanda.

"He raped her and he killed her, and he killed the only other living witness that could testify against him," Corey said. A second child, an infant, was unharmed in the attack but suffered dehydration before the bodies were found two days later.

The prosecution disputed defense contentions that Taylor, 24, was insane at the time, suffering post-traumatic stress because of the May 1987 missile attack on the USS Stark, a guided missile frigate based in nearby Mayport.

The ship returned home just days before the killings.

The defense claimed in opening arguments that Taylor, who met Smits the day before, went to her apartment to have consensual sex and came to believe that the woman was an Iraqi and a danger to him.

"We don't dispute for a minute that he suffered when he was on the USS Stark," Corey said. But she said that didn't excuse the brutal attack and slayings.

She urged the jury to reject all other possible verdicts, which include manslaughter and second- and third-degree murder.

"It is an insult to label the murders of Paula and Amanda Smits as less than first-degree murder," she said. The state is seeking the death penalty.

The case is expected to go to the 12-member circuit jury after the defense presents its closing arguments, the prosecution has a chance at rebuttal and the jurors get final instructions from the judge.

by CNB