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

DATE: FRIDAY, February 8, 1991                   TAG: 9102080403
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B1   EDITION: STATE 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: JACKSONVILLE, FLA.                                LENGTH: Medium

STARK JURY HEARS FINAL ARGUMENTS

A USS Stark sailor was flashing back to a 1987 Iraqi missile attack as he killed a mother and daughter, a defense attorney said Thursday during closing arguments in the Virginia sailor's double-murder trial.

But prosecutors said Thomas Taylor Jr.'s post-traumatic stress was no excuse for the rape and murder of 21-year-old Paula Smits and the slaying of her 3-year-old daughter, Amanda.

The May 1987 Persian Gulf attack that killed 37 of Taylor's shipmates aboard the guided missile frigate has been the centerpiece of his defense. The ship returned to its home port in Florida just days before the killings on Aug. 8, 1987.

Defense attorney Ann Finnell said that during the slayings, Taylor, of Salem, Va., was convinced somehow that Smits was an Iraqi agent out to harm him.

"He's having flashbacks to the missile attacks. His dead friends are with him. He's living a nightmare," she said.

But Assistant State Attorney Angela Corey said the motives for the killings were not insanity, but the desire to cover up the rape of Smits.

"He raped her and he killed her and he killed the only other living witness that could testify against him," Corey said.

The state is seeking the death penalty.

Fellow prosecutor John Phillips used clay models of the victims' heads and had an employee dress in Smits' nightgown to show that the killings were cold-blooded.

Taylor had claimed he had consentual sex with Smits, but Phillips showed the jury how her nightgown had been carefully slit down the front with a knife.

The judge gave final instructions to the jury Thursday afternoon. Smits' family, including her husband, Steve, was in the front row of the courtroom during the arguments, and several family members broke into tears. Taylor showed no emotion.

During the trial, prosecution witnesses sought to show Taylor was sane at the time of the killings, attempting to hide the hammer and knife used in the attack as well as a bottle of wine he drank.

Therapists who testified for the defense said Taylor was suffering from a mental defect that caused him to lose touch with reality during the slayings.

by CNB