In the murder trial of Jermorris Pilcher, two witnesses testified Thursday that fear kept them from coming forward with information about the 2006 shooting death of Michael Taylor.
Pilcher, 22, is accused of shooting Taylor in the back at Delta Apartments on Browning Road on July 14, 2006.
Pilcher “didn’t think anyone would come forward,” Marvin Sanders, Leflore County assistant district attorney, told jurors during opening statements. “And it almost worked.”
The prosecution claimed Pilcher was upset that Taylor – who hailed from Broad Street – “had the audacity” to move into Delta Apartments.
“There is what’s considered a code of silence in some neighborhoods,” Sanders told jurors. “That’s what we have here. Fortunately, in this case, we did have someone who came forward.”
But Greenwood attorney David Holly, who is representing Pilcher, told jurors that the prosecution’s witnesses have given conflicting statements since the investigation began. Holly also said no weapon or fingerprints have ever been found.
“I think you will find reasonable doubt,” Holly told the jury’s nine women and three men.
Pilcher, known as “Fruit Loop,” wearing a white dress shirt and white tie, waved and joked with his family and friends during recesses. His supporters filled one side of the courtroom.
Taylor, who at the time was 22 years old and two weeks out of Parchman penitentiary, was splitting time between his mother’s home on Broad Street and his sister’s home in Delta Apartments when he was murdered.
Dr. Steven Hayne, who performed the autopsy on Taylor’s body, testified that a .30-caliber bullet was taken from Taylor’s body.
Cordell Phams, 21, the state’s fourth witness, testified that on the night of the murder he saw Pilcher with a .30-06 long barrel rifle with a scope.
Asked by Sanders how he knew it was a .30-06, Phams replied, “Because me and my dad go hunting 24/7.”
On the night of the murder, Phams said, he overheard Pilcher say he was “about to knock somebody out.” Phams said “to knock somebody out” means to kill them.
The prosecution asked Phams why he didn’t seek out law enforcement immediately after the murder.
“Because they were talking about what they were gonna do to me,” Phams said.
On cross examination, Holly asked Phams about inconsistencies in his testimony, in particular about the identities of other witnesses and his assurance of the kind of rifle he saw Pilcher holding.
“Did you see him shoot the gun?” Holly asked.
“Yeah,” Phams responded.
“Who shot the gun?”
“Fruit Loop.”
Later, when Holly pressed, Phams admitted he didn’t actually see Pilcher shoot a gun, but he added, “I ain’t got to see him shoot it.”
Holly then produced a statement Phams gave the Leflore County Sheriff’s Department almost two weeks after the murder. In it, Phams stated that it was too dark to tell what type of gun he saw Pilcher with.
“I don’t remember telling that it was too dark,” Phams told the court. “I don’t know about that. You must have wrote your own statement.”
At that point Circuit Judge Margaret Carey-McCray told Phams, “You don’t ask him questions; you don’t spar with him. You’re welcome to explain, but answer the question.”
Deon Prayer, the state’s sixth witness, testified that on the night of the murder, he heard Pilcher ask a gentleman known as ‘Fella’ for a “tone.”
Prayer said “tone” is slang for a gun.
When asked by the prosecution why he didn’t give law enforcement that information sooner, Prayer said, “They probably would have shot me.”
On cross examination, Prayer, 22, said when he heard a gunshot that night he didn’t look to see where it came from.
“That’s kind of strange, isn’t it?” asked Holly. “The normal reaction would be to turn and look.”
With the crowd snickering, Prayer responded, “Why am I gonna turn that way?”
The state’s first witness Thursday was Taylor’s sister, Christine Taylor, known as “Bumblebee.”
“After I heard the first shot, I hit the floor,” said Taylor, who was in her apartment when the murder occurred. “After a couple of seconds I hopped up and looked out the door.”
Taylor said she saw her brother stretched out on the apartment’s stairwell. She said she told him to “hold on” and told her boyfriend, Ronald Thomas, who was inside, to call an ambulance.
“He said he wanted his mama,” Taylor said of her brother. “He was saying he loved us.”
The trial continued today.
