Boxer's bail on hold till mental report in

Taylor in court as judge hears update on doctors’ progress with evaluation

Pulaski County Circuit Judge Leon Jackson said Tuesday that he will consider setting bail for boxer Jermain Taylor once state doctors have finished assessing his mental health.

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Taylor, 36, has been jailed for two months at the judge's order after being arrested on a second-degree battery charge over accusations that the boxer punched out a fellow patient at a drug rehabilitation center in May. The judge had ordered a mental-health review at the request of Taylor's lawyers.

Taylor -- shackled at the wrists, waist and feet, and guarded by a five-deputy crew -- did not speak during Tuesday's two-minute court hearing for a progress report on the mental evaluation process.

Doctors have not completed the evaluation but are getting close to finalizing their findings, deputy prosecutor Kelly Ward said.

Taylor is due back Aug. 24 for another report on the process, and the judge said he'd take up a bail request then, if the evaluation is complete. There's no guarantee he'll let Taylor out of jail, the judge told defense attorney Hubert Alexander. Johnson ordered Taylor held without bail in May.

Alexander, who's representing Taylor on accusations that he shot and wounded his cousin last August, said he's ready for trial because Taylor already has been given a clean bill of mental health in the first-degree battery case.

But before Taylor can stand trial, Alexander said he needs to know if prosecutors are going to use any evidence from his client's other two criminal cases in the battery trial.

Prosecutors can't make that decision until questions about Taylor's mental status regarding those other charges are resolved.

Taylor also is charged with aggravated assault and terroristic threatening on the basis of accusations that he threatened a family of five by shooting off a gun after the city of Little Rock's Martin Luther King Jr. parade in January. He's represented by another lawyer, Jimmy Morris Jr., in that case.

In the 13 days since his last appearance before Johnson, Taylor has formally ended his 12-year marriage to Erica Taylor, finalizing the split at a July 21 hearing with an undisclosed property settlement.

Erica Taylor received custody of the couple's four children, ages 10, 8, 7 and 2, court records show. She filed for divorce in March 2014.

Jermain Taylor's divorce attorney, Sylvester Smith, has petitioned for the former boxing champion to have a conservator appointed to manage his finances while he's in jail.

According to the petition before Circuit Judge Chip Welch, Taylor needs someone to oversee his financial interests because he is in lockdown 23 hours a day in jail and does not know when he'll be released.

Taylor has asked that Tiandra Sullivan be appointed conservator, court files show. They have a "long-standing relationship," and Taylor trusts her, according to the petition.

Erica Taylor has consented to the arrangement, which needs Welch's approval.

Sullivan attended Tuesday's hearing before Johnson.

The petition says Sullivan lives in Arkansas, but on Facebook and Twitter, Sullivan describes herself as a 38-year-old single mother and entrepreneur from Miami living in Huntsville, Ala. On jail visitation records, she lists a residence in Pembroke Pines, Fla.

With his estate home for sale and reportedly empty, Taylor lists a Little Rock house owned by his mother and stepfather as his residence on the petition.

Metro on 07/29/2015

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