Jermain Taylor back in court for hearing month before trial

FILE — Jermain Taylor arrives to court on Nov. 2, 2015.
FILE — Jermain Taylor arrives to court on Nov. 2, 2015.

Former middleweight champion boxer Jermain Taylor returned to Arkansas on Monday for the first time since a judge allowed him to stay in Florida as he awaits a series of criminal trials.

In a hearing Monday in Pulaski County Circuit Court, Judge Leon Johnson agreed to let Taylor stay in Arkansas a week ahead of his scheduled Dec. 3 trial, with the condition that he remain under 24-hour supervision by his trainer and legal team.

Johnson had previously allowed Taylor to move to Ocala, Fla., to remain under the supervision of his longtime trainer Pat Burns. As part of the agreement, Taylor must notify the court before he can return to Arkansas.

Taylor, 37, is training for a comeback with Burns after spending months in jail, although he does not have any scheduled fights.

Taylor will stand trial in December in a case in which he's accused of shooting a gun at a family of five after a Martin Luther King Day parade. Authorities say Taylor became angry at a child allowed to handle his championship belt.

Taylor has been charged with five counts of aggravated assault and a count each of terroristic threatening and misdemeanor possession of a controlled substance.

In a separate incident occurring in August 2014, Taylor is accused of shooting his cousin at Taylor's Pulaski County house. He was also arrested in May on battery charges after allegedly punching a fellow patient at a rehabilitation center.

Trial dates in those cases have not been set, and prosecutors are waiting on the defense to prepare its case, chief deputy prosecutor John Johnson said Monday.

At the hearing, the prosecutor also agreed to release to the defense the backgrounds of prosecution witnesses.

Defense attorneys told Judge Leon Johnson that they believed the criminal records are important to establishing the credibility of the prosecution's "chief witness."

John Johnson said after the hearing that the state had multiple key witnesses, and was not aware of a criminal background on any of them.

Before finishing the hearing, Judge Leon Johnson confirmed with Taylor's attorneys that the boxer would be returning to Florida immediately.

Read Tuesday's Arkansas Democrat-Gazette for full details.

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