An 11-woman, one-man Pulaski County jury tasked with deciding whether former boxing champion Jermain Taylor beat an ex-girlfriend bloody, choked her unconscious and threatened her with a knife will render a verdict on felony domestic-violence charges, possibly today, without hearing from the Olympian, his lawyers said Tuesday.
Prosecutors called three witnesses Tuesday to make their case against the Arkansas Sports Hall of Famer: the former live-in girlfriend, the 911 dispatcher who answered her call for help, and the Little Rock police officer who arrested Taylor after finding the bruised and bloody woman inside Taylor's home in August 2018.
Taylor, who won an Olympic bronze medal for boxing in 2000, is charged with Class D felony counts of aggravated assault on a family or household member and first-degree terroristic threatening plus misdemeanor domestic battering. As a repeat offender, he faces up to 30 years in prison.
Fighting under the nickname "Bad Intentions" in a career that ended eight years ago, Taylor remains the most recent undisputed middleweight champion, the only man in history to claim each title from all four major boxing sanctioning organizations in a single fight.
After prosecutors rested their case, defense attorney Lou Marczuk told presiding Judge Leon Johnson the defense would likewise rest -- but without presenting evidence -- when proceedings resume at 10 a.m. today.
Marczuk told the judge he'd advised Taylor that testifying would open Taylor to answering questions in front of the jury about his nine felony convictions, all involving violence.
The public defender said the decision about taking the stand was entirely up to Taylor, who had decided against testifying. Taylor affirmed for the judge he did not intend to take the stand.
Taylor's lawyers warned jurors in their opening statements to be both skeptical of what they would hear from the witness stand and questioning about the proof that's lacking, like forensic and medical evidence.
"Listen to the words of the witnesses, but please pay attention to the motive -- the bias -- behind those words," co-counsel Harrison Tome said. "Pay attention to not only what they say but why they say it. Pay attention to what you hear but also what you don't hear."
During the trial, the defense elicited testimony that Taylor's accuser, Labiba Sutton, has hired a lawyer to explore suing him, once the criminal case is resolved.
Prosecutors Michael Wright and Reese Lancaster opened their case by playing Sutton's 911 call that brought police to the Taylor's Azalea Drive home.
"I need help. He's beating me up," Sutton told dispatcher Tamara Britton. "He's got a knife."
Asked whether Taylor had hurt her, a crying Sutton replied, "I'm bleeding all over," and saying that Taylor had knocked her out.
The 43-year-old Sutton, who spent about 90 minutes on the witness stand, mostly answering questions from the defense, told jurors that Taylor choked, slapped and threw her around the house that afternoon in an attack that twice caused her to lose consciousness to the point of soiling herself. She said Taylor's violence took her by surprise and started as soon as she arrived at their shared home, bringing food from Wendy's.
The Egyptian native and mother of one said the encounter ended in the bathroom she'd entered to get away from Taylor, with prosecutors showing the jury a photograph of blood spatter in the room that Sutton said came from the scratches and cuts Taylor had inflicted. Jurors also saw a picture taken in the hospital of her bruised and swollen face as the 5-foot, 4-inch Sutton described her injuries.
Sutton told jurors that Taylor, who reportedly stands 6-feet tall, was angry about something she'd said sometime earlier to a neighbor, responding "anytime" after the neighbor had thanked her for giving him a drink.
He repeatedly demanded that she explain the remark, despite her efforts to make him understand it was just a figure of speech, not a romantic overture to the man, Michael Burnett.
"I told him that's the way we talk," Sutton said. "He kept asking me the same question over and over. He thought there was something going on."
Taylor pulled a hunting knife out from under a mattress and pointed it at her, saying she deserved to die, an emotional Sutton recounted.
"I begged him for my life," she testified.
She told jurors he eventually put the knife away, telling jurors she called 911 once Taylor gave up the attack and left.
Patrol officer Ronnie Morgan, a 29-year veteran of the Little Rock police force, told jurors how he came to arrest Taylor after finding the woman with blood on her face at the Taylor home. He said officers had been sent to the residence to investigate a report of a disturbance with a weapon, and that he had found Taylor sitting with a group of people in a neighbor's driveway.
Morgan said Taylor opened the door to his home and called out, with Higgins coming to the door disheveled with red eyes and blood on her nose and mouth. She silently cried out for help, Morgan testified.
"As she approached, when Taylor's back was to her, she mouthed the words, help me, please," Morgan said.
Describing Taylor as alternating between cooperation and belligerent, Morgan said Taylor would not answer questions about what happened, telling officers to do whatever they had to do.