First Person: A view inside the Dominique Samuels jury

Jason E. Sylva is a marketing associate for Boston Globe Media. He was one of 12 jurors who deliberated in the Dominique Samuels case and agreed to write about the experience.

For seven weeks I sat on a chair in Suffolk Superior Court, listening from the jury box to dozens of witnesses in the murder case of 19-year-old Dominique Samuels.

Dominique Samuels

It was a horrific crime -- a beautiful young woman asphyxiated in 2006, her body burned and discarded in Franklin Park. As I looked at jarring crime scene photographs, watched courtroom outbursts, and weighed evidence, the case became less clear. Witnesses contradicted each other, doubts were cast on police procedure and autopsy findings, and the defense suggested that the real killer was the defendant's first cousin, Martin McCray, a star prosecution witness. The timeline was murky, and details tugged me in different directions. [See below for a detailed overview of the evidence].

It took six days of meticulous and often frustrating deliberations before we reached a verdict. Voices were raised and emotions flared. At a low point, I suggested that we should all start writing out Christmas lists because we were never going to leave that deliberation room.

But our calming, mild-mannered forewoman took control and laid down some basic rules: One person speaks at a time, discussions must remain focused, and a clear timeline needed to be built. There were near impasses as we argued over key details, such as whether the killing occurred Thursday night or Friday night, and whether what occurred was first- or second-degree murder. We scribbled facts on yellow Post-it notes and stuck them to the walls in two columns to help us visualize the evidence. The stickies acted like our own scale of justice, helping us weigh verified information and discard innuendo.

We took on the doubts of all jurors, working our way back through the evidence. After several rounds of votes, we reached a unanimous decision -- Rodrick J. Taylor was guilty of murder. In the end, I could not ignore that his blood was found on the rooming house floor near Samuels's blood; the fact that he was, by his own admission, one of the last people with Samuels on Friday morning; the scratches on his hands and biceps; and the cellphone records that put him in Boston when Samuels's body was burned and discarded.

Rodrick J. Taylor

It took two or three more votes before we rejected the prosecution charge of first-degree murder and instead convicted Taylor of the lesser charge of second-degree murder. From my perspective, the prosecution did not present evidence that convinced me he was intending to kill her.

People have asked me if I am sleeping better now. I am, but not just because the eight-week trial is over. I'm sleeping soundly because I was one of 16 jurors who kept our emotions, prejudices, and personal opinions in check to render a unanimous verdict based on fact and reason. At his sentencing, Taylor gave a seven-minute speech maintaining his innocence. I am still convinced that we as a jury made the right decision.

I took copious notes during the trial. What follows is an overview of the key evidence and the conclusions I drew:

When was Samuels killed? The prosecution maintained that she was killed in the early hours of Friday, April 28, 2006. That was supported by much of the witness testimony, which showed that the last time anyone saw Samuels alive was late Thursday night into early Friday morning. The landlord's daughter on the first-floor of the rooming house testified that she was awoken by a struggle above her bedroom early that Friday morning. Another resident of the Woodbine Street residence recalled hearing loud noises that morning coming from the back of the house. It had been established that Samuels had been drinking that Thursday night, and an autopsy found that she had a blood alcohol content of 0.12 percent at the time of her death.

However, some witnessed did testify that they saw Samuels later in the day on Friday. One of the residents at the rooming house recalled seeing her walk up the stairs Friday night and said he heard her voice later that evening. Upon further questioning, the witnesses acknowledged that he may have mixed up the days of the week. His girlfriend testified that she heard several people talking and laughing outside her door Friday night and assumed it was coming from Samuels's room. She also was unsure of the exact night she heard the noises. Even if she did hear voices Friday night at home, it did not necessarily mean Samuels was still alive.

The landlady's daughter on the first floor also testified that she heard several voices above her bedroom late Thursday night or early Friday morning. She said she heard a struggle on the floor above as if someone was trying to get away. It went on for six or seven minutes before she said she heard a woman scream and the noise stop. She said she then heard music and several people talking.

During our deliberations, we considered her testimony about hearing several voices, and we came to a few conclusions. The voices could have come from a video game people had played in the room. Also, we reasoned that the witness was waking up from sleep and could have gotten the chain of events confused. At the end of the day, we concluded that the six or seven minutes' struggle was the moment Samuels was killed. Voices heard afterward were not evidence that she was still alive and were therefore immaterial.

After weighing all of this evidence, I conclude beyond a reasonable doubt that Dominique was killed Friday morning.

Was it murder or an accident?
The autopsy report listed cause of death as homicidal asphyxia of undetermined mechanism. The medical examiner found that Samuels had suffocated but because her body was so badly burned, several typical indications of strangulation were not evident. I felt it was clear that Samuels's death was a murder because her body was set alight and discarded in a park, and the testimony about screams and noises that sounded like there was a struggle.

Taylor was the last one with Samuels Friday morning
After concluding that Samuels died Friday morning, I used testimony to reconstruct what she was doing that night and who had been with her. According to Samuels's mother, she was with her daughter Thursday afternoon and took her to Rite Aid for groceries. Later that night, Taylor and his cousin, Martin McCray, and another resident in the rooming house were playing video games in McCray's room in rear of the Woodbine Street residence. The three men went with Samuels to the liquor store to buy alcohol. Between 10:30 p.m. and 11 p.m., McCray was picked up by his girlfriend, and they went to her house. Taylor and the other rooming house resident played video games in McCray's room until the early hours of the morning. Samuels went back and forth several times between her bedroom on the third floor and McCray's room on the second floor. The other resident returned to his girlfriend’s room in the front of the residence, and Taylor was the last one in McCray's room.

Dominique Samuels was killed in Martin McCray's bedroom
Samuels's blood was found on the floor in McCray's room. The screams that the landlady's daughter heard came from McCray's room. A resident in a front bedroom heard noises coming from McCray's room. Taylor's blood is found on the back of a television next to where Samuels's blood was found. There was no evidence to suggest Samuels was killed anywhere else.

Scratches indicated Taylor was involved in a struggle
In McCray's statement to police, he said Taylor showed him scratches on his bicep, hands, and neck. Testimony showed that the scratches on Taylor's neck had been there for many years. However, the marks on his bicep and hands suggested that he had been involved in an intense struggle. I did not find his story credible that the scratches came from an argument with his son's mother. The wounds appeared to be more recent than the argument described by Taylor's son's mother.

Taylor was in Boston when Samuels's body was dumped
Cellphone records showed that Taylor was in Boston at the time Samuels's body was moved and burned. The records even showed the phone call in which McCray said that Taylor told him, "It's done."

First-degree versus second-degree murder
Superior Court Judge Stephen Neel told us that is was important that Samuels was burned after she was killed and not before. That meant the disposal of her body alone could not make the crime cruel or atrocious, one of the requirements for a first-degree murder conviction. That left us with premeditation, the other requisite for first-degree murder. Premeditation does not necessarily mean a crime has to be planned for a long time, but a person must be acting with the deliberate intention of killing another. The prosecution did not present evidence that proved to me that Taylor intended to kill Samuels. I felt the evidence pointed to second-degree murder.

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