Palm Springs man facing a possible death sentence
Relatives chronicle pain since the 2013 murder of woman.
WEST PALM BEACH — Watisha Wallace’s daughter and sister were the only two witness prosecutors called Monday in the penalty phase of Elton Taylor’s first-degree murder trial, the phase where the Palm Beach County jury will decide whether he should get life in prison or the death penalty.
When it was time for Anastasia Dexter to get married a few years ago, she wanted nothing more than to have her mother, Wallace, help her pick out a dress, help her get over her jitters and stand by her side in the moments before she walked down the aisle.
LaFonda Wallace testified she wanted to be able to go to her parents’ house just one more time to play cards with her big sister, or to wake up just one more Sunday morning to the sound of her sister begging her to cook breakfast before they went to church.
Watisha Wallace’s October 2013 murder killed those dreams for both women, and on Monday they both chronicled their pain since Taylor, now 39, of Palm Springs, shot and killed Wallace, his 41-year-old estranged wife, on the patio of her parents’ West Palm Beach home after a last-ditch attempt to get her back failed.
“She wasn’t just my mom. She was my best friend,” Dexter said on the witness stand, wiping tears from her eyes.
Jurors on Wednesday convicted Taylor of first-degree murder, three of the four aggravated battery charges he faced, a felony gun charge and false imprisonment as a lesser included offense of an original kidnapping charge. Had jurors convicted him of second-degree murder, as Assistant Public Defenders Joseph Walsh, Christine Geraghty and Tatiana Bertsch had asked, Taylor no longer would have been eligible for a possible death sentence.
But on Monday, Chief Assistant State Attorney Adrienne Ellis and fellow prosecutor Chrichet Mixon asked the same jurors who convicted Taylor to issue a death sentence for him.
Bertsch, though, told jurors at the start of the sentencing phase Monday that a death sentence still would be the wrong choice for Taylor, who endured a violent upbringing only to become completely emotionally unhinged when his marriage fell apart.
In the days and weeks before the Oct. 21, 2013, shooting, she said, Taylor wavered between despair and hope, alternately asking for prayer in hopes of staying with Wallace, who had gotten a restraining order against him, and pounding on her parents’ front door demanding to see her. Bertsch reminded jurors that Taylor had put the gun in his mouth and pulled the trigger after he killed Wallace in a failed suicide attempt.
“Elton Taylor is so much more than the worst thing he’s ever done,” Bertsch said.
Later, jurors heard from Taylor’s older sister, Shalonda Anderson, who described an upbringing with Taylor where the two spent lots of time with an alcoholic aunt who was in an abusive relationship. Not only were they beaten repeatedly, Anderson said, but they were sometimes forced to beat one another under the threat of violence from the adults if they disobeyed.
At age 16, Anderson burned down a family home — a cry for help because she was being molested. When she later told her and Elton’s mother about the molestation, she testified, her mother didn’t believe her.
Circuit Judge Laura Johnson told jurors that testimony in the penalty phase of Taylor’s trial is expected to end late today. In order for Taylor to receive a death sentence, all 12 jurors must unanimously agree that he deserves the punishment.
The same panel took more than 11 hours and were sequestered overnight last week before they returned their guilty verdicts.
No matter the outcome of the case for Taylor, LaFonda Wallace told jurors her family is forever shattered by the loss of her sister.
Their father, Herman, who testified during the trial that he was running to neighbors for help when he heard his daughter scream “Daddy, come back!” in the moment before Taylor shot her, is haunted by thoughts of what he could have done differently.
Dexter, now the mother of two daughters of her own, is raising them without the guidance of her own mother.
And LaFonda Wallace said she stopped going to school, to church, and even to family gatherings, lost without a chance to grow old with her sister.
“I felt like I was going to lose my mind. I couldn’t talk to her, I couldn’t touch her,” LaFonda Wallace said. “A piece of my heart is missing.”