Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, February 1, 1991 TAG: 9102010347
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: JACKSONVILLE, FLA. LENGTH: Medium
Peter Hughes, a Naval Investigative Service special agent on the USS Saratoga, said Walter Thomas Taylor Jr. of Salem, Va., wrote the confession hours after his arrest in Virginia on Aug. 12, 1987.
Hughes testified Wednesday that the statement was the third version Taylor, 24, gave of his actions during the early morning of Aug. 8, 1987.
"I don't believe your story," Hughes said he told Taylor after the first two versions. "What went wrong that night?"
Taylor's face reddened slightly. "Everything went wrong," he answered, according to Hughes.
Soon after his full confession, he was charged with first-degree murder in the deaths of Paula Smits, a 21-year-old Jacksonville Navy wife, and her 3-year-old daughter, Amanda.
Defense attorneys contend Taylor was insane during the killings.
Hughes explained that Taylor said he was so angered by Smits' screaming about rape that he beat her and her daughter with a hammer.
Hughes read the six-page written confession to the jury.
Taylor said he had been drinking most of that day and night with his friend Dave Peterson, who had been his Jacksonville host since the USS Stark docked at Mayport Aug. 5, 1987, the statement read.
That was three months after the ship had been hit by an Iraqi missile, killing 37 of Taylor's shipmates.
Peterson and his wife, who had introduced Taylor to Smits as their neighbor, did not have a phone, the statement read. So when Taylor decided he wanted to call his sister about 4:30 a.m. or 5 a.m., he went to Smits' apartment, carrying a bottle of wine.
Taylor called his sister, who was upset that he was not coming home to Virginia during his leave.
He and Smits talked a while about the conversation, and she initiated sex, the confession read.
But soon afterward, Smits became anxious, worried her husband would find out, Taylor stated in the confession. He was drunk and irritated as she continued to worry aloud, so he slapped her.
Angry, she threatened to call police, saying she would file a rape report, Taylor's statement read.
Taylor noticed a tool box with a hammer - something to hit her with to knock her out. As he turned toward her, swinging the hammer, he saw that she held her toddler in front of her, and he accidentally struck the child, the statement read.
Eventually, after using the telephone to book a one-way flight to Virginia, he jumped off the second-floor balcony and fled.
A Jacksonville police detective, Sgt. J. D. Warren, told the jury Thursday that Taylor also confessed to him on Aug. 13, 1987.
by CNB