A Los Angeles man on Saturday was convicted of double homicide in the 2001 contract killing of his girlfriend and unborn child.
Prosecutors said 36-year-old Derek Paul Smyer hired a hit-man to kill his then pregnant girlfriend Crystal Taylor, 27, because she refused to have an abortion, according to NBC4 News.
Smyer was found guilty of second-degree murder for Taylor’s killing; first-degree murder of the fetus; two counts of solicitation of murder and one one count of conspiracy to commit a crime by a six-man, six-woman jury.
Prosecutors said 36-year-old Derek Paul Smyer (right) hired a hit-man to kill his then pregnant girlfriend Crystal Taylor, 27
Smyer is scheduled to have his sentencing hearing on June 1. He faces the life imprisonment without the possibility of parole.
The man Smyer hired to kill Taylor, Skyler Jefferson Moore, 35, is expected to have his verdict handed down on Monday afternoon. Moore, who has already been convicted of murder in a different case stemming from 2001, faces a possible death penalty sentence.
Calvin Schneider III, Smyer’s attorney, said he plans to appeal the verdict, telling NBC4 that his client is innocent of the charges.
‘I think it’s clear that somebody else committed the crime,” Schneider said. ‘I’m disappointed that the jurors didn’t find that there was reasonable doubt.’
The conviction took more than 15 years to secure, after a 2011 mistrial set the state back over six years.
Prosecutors said that Smyer and Moore met in Redondo Beach while playing basketball.
The state contends that Smyer hired Moore to carry out the shooting, with the latter eager to participate in order to his build his reputation as a ruthless hitman.
Calvin Schneider III (pictured), Smyer’s defense attorney, said he plans to appeal the decision, saying that the state has convicted the wrong man
Taylor was later found dead as she walked to car inside her apartment complex. She was an estimated 22 weeks pregnant.
Moore, who was already serving a life sentence for a separate crime shortly after Taylor’s murder, was approached by cold case detectives nearly a decade after her death.
The investigators promised to improve his conditions if he offered them information.
That’s when he admitted to killing Taylor on Smyer’s behalf. Police always believed Smyer’s was a suspect, now they had a witness.
Moore, however, later withdrew his testimony, saying he was concerned his he was helping ‘convict an innocent person.’
Deputy District Attorney Rosa Zavala also told jurors that ‘Crystal is not the first girlfriend that defendant Smyer has hurt.’
Smyer’s had two children prior to his relationship to Taylor, with the mother, Traci Williamson, being attacked by an unknown assailant during each pregnancy.
‘That relationship had domestic violence written all over it,’ Deputy District Attorney Danette Meyers said during the trial. ‘He pleaded with her to have an abortion.’
In the first attack, a man cut her throat with a knife, prosecutors said.
‘The (second) attacker focused on kicking and punching her in the stomach,’ Zavala said.
Schneider painted a different picture of his client, showing pictures of Smyer smiling following the birth of each of his children.
The defense attorney also said that Smyer dropped out of school to support Williamson while she finished high school.
Both of Smyer’s children were living with him at the time of his arrest for the murder of Crystal Taylor in 2010.
Smyer was previously convicted of bank fraud, serving 14 months in prison from 2006-2007.