so it was with nervous anticipation that crystal s family filed into the courthouse on july 11, 2016. the facts and the law and your common sense will lead you to one conclusion. crystal taylor died at the hands of skyler moore and derek smyer. prosecutor danette meyers told jurors crystal s murder and the attacks on derek s other girlfriend traci williamson were no coincidence. he has a motive to do it because he doesn t want to have the kids, he doesn t want to pay child support the prosecution claimed that while derek may have failed to stop traci from having her two children, he found the right man for the job of stopping crystal. his basketball buddy, c-styles. he s a gang member. he s a killer. and mr. smyer knew who to go to when he wanted crystal taylor taken care of. go right over there, have a
as momo, who set the tone. i thought it was the most wonderful family there was. my mom and i were best friends. my little sisters were best friends. you know, so i thought life was great. i m the oldest. michelle is the middle and krystal was the baby. and she was every bit the baby. she was my mom s baby. crystal was the youngest by six years. and both older sisters fought momo loved crystie a little extra. spoiled her, to. c michelle and monica. they talked every day and she would immediately start winning as soon as she talked my mom. she could be a grown-up and as soon as the phone rang, she went right back to be an eight year old. all the. time tia, her niece, remembers crystie as this both as a homebody and romantic dreamer. she was a flashy. she was at someone who shocked a lock. she was just a really down to earth, simple. just happy to be at home watching movies. she watched the same movies all the time. she loved love stories.
seat. prosecutors showed the jury the admitted hit man s videotaped confession. i just seen her come down, from the, uh, front the front way stairs. it was still kind of dark. that s when i killed her. how d you do that? what did you do? just shot her. when you left the area, did you go back and tell derek what you d done? um, after that, i seen him not immediately after that. then they called c-styles to testify. but instead of tying a bow on the case, he lobbed a grenade and blew it to pieces. c-styles told the jury everything he said on that tape was a lie. people have false confessions all the time. it happens all the time. calvin schneider was derek
taylor s pregnant if you are lying on the ground? i couldn t tell. i couldn t tell. in fact, she was five months along. her unborn son died when she did. crystal had told friends the father of her child was a guy named derek smyer. so you won t find out where derek is? that s it. we want to find out everything about him right now. the detective learned crystal and derrick had a quick fling that only lasted a month or so. they met at anderson park, which is near both their jobs. by now, it was lunchtime. derek wasn t in his office. so williams drove to the park bringing crystal s work friends with him. and one of them immediately noticed something. she points out the car that derrick drives. his car was easy to spot. it had vanity plates that said my wig. flying for a fancy car. then crystal s friend pointed out derek and detectives
smyer s defense attorney. he said c-styles made up a story that the cops wanted to hear. he was hoping to get better treatment in prison. he came in and admitted that they made these offers to him. and that that s why he did it. you think police kind of rushed to judgment here? absolutely, because they had a hunch, they went with my client. and they excluded others. schneider told the jury that without c-styles confession, there was no evidence linking derek to the murder. they re alleging multiple conversations, planning, without any proof of where, when, how. there s no emails between moore and smyer. there s no text messages. there s no phone calls. the defense portrayed derek as a man who loved his children. not one who would try to have them murdered. there s mr. smyer again in the hospital holding his baby. and i think it s important when you re looking at this case that you evaluate his expression on his face in these photos. proud father or killer? not only w