UK chef’s murderer fails to convince Supreme Court that he was wrongly convicted

The Kentucky Supreme Court has affirmed last year’s conviction of Robert Markham Taylor on charges of murder, kidnapping and tampering with evidence in the 2013 killing of University of Kentucky chef Alex Johnson.

Taylor had appealed the conviction by a Fayette Circuit Court jury, but the Supreme Court justices said they found no evidence of reversible error.

“Any errors that occurred at trial were harmless,” the court concluded in a written opinion issued Thursday. “The evidence against Taylor was ample.”

Johnson, 32, worked as a chef in the Hilary J. Boone Center at the University of Kentucky. He was beaten to death, and his body was stuffed into a barrel and dropped into the Kentucky River, where it was found in January 2014.

After Johnson was killed, Taylor took about $40,000 in cash from Johnson’s apartment before stopping at a nearby location where Johnson kept his marijuana and removing two black garbage bags filled with about 26 pounds of marijuana, according to trial testimony.

Taylor challenged his kidnapping charge. He also asserted that several pieces of evidence were admitted contrary to the rules of evidence, that text messages and video admitted at trial hadn’t been properly authenticated, that a doctor wasn’t allowed to testify about the mental health evaluation of a witness, and that a particular juror was refused as an alternate.

The Supreme Court rejected each argument.

Taylor, 32, is serving a 49-year sentence at Eastern Kentucky Correctional Complex in Morgan County. He isn’t eligible for parole until January 2034.

This story was originally published November 3, 2017 at 9:26 AM with the headline "UK chef’s murderer fails to convince Supreme Court that he was wrongly convicted."