Unholy Sacrifice

by Robert Scott

  Many of the witnesses on the stand were the same as in Justin’s trial and much of their testimony touched the same areas. Every so often, however, a new and unheard wrinkle would be added. Nancy Hall summed up the aftermath of the first week of August 2000 by saying, “I think of my life as a spinning plate on a stick. When you break the stick, the plate falls. That’s how I felt. I was numb most of the time. The news was always worse. Our cornerstone was gone. Then you have to figure out how you’re going to live the rest of your life. We know that if we do anything to disgrace ourselves, it hurts our mother and father.”

  George Calhoun spoke of trying to snap Taylor out of his New Age philosophy, or “New Age bullshit,” as Calhoun put it. He said, “We started getting complaints from clients. I told him, ‘You’re going to screw up a good job, your life and family.’ Taylor was getting off track. I tried to get him grounded and back to business. I tried to steer him away from that philosophy.”

  Kelly Lord expanded on her previous testimony in Justin’s trial. She said of Taylor, “At first, I thought his energy was terrific. He was somebody fun. Somebody cool. He had so much hair. It was almost like a disguise. I thought, ‘Hooray! Somebody who is alive and wants to go do God’s work.’”

  Lord also told of going to a Wicca meeting with Taylor, Justin and Keri. She said, “It was a group of people sitting around talking about energy. They were talking about emotions and primal screams. Primal screams was where you released energy by screaming as loud as you can. Keri, Justin and Taylor all screamed. I didn’t.”

  Lord also expounded on the incident with Taylor at a Carl’s Jr. restaurant. He asked her, “If we could rob a small place like this, would you be up for it?”

  She thought it was just one more of his rhetorical questions, a chance to see how loyal she was to him and his ideas. Then he said, “If I did something that the newspapers said was criminal, but I didn’t do it, would you come and get me?”

  She answered, “Absolutely.”

  Looking back at the incident, she said, “If a newspaper said he did something wrong, then it could be proven later he was already legally insane.”

  Lord spoke of the incident in Marin County where Taylor told her, “If Kelly gets in my way, she’s fucked!” She looked over at him now, sitting at the defense table and said, “That’s not the Taylor I knew. He never wore glasses. He was more stylish. New Age. He had a lot of energy. I’ve never seen Taylor sit this still or be this quiet for so long.”

  Chapot asked Kelly Lord how Taylor was when he changed. She said, “I found out he was just regurgitating others’ beliefs. They weren’t original ideas. I’d found out that they weren’t his quotes. He was full of crap.

  “He became very curt and condescending. I felt so betrayed after learning about the drugs. After the drugs, it was a real cutoff point for me.

  “One of the things was, he tried to hug me on that last night. I said no. I knew I had a victory over him that night. Otherwise, I could have been Dawn (Godman).”

  Dawn Kirkland said on the stand that Taylor’s testimony at the Third Ward had been bizarre. She said, “He made some comments about not going to church for a while, but God had wanted him to come back. He asked, ‘Do you know what it’s like to live without sin?’ He said he lived without sin for a period of time.”

  Rosanne Lusk Urban and Tony Micelli testified again. There were always motions outside the presence of the jury as well. Suzanne Chapot had concerns about several potential witnesses. She said that a woman named Robin, whom Jewett wanted to call, had supposedly been involved in a scam Taylor wanted to pull on Dean Witter in 1998. Chapot said that Robin and Taylor had been boyfriend and girlfriend for a very brief time in 1996, but they were out of touch by 1998.

  Jewett responded that Taylor had been coherent enough in 1998 to plan the scam, when he was claiming to be mentally ill to Kaiser Hospital psychologists. He added, “Taylor was perfectly capable of using his mental processes to buy and sell stock.”

  Judge Mary Ann O’Malley, however, would not let this evidence in.

  Bishop Halversen once again took the stand and spoke of Mormon doctrine and Taylor’s deviation from it. He said that there was no passage in the Book of Mormon that advocated by doing evil, one could hasten the Second Coming of Christ. Halversen also said that Taylor’s testimony at the Third Ward had been “disturbing and bizarre.” Halversen said, “Taylor shared his feelings from the pulpit. The things he shared were not coherent to me. After two or three minutes, I asked that he be excused so that the next person could testify.”

  Halversen claimed that the aftermath of the situation was not confrontational. He said, “I met him that day and shook hands with him after the meeting. There was no acrimony.”

  At a second meeting with Taylor about three weeks later, Halversen said they had about a five-minute discussion. Halversen wanted to welcome him to the ward and asked if there was anything he could do for Taylor. Halversen would not discuss directly what Taylor talked about. To do so would have been to abuse confidentiality, much like a Roman Catholic priest not speaking of what’s said in confession. But Halversen noted some things in general that Taylor had touched on.

  Taylor at some point spoke of John 3:5 from the Bible:

  Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the Kingdom of God.

  This tied in with Taylor’s preoccupation with Spirit and voices from Spirit.

  Halversen also spoke of Taylor’s concern with Article 10 of the Mormon faith about the restoration of the tribes of Israel and the Second Coming of Christ. There was a concept of millennialism in Mormonism and many Protestant sects of Christianity.

  Jewett asked about a note found at Saddlewood concerning 2 Nephi 2:22 and 2:27. In part Halversen spoke of it:

  And now, behold, if Adam had not transgressed, he would not have fallen, but he would have remained in the Garden of Eden.

  And all things which were created must have remained in the same state in which they were after they were created; and they must have remained forever, and had no end.

  Wherefore, men are free according to the flesh; and all things are given them, which are expedient unto man.

  And they are free to choose liberty and eternal life, through the great Mediator of all men, or to choose captivity and power of the devil.

  Halversen said that Taylor did know good from evil, right from wrong. He said, “We have an intuitive knowledge about whether we are heading toward the light or darkness.”

  Jewett asked, “Anything in the Book of Mormon that speaks of killing someone and dismembering them and feeding their flesh to a dog?”

  Halversen responded, “I’m not aware of anything in the writing.”

  A witness who hadn’t been heard from in Justin’s trial was Robin Stewart. She had met Taylor in 1996 at a birthday party. They became friends and were soon intimate. She said, “Initially we got along very well. We got involved very quickly. What was so attractive about him was that he was so positive. You are wonderful. I’m wonderful. Life is wonderful.

  “He experimented with things that were taboo. This included sex. He was into pornography and trying sexual things out of the mainstream. I was uncomfortable with that. He wanted to embrace all of life’s experiences and not be afraid of pain. He thought that all human beings had the potential to become God. He wanted to eliminate fear. He said that he had a pre-knowledge of life. It was like reincarnation.

  “None of his behavior ever mortified him. He was very self-aware of what he wanted to do with his life. It never occurred to me that he might be mentally ill.”

  Like many others, Stewart went river rafting with Taylor. It was in the early summer of 1998 when the water was swift and treacherous in the mountain rivers. Stewart, with some others, was in a raft guided by Taylor. Only after they were through did he tell them that he’d been up all night, the night before, partying. Stewart said, “That was very upsetting for me. It can be dangerous
in those rivers.”

  That was the last time Robin Stewart saw Taylor.

  Another new witness on the stand was Tyler Bergland. He moved from North Dakota to an apartment on Victory Lane in Concord in November 1997. It was at those apartments that he met Taylor and became friends with him. Bergland recalled, “Taylor said he wanted to scam the system. He didn’t want to work. He said that he was pretending to act crazy so they’d have to pay him. I never saw him acting crazy.

  “He was very charismatic. Very open. He could get you to explore different ways of thought. I think I’m the one who introduced him to raves. He spoke to me about selling marijuana. Later, ecstasy and cocaine. He had brought a large sheet of paper with rules about how it would happen if it did happen (meaning the sale of drugs).”

  Bergland spoke of meeting Taylor again at the Willows Shopping Center in Concord in late July 2000. Indications are that it was a few days before the abduction of the Stinemans. Taylor was with his kids and Bergland said that, “he seemed normal.”

  One person who had definitely been at Justin’s trial was Keri Furman Mendoza. She was back on the stand again, wearing a green sweater and dark sunglasses. She looked like a Hollywood starlet. If many in the gallery expected another round of fireworks between her and Deputy DA Jewett, they were disappointed. Keri, this time, was soft-spoken, demure and straightforward. She added a few more things to the record that were not presented in Justin’s trial.

  Keri said, “Taylor and I became friends after meeting him at the Peppermill Restaurant. We’d talk after I got off my shift. There were no actual dates for a while.”

  When she moved in with him at the apartments on Victory Lane, she said, “He was very professional. He showed a lot of responsibility. He got up very early. Dressed nicely.

  “He talked a lot about Impact and how it served him well in life. I was very intrigued and interested. I wanted to go. I couldn’t understand how he could be so positive. He was full of life and love. I had a difficult life growing up. I aspired to be like Taylor. I loved him.”

  As for mental illness and his possible faking of it, Keri recalled, “He talked of having a breakdown. He wouldn’t shower for a couple of days. Taylor would practice how he would act before going to a doctor.”

  Of raves and drugs, she said, “There was one rave at the old Home Depot in Oakland. I helped him by looking out for security during his ecstasy sales. He could gross a thousand dollars in a night. He wore black leather pants and flashy shirts.

  “Once I started working for the Gold Club, he wanted me to influence other dancers. There would be a party to have men in a room with dancers. The purpose behind the parties was to make money. The men would pay a lump sum up front. It was just talk, though. It never got that far. It never evolved. It was in part from the movie Eyes Wide Shut.”

  As far as In To Me See went, Keri recalled, “It would be Taylor sharing himself and how he looked at things and viewed relationships. Taylor did counsel his mom and her boyfriend, Donald, who was an instructor with Harmony. The questionnaire was actually brought to Donald’s house at one point. I thought the questionnaire was funny. I just attended the counseling group there. People could see I was Taylor’s girlfriend and they too could have true happiness and love.”

  Jewett asked her about the “it depends” questions on the questionnaire:

  Lying is wrong: T F It depends

  Stealing is wrong: T F It depends.

  Breaking the law is wrong: T F It depends.

  Murder is wrong: T F It depends.

  Keri said she didn’t remember the “it depends” questions. She thought the questionnaire may have evolved through several versions. She may have been right about this—Dawn Godman spoke of helping Taylor on a version of the questionnaire.

  Keri stated, “Taylor always said things were a choice. As an example, you don’t have to clean the cat box. But if you have a cat, and you don’t want the house to smell, it would be a good idea to clean the cat box.”

  Keri said that she did help him create the In To Me See cards. On them were written things such as, “Do you enjoy love? Passion? Communication? Openness?”

  It had the name Jordan Andrew Taylor on the card, along with a phone number. The last line read, “Are you ready for a change?”

  Keri said that by the time they moved out of the Oak Grove house to Martinez, she and Taylor were distant from each other. In February 2000, she moved away from Taylor back down to southern California. She only visited him in northern California one more time. She thought that was either in May or June 2000. This visit may or may not have led to Rosanne Lusk Urban sighting her silver Mitsubishi in Woodacre. If the car was there, Taylor may have borrowed it and Keri was not there. There is no official record that Keri and Selina Bishop ever met.

  Taylor did call Keri several times during spring 2000. She said, “We mostly argued. He wouldn’t answer some of my questions. We were supposed to meet in San Luis Obispo, about halfway between where we lived. He didn’t come. He did loan me money for my Mitsubishi. But I felt it wasn’t really a loan. I felt like he owed me that money. I had supported him for years.”

  Keri told Jewett about a phone call she made to Taylor on Wednesday, August 2, 2000. Indications are that she called him from Dallas, Texas, where she was on a promotional tour. Keri said, “Taylor told me, ‘Don’t call me again unless you’re dying or seriously injured!’”

  Of course, on August 2, 2000, Taylor was luring Selina to her death at Saddlewood.

  Keri also testified that Taylor wrote her a few letters from jail after he was arrested. In one, he told her to remember who he was and not believe newspaper reports and television news about what he had supposedly done. He claimed that the police had planted evidence at Saddlewood and that he was innocent.

  Dawn Godman also had a few new things to say from the stand. One was: “One time, Taylor was sitting in the back of the church surreptitiously holding hands during a service. It was with Keri.”

  Dawn also said, “Taylor believed everything could be filtered through the Twelve Principles of Magic. Spirit knows everything that is going on around you. It was a way to live your life more in alignment with God. I began to accept the Twelve Principles of Magic. I believed that Taylor and Jesus Christ were brothers.

  “When I first heard of Children of Thunder, I felt unsure. But I never felt it was wrong. By then I was so wrapped up in Taylor, I would have followed any idea.”

  Dawn also spoke of a half-baked plan that Taylor came up with to get young girls from the “Burning Man Festival” and turn them into sex slaves. She didn’t elaborate if they were supposed to be Taylor’s harem or sell their bodies for money. Like many of Taylor’s ideas, this one did not get off the ground.

  Dawn said that just before Children of Thunder went into effect, “We asked God to protect us by beams of light and his angels. During the time we were deciding who these people [to be killed] would be, we prayed for God to lead them to us. We believed that they would give up their lives, whether they knew it or not. The only thing I felt in 2000 that was evil, was Satan.”

  Asked by Jewett if she still felt that way, Dawn answered, “Now I don’t have an answer to that question.”

  Detective Erin Inskip presented emotional testimony of Taylor’s flight from her vehicle. She said, “I heard a terrible thud. He threw himself through the window. I lost sight of him and got on the phone with Sergeant Heying to set up a perimeter. Concord PD responded.”

  There was testimony by William Sharp. Asked what he was doing on the morning of Monday, August 7, 2000, he responded, “Bathroom, kitchen and coffee.”

  Jewett asked what he thought of Taylor and his demands. Sharp replied, “I thought, ‘This guy’s screwy.’”

  Mozzochi spoke, as well as Patrol Officer Kathy Watson, Detective Mike Warnock and Ron Mingas. Detective Mingas said, “The evidence you see in the court is only a small percentage of the total.”

  Other people had spoken of Impact an
d Harmony, but when Neil Fisher got on the stand, he gave insights into what it was like to head a self-awareness group. Fisher was the creator and organizer of Introspect. Originally he had gone to Impact in 1990 and gone on to became a trainer and enrollment director for that group. Even though Fisher enjoyed Impact, he eventually left because he was often not paid on time for his services. He said in court, “I had a terrific experience with Impact. It was life-changing. But I thought I could run a business better. My fundamental philosophy was the celebration of life. Love yourself and love your neighbor.

  “Introspect was set up for people to notice things that limited them. Anything that impeded aliveness. The role of the trainer was to confront a person about their belief systems. In Impact, it could be harsh and confrontational. Introspect was gentler and kinder. I hired two trainers from Impact, who left for the same reason I did. Introspect was similar to Impact, but more spiritual in nature. You got to know people on a more intimate basis.”

  Fisher said of Introspect that it was less rigid. It was a “shift in the way to experience life.” As for love, he said the Greeks had many words for it, so perceptions of the word “love” in English depended upon a person’s outlook. Fisher recalled that he met Taylor in 1992 or 1993. He said, “Taylor loved the workshops. He helped people to love life. He asked to come and work for me. He was very sensitive and very kind. He got along with everyone in the group. He was a seeker. He wanted to live a full and happy life.”

  Jewett: “No talk from him about the end of the world?

  Fisher: No.

  Jewett: Any talk about the Garden of Eden? A perfect environment?