BOSTON, Aug. 29, 2014—A year and a half after the Massachusetts Appeals Court affirmed a murder conviction in the 2006 slaying of Dominique Samuels, the Supreme Judicial Court reached the same conclusion and denied her killer’s efforts to reverse it, Suffolk County District Attorney Daniel F. Conley said today.

The 26-page decision authored by Justice Barbara Lenk is expected to end any further appeals by RODRICK JAMES TAYLOR (D.O.B. 5/15/71), who was found guilty of second-degree murder for strangling the 19-year-old Milton High School graduate to death in the early morning hours of April 28, 2006, then setting her remains on fire in Franklin Park to destroy any forensic evidence that might incriminate him. His 2008 trial was one of the longest homicide trials in Suffolk County history, with some 30 witnesses offering testimony over the course of almost seven weeks.

Taylor’s primary claim on appeal was that his right to a speedy trial was violated, a claim rejected by the high court because he agreed to, benefitted from, or failed to object to most of the continuances granted by the judge in the case’s pre-trial stages.

“A defendant may not simultaneously agree to a continuance and assert his [speedy trial] rights, even if he or she states, as counsel did here, that such agreement is not a waiver,” Lenk wrote, affirming the trial judge’s denial of a motion to dismiss the case. “[T]he defendant acquiesced in or benefitted from at least 388 days of delay, which exceeded the 249 days the Commonwealth had the burden to justify.”

Taylor claimed at various points prior to trial and on appeal that prosecutors withheld discovery materials from him, but never articulated what those materials were, aside from audio recordings of witness statements for which he already had transcripts. As prosecutors argued before the Appeals Court and Supreme Judicial Court, he never filed a motion to compel disclosure of the allegedly withheld discovery materials because there were no withheld discovery materials.

“Eight years after her murder, I hope Ms. Samuels’ loved ones can take some comfort in knowing that we never stopped fighting on her behalf,” Conley said. “From the Boston Police detectives who did such outstanding early work on the case, to the homicide prosecutors who put the case to the grand jury and later the trial jury, to the appellate lawyers who defended the conviction, and to the victim-witness advocates who worked with them every step of the way, this was a team effort from beginning to end.”

Assistant District Attorney Edmond Zabin, now chief of the DA’s Homicide Unit, tried the case. Assistant District Attorneys Kathleen Celio and Sarah Montgomery argued the case before the Appeals Court. Taylor was represented on appeal by attorney Chauncy Wood.

–30–

All defendants are presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.