A 23-year-old Baltimore man was found guilty Wednesday of kidnapping two teenagers last year at a light-rail station in Timonium and raping the female victim, crimes the judge in the Baltimore County Circuit Court case called part of "a night of terror."
In his decision, Judge Robert N. Dugan relied heavily on a taped jailhouse phone call that Kiheem Malik Taylor made to an ex-girlfriend, in which the defendant essentially implicated himself in the Oct. 10 sexual assault, according to the judge. Dugan said the phone call was "overwhelming, damning evidence of [Taylor's] guilt."
It was the first time prosecutors used a taped conversation from the Baltimore County Detention Center since a change in policy about a year ago that allowed the county to record all inmates' outgoing phone calls. Baltimore County State's Attorney Scott D. Shellenberger helped prosecute the case, saying Taylor's call to an ex-girlfriend "was everything."
"Without the phone call, we would have had to make a deal with the other defendant" in the case, Brian Tyrone Scott, said Shellenberger. Scott is scheduled to go on trial the second week of September.
In the phone conversation, Taylor and the ex-girlfriend, who testified in the weeklong trial along with both victims, discussed what constituted a sexual assault, with the woman telling Taylor that all it takes is penetration, according to court testimony. Taylor's part of the conversation was played in court Wednesday during prosecutors' closing arguments.
Taylor wore a mask during the attack, in which he and Scott used what appeared to be a loaded gun to kidnap the victims in Timonium as the teenagers sat in a parked car at the Deereco park-and-ride lot, prosecutors said. Taylor and Scott locked the male in the trunk and sexually assaulted the female in the back seat, according to court testimony. The defendants also stole money from the victims from automated teller machines before dropping them off in Cherry Hill, according to testimony.
Although there was no DNA evidence linking Taylor to the crime, and the judge dismissed photographs of someone who looked like Taylor at ATM machines, the jailhouse phone call recorded him discussing details of the crimes.
"If Brian would have worn a mask, we would have never been in any of this," Taylor was recorded as saying.
Taylor's attorney, Marshall Henslee - who opted for a bench trial rather than one by jury because of the emotional impact of the case - said the digital recording should not have been admitted in court because the technology behind how it was made was never explained.
"His family and Mr. Taylor are obviously disappointed in the result," Henslee said.
Taylor was also convicted of multiple counts of robbery with a dangerous weapon and carjacking. Sentencing is scheduled for Aug. 28, and he could face up to two life sentences and an additional 140 years in prison, prosecutors said.
Both of the victims are graduating from high school and are planning to leave the state for school in the fall. Dozens of students from an area high school attended the hearing to support the victims.
