Marion County rape suspect tries luck with jury after rejecting plea deal

Aug. 17—FAIRMONT — A man charged with abducting, beating and raping his on-again, off-again girlfriend in 2021 is on trial this week in Marion County Circuit Court.

Thirty-three-year-old Joseph Scott Taylor's criminal trial got underway Wednesday with Assistant Prosecuting Attorney Sean Murphy describing Taylor as "a bad boy."

Murphy said Taylor met the victim in the spring of 2020, and after dating for a period of time, they moved in together. The relationship fell apart afterwards but they continued seeing each other off and on. A loan that the victim cosigned with Taylor, on which he later became delinquent, is what drew them back together on June 5, 2021.

During a trip to a bar after patching up their differences at Taylor's Lois Lane apartment, Taylor got drunk and began making an aggressive scene in the bar parking lot. The victim left him and went to the back bar, where other men began to talk to her. Taylor appeared, dragged her by the hair into the car and told her they were going home.

During the drive, Taylor smashed the car's radio, kicked the windshield and made repeated lunges at the steering wheel as she drove.

Once they reached his home, he dragged her once more into his apartment, breaking open his own front door.

"He beat the living hell out of this woman," Murphy said. "Her eyes were swollen shut, he was like an animal, biting her face. She looked like she'd been chewed on by a pack of coyotes."

Inside his apartment, the victim fought back against her attacker, but could not stop him. Murphy said he sexually violated her for three and half hours, before he fell asleep and she took her chance to escape.

The victim walked several miles home to her stepfather's home.

"I was horrified by what I saw," the victim's stepfather said on the stand. The Times West Virginian declines to name the witness in order to protect the victim's identity. "Her face was red, her neck was swollen, her shirt was ripped, she had bite marks all over. I called 911. She was hysterical, crying."

He choked up several times during his testimony.

Later, when police arrived at Taylor's apartment, they found him pouring chainsaw oil into the victim's car. After Marion County Sheriff's Deputy Michael Stewart ordered Taylor to stop, Taylor yelled that Stewart needed to talk to Taylor's attorney, returned inside his apartment and slammed the door shut. He then escaped through a window.

"He was trying to destroy evidence," Marion County Sheriff's Deputy Zach Bennett said on the witness stand.

Bennett said they found blood and feces on the carpet in several places, including the bedroom and on the bed cover, when they entered the apartment.

Police found Taylor at a Wendy's a few days later, where he was captured after a similar escape attempt.

The graphic nature of the case caused problems for Murphy during jury selection. Several jurors asked to be excused from the case, citing an inability to be impartial.

Such was the number of requests, that Circuit Court Judge David Janes had to remind the jury that Murphy's questions sought to determine if a juror could remain impartial, not if the juror found the material distasteful.

Weeding out inadequate jurors was especially important to Murphy. Last week, the Stephen C. Tucker trial ended in a mistrial when it reached the verdict phase after two jurors came forward and admitted they couldn't be impartial during the trial after all. Visibly frustrated, Murphy urged jurors who couldn't be impartial to step forward now, so as to not waste anyone's time during the trial.

Murphy's opening statement lasted a considerable amount of time. By comparison, defense attorney Christopher Wilson's opening only lasted a few minutes. In his address to the jury, he compared a trial to a book, saying that it had twists and turns and it's impossible to get a grasp on it until the entire book is read. He urged the jury to listen to all the evidence before drawing a conclusion.

Wilson's strategy appeared to lay in emphasizing any contradictory statements made by witnesses. The prosecution's strategy lay in two large cardboard boxes containing evidence that Murphy and Detective Matthew Pigott walked into the court once the trial began. At one point, Wilson split hairs with Stewart on whether or not Taylor could have poured oil into the car's gas tank because the gas can didn't have a spout.

Murphy also said in his opening statement that he could establish a recurring pattern. Former relationships of Taylor's would testify in the trial, including one who Taylor stabbed through the chest.

Prior to the trial's start, Judge Janes referred to a matter involving a plea bargain on the table for Taylor to take. Once it was settled between the parties, Judge Janes asked Taylor if he was sure he wanted to decline the plea bargain.

The trial began soon after.

A victim impact statement was available in the public case files. The victim said she lost her sense of self and identity, forcing her to feel powerless. Taylor stripped her of her dignity.

"A person that lacks remorse of bad behavior not once but multiple times is a threat to society," she wrote in the statement.

She added that he belittles and takes his anger out physically on women.

"He is dangerous and as a result of his unhealed issues almost cost me my life. He deserves to be caged."

Reach Esteban at efernandez@timeswv.com