A state appellate court panel has rejected an appeal from a man challenging his life prison sentence without the possibility of parole for arranging the killing of a pregnant woman in Hawthorne who had refused his demand that she get an abortion.
In a ruling Tuesday, a three-justice panel from California’s 2nd District Court of Appeal turned down Derek Paul Smyer’s claim that his sentence is unconstitutional and constitutes cruel and unusual punishment given his age — 20 — at the time of the crime.
Smyer — who prosecutors said arranged his pregnant girlfriend’s Sept. 25, 2001, contract killing — was convicted in May 2017 of first-degree murder for the unborn baby’s death and second-degree murder for the killing of Crystal Taylor, who was shot to death outside her apartment.
Jurors also found Smyer, now 43, guilty of two counts of solicitation of murder and one count of conspiracy to commit a crime, along with finding true the special circumstance allegations of multiple murders and murder for financial gain.
While behind bars in state prison for an unrelated murder, co-defendant Skyler Moore confessed to Los Angeles police detectives that he had killed the 27-year-old woman at Smyer’s behest. He was convicted of two counts of first-degree murder and one count of conspiracy. Moore was also sentenced to life without the possibility of parole.
Moore’s trial attorney, Richard Everett, told jurors that there was “little or no evidence” that Moore knew Smyer, and “no physical evidence to tie Mr. Moore to the murder of Crystal Taylor.”
Everett contended that his client was in solitary confinement in state prison while serving life in prison in the unrelated murder case when detectives went to interview him, and that detectives told his client they could help him get better living conditions in prison if he cooperated with the investigation.
He said Moore was hoping to get “some of the benefits they were offering” and gave a “false confession.”
“Mr. Moore did not kill Crystal Taylor,” his attorney said.
Prosecutors told jurors that the victim’s pregnancy was “the motive for the murder,” and that Smyer “needed someone else to do it for him.” The two defendants met at the basketball courts at Anderson Park in Redondo Beach, according to prosecutors.
Moore was a member of the East Coast branch of a Southern California gang and new to the area, Deputy District Attorney Rosa Zavala told jurors.
“He was looking to build a reputation for himself” and offered to kill Taylor in exchange for Smyer’s loyalty, Zavala said.
Smyer’s trial lawyer, Calvin Schneider III, said after the jury’s verdict that he thought it was “clear that somebody else committed the crime” and was “disappointed that the jurors didn’t find that there was reasonable doubt.”
At Smyer’s June 2017 sentencing, Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Ronald Coen said, “You know, to murder a lover is terrible. But to destroy the most innocent of innocents is the ultimate evil and that cannot be forgiven.”
One of the victim’s sisters, Michelle Taylor, said it gave her “great pride” to see Smyer in orange jail clothes.
“I pray that he never gets out,” she told the judge. “My family was destroyed.”
Another of the victim’s sisters, Monica Walker, spoke directly to Smyer, telling him, “You killed my sister for nothing … She didn’t want anything from you … What kind of monster are you?”
In an April 2019 ruling, a three-justice panel from California’s 2nd District Court of Appeal rejected the defense’s contention that there were errors in the pair’s trial.
The appellate court panel noted that Smyer’s motive was “shown by his complaints about Crystal’s pregnancy to her and to her co-worker” and that “the corroborating evidence amply demonstrated Smyer’s motive and ability to solicit Crystal’s murder.”
The justices noted in their April 4 ruling that a former girlfriend of Smyer’s had been assaulted by someone she later saw with Smyer while she was pregnant after he had asked her to get an abortion.
The appellate court panel also rejected Moore’s contention that jurors should not have heard about his November 2011 interview — one of three with Los Angeles police — while he was serving a life prison sentence for the murder of a rival gang member.
The California Supreme Court denied the defense’s petition seeking its review of the case in July 2019.
