After a tumultuous extramarital affair, Charmane Goins told a friend he "had to get rid of" Lauren Taylor, Gwinnett County Assistant District Attorney Daryl Mans said in court Tuesday.
Goins' trial on charges of murder, felony murder and aggravated assault began Tuesday afternoon.
Taylor’s body was found strangled and burned in a Gwinnett County park in October 2014. Mans warned jurors that the pictures they would see of the body would make them “stay up at night.”
Goins was the person who strangled Taylor, poured gasoline on her corpse and lit it on fire in Deshong Park in the middle of the night, Mans said. Goins’ cell phone pinged down a route from Rising Fawn, Georgia, where he allegedly picked up Taylor, down to a location near Interstate 285. After that, his phone shut off, Mans said. The prosecution will also present DNA evidence showing hair in Goins’ trunk belonged to Taylor.
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Wanda Jackson, Goins’ defense attorney, pointed the jury to another man who she suggested may be Taylor’s killer.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution is not identifying that man because he has not been charged in this case.
Taylor, who Jackson described as essentially a transient, had lived with the man and his wife for about a month before they kicked her out. After Taylor’s death, the man smelled of gasoline and had scratches on his hands, Jackson said. He told police that the scratches and the gas smell were both from his job.
“If you’re choking someone, it’s reasonable to have scratches on your hands,” Jackson said in her opening statement.
With the addition of this man to the case, Jackson warned the jury that “everything is not as it seems” and that just because Goins was unfaithful to his wife does not mean he is guilty of murder.
“It’s not enough. It doesn’t make sense. It’s too many unanswered questions,” Jackson said.
The trial will continue through the week.
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