When Dante Taylor left his residence in Rochester on Sunday (7/14/13), he told his then girlfriend, Yahaira Contes, that he would be gone for about an hour.
Taylor, formerly of Wayne County, was familiar with the County and still had family residing locally. He headed to the residence/property of Larry Dennis on Champlin Road in Sodus, where he intended to score in yet another burglary. Taylor, with an extensive criminal past, including violent crimes, had reportedly burglarized the building a week earlier, taking tools and a knapsack of clothes, later found by police in Taylor’s apartment. When he arrived at the Champlin Road address, Taylor discovered Dennis was at home and moved on to a nearby residence down the road at the corner of Route 14 and Champlin Road where he found that no one answered the door.
Shawn Yeager had gone on vacation to Aruba, asking Stacey Moulton to stop by and take care of his cat. Unfortunately, when Stacey and her mother Terri Moulton discovered a burglary in progress, Taylor panicked and immediately stabbed the women, cutting Terri’s throat and pounding a knife into the chest of Stacey. It was determined both women died almost instantly.
To cover his tracks, Taylor started eight fires throughout the house, the largest and most likely to spread was in the laundry room. Unfortunately for Taylor, the rest of the fires quickly went out before causing any significant damage. The fire in the laundry room was luckily extinguished after the flames and heat burned through a hose on the washing machine spewing water about the room.
Terri Moulton’s husband, Charles, went looking for the women after they failed to return home, or answer their cell phones. He discovered the horrific scene and called police.
Police, working on only circumstantial evidence began piecing the case together.
Taylor, for his part, continued with the burglary after stabbing the two women to death, leaving their bodies in a heap in the dining room.
Before the women startled Taylor, he had already piled five bottles of stolen liquor in a laundry basket. Fortunately for police, while stabbing Terri, some of her blood spattered, unseen to Taylor’s eyes, on some of the bottles. This recovered blood evidence was one of several nails in the conviction coffin for Taylor. Taylor also stole the women’s cell phones, hoping to cash in on their value on the streets.
Cell phone tracking through various cell towers in both Wayne and Monroe Counties tracked Tayor as he made his way to Wayne County, at the crime scene and on his way back to Rochester. Taylor was so unaware of the technology used to track his movements on that fateful day, that his and the two phones belonging to the women hit on the same Webster tower at the same time on his way back to Rochester.
In addition to the liquor and cell phone evidence, eye witnesses put a vehicle matching Taylor’s 2004 dark, Mercury Mountaineer in the driveway of the Yeager residence.
Police had the leads they needed. Within days a search warrant was obtained for Taylor’s vehicle and apartment. A drop of Stacey’s blood was located on the console between the front seats of the vehicle.
The liquor bottles were found stashed behind a dresser in Taylor’s bedroom and blood droplets were also recovered in the laundry basket he used to haul the bottles. It was theorized that the blood splatters occurred when the stabbings took place with the laundry basket nearby.
To make things worse for Taylor’s pleas of innocence, and building on the circumstantial case, phone records showed Taylor’s girlfriend texting him a message that certain phone outlets could unlock the codes on cell phones.
Taylor was originally arrested in the case for a parole violation and jailed, while police built their case.
Taylor was eventually charged with two counts of Murder in the 1st Degree, and six related counts involving the crime. During his time awaiting trial, his girlfriend, Yahaira Contes, married him while behind bars. A ploy many felt was to evoke the husband/wife confidentiality section of the law. Unfortunately for the couple, it did not apply in this case.
After Wayne County District Attorney, Rick Healy paraded 53 witnesses in the week-and-a-half trial, along with well over 100 pieces of evidence and documents, it came down to the final day of the trial. Would Dante Taylor, a former Wayne County resident, testify on his own behalf? There were soft comments made in the trial gallery, after the defense – headed by Rochester defense attorney Joseph Damelio – rose on Tuesday and stated “The defense rests”.
Then Damelio and Healy’s summations were heard by the jury. At 1:55 p.m., Judge Daniel Barrett gave his instructions to the jury.
All through the trial, family and friends half filled the courtroom in support of the slain women. Close family had to endure gruesome pictures and details as they were presented to the jury.
The evidence was all circumstantial, but a Wayne County Jury received the case on Tuesday (9/23) and when they began deliberating, it took one hour on Tuesday and about three more when the jury resumed deliberations on Wednesday to bring in a conviction for two most serious crimes of Murder in the 1st Degree. Taylor was also found guilty of five of the lesser charges and acquitted of the prior burglary at the Larry Dennis residence.
Upon hearing the verdict, Taylor, who had sat stoicly during the trial, stood up in a rage, called the jury racists and began spewing vulgarities. Several jury members began to cry as guards struggled to contain Taylor and remove him from the court room. The tirade continued as Taylor was brought under control by deputies and lead out of the building.
Several members of the Moulton family and friends also wept at the verdict and outburst by Taylor in the courtroom.
Healy, who skillfully weaved the circumstantial evidence into a successful conviction, called the double homicide a crime of opportunity that occurred because the Moultons walked into the house. “He revealed his true character,” said Wayne County District Attorney Richard Healy, in reference to Taylor’s courtroom outburst. “He is a threat to society and needs to be locked away for life.” Taylor, who has had two other prison stints in his past, is slated to be sentenced on November 20th in Wayne County Court and faces a maximum sentence of life in prison without parole.