Sean Taylor excels at defense. On the field, that has never been in doubt. Taylor is one of the best young safeties in the NFL, a first-round draft choice out of Miami by the Washington Redskins in 2004, a Pro Bowl alternate his rookie year, a player so ferocious he is called "The Hitman."
Taylor, however, is currently depending on his defense lawyers as he fights assault charges here that could put him in prison for up to 46 years.
Last June, after an altercation in West Perrine, a depressed community south of Miami, Taylor's GMC Yukon Denali was sprayed with bullets from both an AK-47 and a semi-automatic pistol. The gunmen have never been identified.
In the shooting's aftermath, the police charged Taylor, 23, with one count of felony assault and one count of battery. In January, two additional felony assault charges were filed. Because of mandatory minimum sentences, Taylor would be jailed for at least three years if convicted of any of the assault charges.
"It's incredible that this young man would be facing three counts of incredible severity," said Ed Carhart, one of Taylor's three lawyers. "He has so much to lose it's mind boggling."
On the field, Taylor carries himself with a demeanor that matches his nickname. In his rookie year, he had an angry postgame confrontation with Bengals receiver T.J. Houshmandzadeh. Without naming either player, Cincinnati coach Marvin Lewis later said that one of his players had been spit on.
Last season, Taylor was ejected from a playoff game for spitting on Michael Pittman of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
His off-field life has often seemed just as chaotic. He cycled through agents and skipped a mandatory rookie symposium. He was arrested on drunken driving charges in Virginia in October 2004, but the charges were dismissed.
Through his lawyer, Taylor declined to discuss his legal troubles. His father, the police chief of nearby Florida City, also refused to comment. "That's what lawyers are for," said Pedro Taylor.
When his rookie season ended, Taylor chose to return to his native Miami rather than stay in Virginia near the Redskins. He sometimes stayed with friends, including Michael McFarlane, who lived in West Perrine, according to Carhart, Taylor's lawyer.
With money from a seven-year, US$18 million contract, Taylor bought a pair of all-terrain vehicles. Four-wheel ATV's are popular in West Perrine. They can be seen on weekends buzzing down side streets and traversing the yards of housing projects.
On May 31, 2005, after cruising West Perrine with a friend, Taylor parked his new ATV's at McFarlane's house. Taylor left the vehicles overnight, though he did not stay at the house himself, according to Carhart.
The narrative of what followed, including Taylor's arrest, is laid out in the felony records room of the Richard E. Gerstein Justice Building in Miami. Two folders bulge with the incident report, lawyers' motions and a dozen depositions of witnesses and police officers.
When McFarlane awoke June 1, he discovered the ATV's were missing, according to Carhart. He and a friend, and then eventually Taylor, drove around the neighborhood looking for the vehicles, according to the police report.
The reports said that Taylor's blue Yukon Denali cruised several times past a house where Ryan Hill was hanging out with friends. Hill approached the vehicle to ask Taylor what he wanted.
"He started talking nasty and stuff, talking about how, `The police can't touch me. I own this town,'" Hill, 22, said in an interview on the stoop outside his mother's public housing apartment in West Perrine, where he lives with her, a brother and a sister.
According to Hill and other witnesses, Taylor exited his truck, pulled a gun out of his waistband and pointed it at Hill and a couple of his friends. Witnesses claim another man pulled out an M-16 and demanded that Hill return Taylor's ATVs. When Hill denied stealing the vehicles, Taylor and the other man left in their cars. Both vowed to return and kill everyone present, according to depositions from Hill and other witnesses.
Ten minutes later, Taylor did come back, this time with what has been labeled in the police report "a posse" of men in other cars. He confronted Hill and his friends.
Hill, a 6-foot-3, 273-pound former high school football star, said in the interview that Taylor was "just jumping up, like in a football game. He was just jumping up, like hyped. Then he just swung at me when he got across the street. I fought him back."
The fight broke up when Hill and his friends scattered. Taylor returned to his Yukon and drove back to McFarlane's house, several blocks north. He parked the truck in front of the house, which he entered. A silver car pulled up. Hands poked out of the car's windows. From inside the house, McFarlane noticed guns and dived to the floor, according to depositions given by witnesses to Taylor's lawyers. The Yukon was struck at least 15 times, and the police recovered 27 bullet cases, according to the police report.
Taylor was not at the house when the police arrived. McFarlane and others refused to allow the police to search the house, according to officers.
Three days after the shooting, Taylor surrendered at a police substation near West Perrine. He posted US$16,500 bond and was released. He has pleaded not guilty to all charges against him.
Just days before the trial was scheduled to start this week, Taylor's lawyers found that the prosecutor, Michael Grieco, had put press clippings from the case on his Web site to promote his other job as a D.J. Grieco stepped down, and the trial has been postponed until May. Richard Sharpstein, another of Taylor's lawyers, said he would file a motion next week to dismiss the case.
The Miami-Dade state attorney's office has vowed to continue the prosecution.
In a statement, State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle said nothing on Grieco's Web site "compromised the integrity of the Sean Taylor case."
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