As she was being stabbed to death with a sharp knife, allegedly by her 16-year-old daughter, Theresa Parramoure prayed that "Jesus would not let her child go to hell."
A detective testified yesterday that Tiffany TAylor, charged with first degree murder of her mother, told him about her mother's last words as he was questioning her as a suspect in the case.
And another teen who met Tiffany Taylor in the Putnam Juvenile Detention Center after Taylor had been charged with the murder testified that Taylor told her in graphic detail about planning her mother's murder, about how her mother struggled and tried to get the telephone, and about her own shock when the first knife stab didn't kill her.
All that and more came out in a Juvenile Court hearing yesterday in which state prosecutors succeeded in getting Tiffany Taylor's case moved to adult court.
Saying that Tiffany Taylor "slaughtered her mother like you would an animal and then lay down to sleep," Judge John Hudson agreed to transfer the case to Criminal Court.
The next step in the case is the grand jury. If Taylor, now about seven months pregnant, is indicted, she will be tried for first degree murder in Criminal Court and could face the full range of penalties applicable to any adult, except for the death penalty, which cannot be applied to juveniles, prosecutors said.
In making his ruling yesterday, Judge Hudson noted that if he chose to deny transfer of the case out of Juvenile Court, "she would spend no more than 27 months in custody."
Sitting between her two court-appointed lawyers yesterday, Taylor appeared very upset each time state prosecutors brought colorp hotos of her mother's mutilated body near the defense table. She turned her head away and wept.
Behind her in the audience were her father, Ronnie Taylor, and her paternal grandparents.
Prosecutors say Tiffany Taylor stabbed her mother to death on November 26 after an argument the two had over boys the girl had been seeing.
The girl sustained a knife wound to her own leg during the struggle and later turned up at the hospital emergency room with a story of having accidentally fallen on a knife. Her mother's murder had not been discovered at that time.
Later, as detectives questioned the girl, she told various stories about what had caused the wound, including claiming that she had been kidnapped and had had to struggle with her assailant.
Then, after being treated at the hospital, she went home with her father (who was divorced from her mother), and the next day, he went to the Fisk Road trailer home of Theresa Parramoure and found the body.
Even then, Tiffany Taylor at first told Detective David Andrews that the man who had kidnapped her had threatened to come back and harm others, the detective testified yesterday.
But in later questioning, Taylor admitted having stabbed her mother to death, but said it had been unintentional, the detective said.
"She said that she was in her bed that night and heard a noise at her window. She said she got up two or three times and went to see if her mother was asleep and went to her window and tried to motion these people to go away.
"She said she had locked her door and that just as she was raising the window, her mother tried to get in her door. She let her in and tried to explain that it was not her fault that these people were there.
"But her mother made her come and sleep in bed with her after that, and all through the night, her mother would yell at her, or talk loudly to her, she said.
"And she said after she went to sleep, she dreamed someone was after her and the person came into contact with her and she was fighting the person off with a knife. She said then she woke up and realized she was stabbing her mother."
After realizing her mother was dead, she then "tried to go to bed and get some sleep, thinking that after that she could think what to do," the detective said the girl told him.
She showered, tried to doctor the wound on her leg, got ready to leave, changed clothes after opening the door and realizing it was cold outside, then left in her mother's car and drove to the home of some friends of hers, she told the detective, according to his testimony.
"Did she tell you how long this ordeal of the killing took?" Assistant District Attorney Lily Ann Sells asked Detective Andrews.
"She didn't give a time frame," Andrews said. "She said that one of the last things her mother said was to ask Jesus not to let her child go to hell."
A teenaged girl who met Tiffany Taylor while in the Juvenile Detention Center testified yesterday about what Taylor told her about the killing.
"I told her I had read about (her case) in the paper," the girl testified. "And she asked me if the paper had said how many times her mother was stabbed, said she wanted to know."
Tiffany Taylor also told her that "she had had to sleep with her mother because she had been sneaking out at night," the girl testified.
"She told me she had wanted to do it (kill her mother) a couple of nights before that, but she said she started shaking and couldn't do it.
"She said the night she did it her mother woke up and said, "You're going to kill me." And she said to her mother, "Die, bitch."
"She said she was amazed when her mother didn't die the first time she stabbed her. She said her mother tried to get the phone and she had to take the phone out of her hand.
"She said she was going to take her mother's car and she knew she wouldn't press charges for auto theft because she was dead. She said she laid down in the bed beside her mother (after the killing) and was going to try to get some sleep, but said it started stinking."
The girl also testified that Tiffany Taylor said "she was going to try to get the charge down to second degree murder because they couldn't prove premeditation."
"Did she express any sorrow?" Asst. DA Sells asked.
"She said she never had any nightmares or lost any sleep over it."
And when authorities allowed Tiffany Taylor to go to the funeral home to see her mother, Taylor commented at the Detention Center that "she wanted to see her mother to see how bad she'd messed her up," the girl testified.
Dr. Kenneth Nickerson, a Moccasin Bend psychologist, testified yesterday that doctors and other mental health workers there found Tiffany Taylor was not mentally retarded or mentally ill.
Dr. Sullivan Smith, Putnam County medical examiner, testified that Theresa Parramoure had multiple stab wounds, including a deep, slashing wound to the neck and several wounds to her hands and arms, indicating she had tried to defend herself. She had three stab wounds to the chest, from which she bled to death, but probably lived 10 to 15 minutes after being stabbed there, he said.
In a closing argument, Asst. DA Sells stressed the heinous nature of this crime, the aggressiveness, the brutality, the premeditation."
Tiffany Taylor's attorneys, Joe Edwards and Phil Parsons, argued that the state had not met the rules of Juvenile Court for getting a case transferred to adult court. They also attacked the credibility of the girl who testified about her Detention Center conversations with Taylor.
"This witness admitted she has a juvenile record, that she's been convicted of offenses involving moral turpitude and dishonesty," Phil Parsons said.
But Judge Hudson called the girl's testimony "compelling" and said there was no evidence she had anything to gain from testifying.
"The Court finds that the interests of the community will be better served by putting Tiffany Taylor under legal restraints," Hudson said.