Susan Clairmont: Surveillance of Richard Taylor shows sometimes he limped, sometimes he didn’t
Sometimes the murder suspect limped.
Sometimes he didn't.
He did when he was going in and out of the police station to talk to homicide detectives about the arson that burned his mother and stepfather alive.
He didn't when he popped into Tim Hortons for a coffee.
Or to Shoppers Drug Mart.
Or TD Bank.
Or walking through a ditch along a rural road, as though searching for something.
It seems the knee injury Richard Taylor says he suffered two days before the fire came and went in the weeks afterward. Sometimes it was so bad he hobbled and leaned on a cane. Other times he walked without help and seemed fine.
A jury got to see the transformation Wednesday as they watched videos of Taylor collected by police.
Taylor, a 46-year-old husband, father and former elementary school teacher, is on trial for two counts of first-degree murder.
On July 9, 2018, Carla Rutherford, 64 and Alan Rutherford, 63, were asleep in their Dundas home when gasoline was poured at the foot of their bed and ignited.
Court heard that with his dying words, Alan tried to point to the killer: Rich did it for the money.
Taylor was deep in debt, the trial has heard. He was going to lose his house in Oakville and there was evidence he was taking pains to keep it secret from his wife, as police found doctored bank statements to make it look like there was more money in their accounts.
Yet the day after the arson, Rich told detectives he had no financial worries. And he couldn't possibly have committed the murders because he had a bad leg.
I can't even walk down the steps," he told them. I can't drive. I mean, how am I getting there?"
I can't even walk down ... how am I going to get there and light their house on fire?
Court has heard Taylor fell down the basement stairs at his mom's at 8 Greening Crt. on July 7.
Records from Oakville Trafalgar Memorial Hospital entered as evidence show that just after 11 a.m. on July 7, Taylor went into the ER.
Patient states: tripped going down the stairs, fell onto mother and together they fell approx. 10 stairs, hit right knee on metal piece at bottom, now (complaining of) pain to right knee, lacerations also noted to knee. States unable to bend knee, using crutches on arrival."
Three hours later he is sent home without medication or treatment.
Bones and joints are normal," says his chart. No effusion."
On July 8, he texted his brother Chris and said he'd either tripped over one of the Rutherfords' chocolate Labrador retrievers or a dog toy and tumbled down the stairs.
Taylor included a photo of his knee.
It was pretty banged up," Chris testified.
That same day, just after 8 p.m., Taylor walked into a Shoppers Drug Mart in Oakville with neither a cane nor a limp.
Jurors heard that when Taylor was arrested in January 2019, police searched his home and found a receipt for a purchase at that store with the time stamped on it. Sgt. Rich Wouters, a homicide detective at the time, tracked down the store's security video from that night and found the images of Taylor.
The video - recorded about eight hours before the fire - was played for the jury. It showed Taylor, wearing an orange T-shirt and dark shorts, wandering the aisles with one of his children.
On July 9, hours after Carla and Alan died, the Taylor brothers went to Hamilton police headquarters to talk to major crimes detectives.
Video from the police station shows Richard Taylor slowly limping in and out of the building using a cane.
He was pretty hobbled on the ninth," his brother testified earlier in the trial.
In fact, Chris said his brother used a cane all that week and at the funeral the following weekend.
Taylor returned to the police station on July 12 and again on July 13. Security video shows him limping with a cane each time.
Almost immediately after the fire, Hamilton police put Taylor under surveillance.
On July 10, they were outside the target's home by 7:23 a.m. A five-person plain-clothed team was assigned to watch and follow Taylor on and off until he was arrested six months later.
At 8:07 a.m., Det. Const. Michael Schatz saw Taylor get into his Dodge Caravan and drive it to a rural area at the corner of 6th Line and Lower Base Line Road East in Halton.
Taylor parked, got out, and walked along the deep ditch, looking down, court heard.
He did not have a cane and no apparent limp," according to the team's report.
Schatz picked up another team member who videotaped Taylor as they drove past him. The jury saw that video.
Yet another team member described the ditch as rocky, swampy and narrow.
Police searched the ditch after Taylor left but found nothing, court heard.
On July 12, Taylor drove to a Tim Hortons in Dundas. Security video shows him inside - no cane, no limp - ordering food and a drink.
After that he drove to the TD Bank in Dundas. He went in and out without a cane or limp.
He also seemed fine when he went into an insurance office and then back to TD Bank.
A team member shot a video of Taylor beside his minivan after emerging from the bank, talking on the phone, pacing and holding a large envelope.
Taylor was wearing shorts and had no brace or bandage on his knee.
In September 2018, Carla's and Alan's family gathered to intern their ashes in the cemetery directly behind 8 Greening Crt.
Amelia Ryan, Alan's youngest daughter, said Richard wasn't using a cane that day.
But he was still limping and favouring his leg."
He said it was still sore."
Susan Clairmont is a justice columnist at The Spectator. sclairmont@thespec.com