Susan Clairmont: Watch: accused killer Richard Taylor is interrogated by police about murder of his mother and stepfather
A school teacher with a secret life weeps hours after learning his mother and stepfather have been murdered.
A shadowy figure paces and lights matches near the scene of a deadly arson.
A suspect is arrested and questioned throughout the night while spinning lie after lie.
All the evidence is now in at the Richard Taylor murder trial and it has become clear some of the key elements of the case are captured on video and audio recordings.
Jurors have spent hours reviewing those recordings.
They watched Taylor be interviewed by a Hamilton police homicide detective within hours of the fire. He is told he could be charged with murder.
They closely examined a blurry security camera video of a figure near the murder scene. A person walks toward the Rutherford house in the dark, then walks back and appears to be lighting matches before walking toward the Rutherford house again. Finally, the figure is seen running away.
There is an audio recording of Taylor's car being stopped by police as he drives home from school. He is heard being arrested and charged with two counts of first-degree murder.
And there is an eight-hour interview video recorded on the night of his arrest. Taylor is questioned by a police interrogation specialist.
You can watch and listen to these recordings on thespec.com.
Taylor, 46, is on trial for two counts of first-degree murder. He is accused of stealing into the bedroom of his mother and stepfather on July 9, 2018, and setting it on fire.
They were burned alive.
Carla Rutherford, 64, died inside the Dundas home where she raised Taylor and his brother. Alan Rutherford escaped and used his dying words to try to tell several witnesses who the killer was.
Rich did it. For the money, Alan said.
The trial has heard Taylor, a husband, father and elementary school teacher, was deep in debt and had concocted intricate lies to keep it secret from everyone - especially his wife Evangelia.
The six women and six men of the jury began hearing Justice Toni Skarica's 167-page charge Tuesday morning. These are his instructions on how to use the evidence to consider their verdict. The only options available to this jury is to render Taylor guilty of first-degree murder or not guilty.
Skarica is expected to finish his charge to the jury Wednesday with the jury becoming sequestered and beginning its deliberations immediately after that. Once they start, they will stay together and continue deliberating until they reach a verdict.
Here is a look at some of the trial's most critical evidence:
SHADOWY FIGURE - July 9, 2018 (home security video)
A home security camera near the Rutherfords' house captures a shadowy figure three times around the time of the fire. The first time, the person is walking toward the Rutherford home at 8 Greening Court. The second time, they are pacing back and forth lighting what appear to be matches and flicking them to the ground. In the third, they are running away from the Rutherford home.
911 CALL - July 9, 2018 (police audio recording)
Neighbour Karen Monk calls 911 when Alan Rutherford shows up on her porch in the middle of the night. She doesn't recognize him at first because he is so badly burned.
POLICE INTERVIEW ON DAY OF THE FIRE - July 9, 2018 (police station video)
Hours after Carla and Alan die, Richard Taylor arrives at Central Station. He is cautioned by a homicide detective and told that because of Alan's utterances, he may be arrested in the future. Taylor agrees to talk anyway.
DITCH VIDEO - July 10, 2018 (police surveillance video)
A surveillance team follows Taylor as he drives from his Oakville home to a rural stretch of road at Sixth Line and Lower Baseline Road. He gets out of his van and walks along the ditch as though looking for something. He is not using a cane. He later testifies he was looking for love memories" he wrote about his mother that blew out his car window. But the Crown suggests he was looking for incriminating evidence." Perhaps a petroleum can he tossed away.
UNEXPECTED INTERVIEW - July 10, 2018 (police audio recording)
Homicide detectives come to the Taylor home in Oakville, pick up Evangelia Taylor and interview her in their car around the corner. They tell her that in his dying utterances, Alan said that Rich did it. A few minutes after she returns home, Rich goes out to the police car, gets in and expresses outrage at the idea he had anything to do with the murders. He says he couldn't have done it, because he has an injured knee.
BANK - July 12, 2018 (police surveillance video)
A police surveillance team catches Taylor driving and walking with no cane or limp.
ARREST STATEMENT - Jan. 23, 2019 (police station video)
After his arrest, Taylor is taken to police headquarters and interviewed by Det. Troy Ashbaugh for eight hours.
Highlights of the interrogation include:
Intro - The interview begins and Taylor makes it very clear he goes by the name Rich, which is important because Alan told several people, before he died, that Rich did it."
Flash - A police detective plays the Shadowy Figure security video for Taylor and asks him what he thinks is happening.
Sleep - Taylor offers an alibi, saying he couldn't have committed the murders because he was snuggling with his four-year-old son around the time of the arson.
Money - Taylor talks about his debt, grossly underestimating it compared to what a forensic accountant finds.
Wife - Taylor recounts how his wife learned he was a murder suspect.
Coping - Evangelia was depressed and had no access to money. Taylor is confronted with her text messages.
Theory - Police lay out their theory of how and why Taylor committed the murders.
Limp - Taylor is confronted with the Ditch Video and explains what he was looking for. Later, while testifying, he changes his story.
Susan Clairmont is a justice columnist at The Spectator. sclairmont@thespec.com