Hearing postponed over motion to suppress Courtney Taylor’s statement to police

A hearing to consider a motion to suppress a statement that a Williamsburg woman gave to Kentucky State Police from her hospital bed about the killing of her husband and two children more than two years ago has been postponed.

Courtney Taylor, 43, is charged with three counts of capital murder in the Jan. 13, 2017, shooting deaths of her husband, Larry Taylor, 56, and her two daughters, Jesse Taylor, 18, and Jolee Taylor, 13. Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty in her case.

A hearing had been scheduled for Tuesday morning regarding a motion by defense attorneys to suppress one of Taylor’s two statements to KSP detectives investigating the case, but late Monday afternoon Special Judge Jeffrey Burdette issued an order continuing that pretrial conference to another unspecified date.

“Due to unavoidable circumstances, the Commonwealth has requested a continuance of this matter. The Court, having reviewed the record, having consulted with attorneys of record, and being otherwise sufficiently advised, hereby continues the presently scheduled Pretrial Conference. The matter will be rescheduled within 21 days of this order,” Burdette wrote.

Courtney Taylor is also charged in a separate indictment with two counts of first-degree wanton endangerment for pointing a 9mm handgun at Whitley County Sheriff’s Deputy Jonas Saunders and Sgt. James Fox, who responded to her residence to investigate the shooting.

Saunders shot her twice with his service weapon when she allegedly pointed a gun at him.

Courtney Taylor was taken to the University of Kentucky Medical Center on Jan. 14, 2017, where she underwent two surgeries to repair the internal damage caused by the shooting, and was discharged from the hospital on Jan. 25, 2017.

On Jan. 16, 2017, KSP Detectives Billy Correll and Jesse Armstrong took a 90-minute statement from Taylor at the hospital.

Correll testified during a Feb. 1, 2017, preliminary hearing that during the hospital interview, Taylor indicated that she killed her husband and two daughters, but she didn’t go into great detail about why she shot the victims.

Defense attorney Joanne Lynch said previously that the suppression hearing would likely include expert testimony about the interaction of drugs in Taylor’s system at the time she talked to police in addition to the effects of sedatives that she was on at the time.

Armstrong, who investigated the officer-involved shooting portion of the case, also testified during the Feb, 1, 2017, preliminary hearing that he took a second statement from Taylor at the Whitley County Detention Center on Jan. 26, 2017, which is the day after she was released from the hospital.

So far defense lawyers haven’t asked for this second statement to police to be excluded as evidence in the case.

During a Feb. 28, 2019 hearing, Burdette ruled that Taylor was competent to stand trial in the case.

She is scheduled to stand trial March 2, 2020.