Man who sexually assaulted, then strangled teenage boy gets life without parole

A man who sexually assaulted a 15-year-old boy and strangled him 30 years ago was sentenced Monday to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Russell Taylor, now 56, said nothing before San Diego Superior Court Judge Michael Smyth sentenced him for the April 28, 1987, murder of Dewan Emerson, whose body was found the next morning in a drainage ditch at the 5200 block of Naranja Street in Valencia Park.

It was DNA that solved the case,” said Deputy District Attorney Valerie Summers.

DNA samples were taken by evidence technicians and preserved from Emerson’s body and it matched Taylor, who was already serving a sentence of 25 years to life in San Quentin State Prison.

Taylor was only 26 years old when he came by Emerson’s home at 11:30 p.m. The teenager told his mother he wanted to talk to a man outside for a short time, but she never saw him alive again. Emerson was found with his hands bound and the body was partially mutilated.

Taylor pleaded guilty July 17 to first-degree murder with the special circumstance of inflicting torture during the slaying.

The teenager’s mother and sister moved to the Sacramento area after the slaying and there were no relatives at Taylor’s sentencing.

“The victim’s mother and his sister were happy the case was solved and it brought closure to them,” said Summers. “For all these years, they have worried and wondered who killed their brother and son.”

Court records show just two months after Emerson’s murder, Taylor was arrested for two counts of attempted murder on two men whom he forced to orally copulate him. He had invited two men to his home and pulled a 14-inch butcher knife while intoxicated, records say.

The men were both tied up and one had a knife at his throat while being ordered to perform oral sex. The other man was stabbed five times. Taylor pleaded guilty to two counts of attempted murder and was sentenced to 15 years and four months in prison Sept. 8, 1987.

Taylor was eventually paroled, but was arrested in 2000 for possession of cocaine base. Because Taylor had been convicted of those two violent crimes in 1987, he qualified as a third strike defendant and got 25 years to life. He was still serving that term when the DNA results this year came in that linked him to Emerson’s slaying.

Since he had served 17 years of the 25-year sentence, “he was just on the eve of parole eligibility,” said Summers. The murder charge was filed before he could be considered for parole.

Smyth ordered no jail credits because he was still serving a sentence on the three strikes case. He was fined $2,724.

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