Court: Victim’s beating suspect with metal pipe sparked fatal shooting

The prosecution calls it a “classic case of cold-blooded revenge.” The defense says it’s the inevitable result of a bully’s prolonged abuse of a man who finally fought back.

It’s the June 6, 2014, fatal shooting of 44-year-old Anthony Wayne “Red” Taylor, for which Jerry Wayne “Scarface” Merritt is on trial for murder this week in Muscogee Superior Court.

It happened about 9 a.m. outside the Pure gas station at 1538 Fort Benning Road, where the two men hours earlier had a confrontation that led to the deadly assault.

That earlier confrontation was not the only previous dispute between the two, as Taylor repeatedly had bullied Merritt until Merritt just couldn’t take any more, said defense attorney Jennifer Curry.

Prosecutor Wesley Lambertus said the shooting was nothing more than premeditated murder motivated by vengeance.

The two sides agree on this: About 1:30 a.m. in that same gas station, a security camera captured Merritt walking through the business with what appeared to be a table leg. Taylor came in with a metal pipe – possibly a chain-link fence post, Lambertus said – and hit Merritt over the head so hard his scalp split open.

Lambertus said Merritt then got back up and chased Taylor out of the building.

That was the last affront Merritt was willing to take, his attorney told jurors in her opening statement Wednesday: “Mr. Merritt makes up his mind that he’s tired of this abuse.”

Merritt left to find a gun – a silver-colored, .32-caliber revolver holding five bullets – and returned to the station he and Taylor frequented.

Hours later, Taylor caught a ride to the Pure station with Donnell Heard, his cousin by marriage.

Heard testified he took Taylor there in his Chevy Avalanche and waited while Taylor went in to buy cigarettes. Merritt was among three guys standing outside, Heard said.

Taylor never made it through the door. He saw Merritt and ran, with Merritt, digging for something in his pocket, right on his heels, Heard said.

Heard said that as they ran around the station and came back to the front, he heard gunshots, and could tell his cousin was hit. “His motion of running, it changed,” from a run to more of a limp, Heard said.

Taylor staggered north across Trask Drive and collapsed in some bushes, right beside a sign for Valley Healthcare, 1600 Fort Benning Road. Heard said he watched as Merritt walked up to Taylor, pointed the gun and pulled the trigger some more, but the empty weapon only clicked.

When Merritt ran off, Heard dashed over to Taylor and saw what he thought was his cousin taking his last breath.

It was not, yet, because soldiers trained in cardiopulmonary resuscitation came by and revived Taylor in time for an ambulance to get there. But he died later from a bullet that Lambertus said pierced his back, lung and heart.

Having heard nothing of Merritt’s earlier beating, Heard was left shocked and bewildered. “I didn’t know what was going on…. I didn’t know what to do. I was stunned.”

Another witness who was outside the store that morning testified he talked to Merritt right before the shooting.

He told the court Merritt said he wouldn’t take another beating from Taylor: “He said he done whipped him for the last time. He wasn’t going to whip him no more…. He seemed like he was real mad about it.”

The witness said he bought Merritt a beer to try to calm him down. Later he watched as Merritt chased and shot Taylor. Like Heard, he said he saw Merritt keep pulling the trigger on an empty gun before running off.

Police were collecting evidence after the shooting when Merritt returned to the scene, telling them he was the suspect they sought.

They took him to police headquarters, where they told him Taylor had not survived.

“God don’t like ugly,” Lambertus said Taylor replied, adding that after the earlier encounter, “I told him, ‘If I see you again today, I’m going to shoot you.’”

Curry told jurors it’s no surprise Taylor ran as soon as he saw Merritt coming: “Mr. Taylor knew the trauma he had caused Mr. Merritt.”

Police saw evidence of that, too, she said. Merritt later showed them his head wounds and said, “Look what he did to me.”

Curry earlier sought to have Judge Art Smith III declare Merritt immune from prosecution under Georgia law “because he was reasonably defending himself, his property and his habitation.”

Lambertus has filed notice that he’ll seek life without parole if Merritt’s convicted, because of Merritt’s criminal history. Merritt was convicted of theft by receiving stolen property on May 9, 1986, in Forrest County, Miss., and he was convicted of robbery on April 30, 1992, in Bexar County, Texas, Lambertus said.

Merritt, 50, is charged with murder, aggravated assault and using a firearm to commit a crime.

This story was originally published February 1, 2017 at 5:09 PM with the headline "Court: Victim’s beating suspect with metal pipe sparked fatal shooting."