Man Sentenced To 50 Years For Collin County Cold Case Murder
McKINNEY (CBSDFW.COM) — A North Texas man spent more than half his life with a secret, now the world knows he is the person responsible for murdering a teenager more than two decades ago.
Today a Collin County jury sentenced Alonzo Grayson to 50 years in prison.
It was a crime that happened nearly 30 years ago in Frisco – not the city you now know, but an area that at the time was considered extremely suburban, and had a population of less than 4,000.
During Grayson's trial the jury was told how in 1984 a then 21-year-old Grayson and his girlfriend Tina Taylor both shot and eventually killed Bobby Ray Taylor. Shockingly Bobby Ray was Tina's brother.
Jurors heard how Tina Taylor first shot her brother in the leg and how Grayson then shot him in the chest. Neither of the shots killed Bobby Ray, so the couple put him in the trunk of a car and drove him to a rock pit. It was there that Grayson shot Bobby Ray three more times, killing him. Amateur fossil hunters found Bobby Ray Taylor's body three days later.
As Collin County Sheriff's investigated the murder they learned Bobby Taylor didn't approve of his younger sister dating Grayson and that the two men had been feuding. When authorities talked with Grayson he claimed to have only witnessed the murder, and claimed that another man, Rogelio Elizondo, committed the crime.
While Elizondo was taken into custody the day after Grayson's interview, a grand jury declined to charge him in the case. There was no new information on the Bobby Ray Taylor murder for 28 years.
Flash-forward to 2011 when, a man by the name of Kevin Lancaster reached out to Frisco police. It turns out Lancaster is the estranged son of Tina Taylor.
Lancaster told authorities that during a conversation his mother, without explanation, told him that Alonzo Grayson had killed her brother. Collin County Sheriff's re-opened the case, tracked down potential witnesses and once again interviewed Tina Taylor and Alonzo Grayson. This time the then 48-year-old Grayson, who had previously stood by his innocent bystander claims, admitted to shooting Bobby, but only "once." He was arrested and charged with murder.
On May 23, a jury found Grayson guilty and one day later sentenced him to 50 years in prison. The sentence handed down by the jury must be applied in accordance with the laws in place in 1984, that means Grayson will be eligible for parole after serving one-third of his sentence.
Trisha Taylor, the victim's other sister, says she is enraged that this secret was kept so long. She says she visited her brother's grave Thursday to deliver the news.
"I know he's not there. It's just a grave. I believe he's with God, and I just told him we got partial justice."
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