Thread by @DrewTripp

🧵This is Timothy Da'Shaun Taylor today at the arraignment for Raymond Moody, the man who kidnapped, raped and murdered Brittanee Drexel in 2009.

In 2016 — based on a fabricated story from a jailhouse informant — the FBI publicly named Taylor as a suspect in the Drexel case.

Over the next 4 years, Timothy's life and lives of his family were upended as the FBI pursued trumped up charges against him in federal court for the same 2011 robbery to which he'd already pleaded guilty in state court, and for which he'd already served probation.

Federal prosecutors were transparent about why they were going after this one-armed man twice on a crime for which he'd already served a sentence. They said in open court Taylor might have information about Drexel, & publicly shared gruesome details ALLEGEDLY about her murder.

The FBI's jailhouse informant — a newly sentenced prison inmate from Colleton County — claimed he witnessed Taylor involved in the gang rape & shooting of Brittanee Drexel at a drug stash house in McClellanvile & later heard her body was dumped in an alligator-infested pond.

Taylor denied all of this, and denied knowing or ever meeting his accuser, Tequan Brown — who had just started a 25-year manslaughter sentence when he hatched this story for the FBI.

The FBI and DOJ ran with this tip, & brought Taylor up on new charges for an old crime.

You might be thinking at this point, "Isn't that double jeopardy?" — the clause in the 5th Amendment saying you can't be prosecuted twice for the same crime. Well there's a legal doctrine called "Separate Sovereigns" which basically says states & the USA are independent entities.

What "Separate Sovereigns" means practically is you CAN be charged twice for the same crime as long as it's not by the same body of authority.
It so happens the entire premise of separate sovereigns was being challenged in the Supreme Court at the time of Taylor's new charges.

So Taylor's case was delayed while Gamble v. United States played out. Ultimately, the SCOTUS in 2019 upheld "separate sovereigns" in Gamble, and that left Taylor with no choice but to plead guilty once again as part of the FBI's push to get him to talk in the Drexel case.

Meantime, an interview with @whec_bdavidsen & the DOJ's own court filings show Tequan Brown's story about what he witnessed kept changing. First he claimed he saw Drexel alive 2 days after he first thought she was killed, then later he saw her alive 5 days later & 100 miles away.

What we know now with the arrest, confession and sentencing of Ray Moody is Timothy Da'Shaun Taylor had zero to do with Brittanee Drexel's disappearance or death. And the jailhouse informant story upon which his second conviction was predicated — it was total BS.

Here's Timothy's mother, Joan Taylor, speaking at today's press conference following Ray Moody being sentenced to life in prison. She and attorneys called for accountability from media and federal law enforcement for what they put the Taylor family through.

I've spent six years covering Timothy Taylor's saga, basing my work and updates on the public information available to me through court records and statements from the FBI / DOJ, families & attorney statements. I've done my best to be fair & accurate based on the facts available.

As I told Joan Taylor today after the press conference, I won't apologize for doing my job but I am always aware of its very real implications. I acknowledge the negative impact my reporting at @ABCNews4 had on Timothy Taylor's life & his family. For that I told her I am sorry.

Journalists are real people. We live with the decisions we make. We take them home and lie awake with them at night. Timothy Taylor's case is one that impacts my legacy and my ability to look at myself in the mirror. So I'm not letting my involvement end here.

There need to be answers and acknowledgments from the FBI & DOJ on this, & honest moves toward setting things right for Timothy & preventing this from happening in the future. The Taylor family stated those goals today, & I'm committed to helping bring attention to their efforts.

The FBI in May shortly after Moody's arrest formally cleared Taylor of all suspicion and ended his supervision under the terms of his probation.

Here's my full story on the background of Taylor's association with the case from May 2022.
abcnews4.com/news/local/tim…

I also highly recommend this column from @ijbailey giving a more critical analysis and insight to the view of Taylor's family
charlotteobserver.com/opinion/articl…

@threadreaderapp Unroll for my followers please.