Ex-Laughlin man suspected in death of girl, 12

Kim Smith

Tuesday, Sept. 17, 2002 | 11:08 a.m.

Oklahoma authorities have found the skull of a missing 12-year-old girl and are building a murder case against a former Laughlin man serving a life sentence in the 1991 murder of his girlfriend.

Danny Kaye Taylor, 42, was sentenced to life in prison in November after pleading no contest to second-degree murder in the April 1991 murder of Cheryl DeSantis.

Authorities alleged Taylor killed DeSantis and dumped her remains in San Bernardino County, Calif., but it took them years to bring charges.

Police believed Taylor killed DeSantis because she suspected he was molesting her then 4-year-old daughter.

Meanwhile, Taylor moved to Oklahoma, where he married Crystal Day Kendrick's mother.

Kendrick, 12, was last seen at her home in Broken Bow, Okla., on July 17, 1999. Taylor told police that before she disappeared she had written a note in crayon saying she was going to visit her aunt. She never made it.

Five months later, Taylor was indicted on an open murder charge in the DeSantis case. Police were able to make the arrest after acquaintances said Taylor had been bragging about "knocking someone off" in Las Vegas and burying the body.

In October 2001, Taylor pleaded no contest to second-degree murder and robbery rather than face a possible first-degree murder conviction and death sentence.

Kym Koch, the public information director with the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation, said a child's skull was found in a heavily wooded area more than two miles from Broken Bow in April.

A former fire chief was checking on his cattle when he came across the skull, Koch said. No other remains have been found.

Broken Bow is in the southeast corner of Oklahoma near the Arkansas and Texas borders.

The skull was positively identified as Kendrick's in July through multiple DNA tests, and Oklahoma investigators visited with Taylor last week in a Nevada state prison.

"I've been told he made statements in which he said he had something to do with her disappearance," McCurtain County (Okla.) District Attorney Virginia Sanders said.

Sanders said investigators are interviewing witnesses and attempting to determine a cause of death. Once she has all of the reports, she will determine what, if any, charges should be filed.

"If we get sufficient evidence he was involved with or committed the murder, we will prosecute him to the fullest extent of the law," Sanders said. "He is an evil man and he need never come out from behind bars."

"Whether we file charges next month or three months from now, he's not going anywhere. We just want to make sure all of the i's are dotted and the t's are crossed."

Clark County Chief Deputy District Attorney David Schwartz said the Taylor case was negotiated because it was unclear if a judge would allow details of Kendrick's disappearance in as evidence. Without it, they may not have been able to get a first-degree murder conviction, he said.

Now, if Oklahoma authorities charge Taylor with Kendrick's murder and seek the death penalty, they will be in a good position because of the DeSantis case, Schwartz said.

"What we've done is made a tremendous case for them," Schwartz said. "I'm convinced he'll be convicted."

Schwartz said Taylor is "the example we'd take up to the Legislature when they start talking about doing away with the death penalty."

Dorothy Haller, DeSantis' mother, said Monday she doesn't want Taylor to get the death penalty, however.

"I'm opposed to him being given that mercy, unless they take him out and stone him," Haller said. "My feeling is he should stay in jail until he falls apart and rots in pieces."

Haller, who is raising her granddaughter, said if Taylor is convicted in the Oklahoma case, she can rest knowing that she will no longer have to worry about Taylor being freed from prison. He is eligible for parole in her daughter's case in five years.

Haller said she believes Taylor was involved in his stepdaughter's disappearance. She met the child's mother during grand jury proceedings two years ago, but stopped herself from hugging her.

"She looked so composed, like she was just barely hanging on and I didn't want to make her lose control," Haller said. "I know exactly how she felt."