Father is accused of plotting son’s death for insurance

Sept. 27--To collect on a life-insurance policy that Michael Taylor II hoped he could use to bail his oldest son out of jail, he's accused of orchestrating the death of another son.

Michael Taylor II, 41, who is incarcerated at the Corrections Center of Northwest Ohio on a carrying a concealed weapon charge, was indicted Friday by a Lucas County grand jury on two counts of aggravated murder with firearm specifications in the June 10, 2011, slaying of his son Montelle Taylor, 17, and the later death of Christian Snow-Veley, 22.

The subsection of the aggravated murder charge that is cited in the indictment alleges that the deaths were planned.

Toledo police Detective Jeff Clark, the lead investigator on the case, described Michael Taylor II as the "mastermind" behind his son's death.

Montelle was riding his bicycle on Auburn Avenue, near Bancroft Street in Toledo's central city, when he was shot twice in his chest and once in an arm at about 1:20 a.m.

Also indicted in the death of Snow-Veley is Elijah Dyer, 21, of 824 Woodward Ave.Mr. Dyer and Michael Taylor II lived together for a time at 263 E. Hudson St., Detective Clark said.

"This is the culmination of a lengthy investigation by the Toledo Police Department," said Jeff Lingo, chief of the criminal division for the Lucas County Prosecutor's Office. Mr. Lingo said the case against the suspects includes "allegations of insurance policies purchased for the victims." He declined to say how much the insurance policies were worth, who purchased the plans, and if any money was paid out.

"I can't get into specifics at this time," Mr. Lingo said. " ... We try our cases in the courtroom, not in the court of public opinion."

On July 31, 2013, two months after Snow-Veley's family reported him missing, an asbestos-removal crew found the 22-year-old man's remains inside 438 E. Streicher St. in North Toledo. His body was wrapped in a blanket, at the bottom of basement stairs; he'd been shot multiple times in his head and torso.

"We talked to multiple witnesses trying to verify statements and ultimately just hit the right combination where people made statements we were able to verify," Detective Clark said. "It was just a lot of follow up and confirmation."

On Friday, Detective Clark was able to give the news to Snow-Veley's family members who were "very, very elated," he said. "I kept telling them, and at one point they were starting to lose confidence in me, that it's a difficult case and it's going to take awhile."

The detective had not yet spoken to Montelle's maternal grandmother, his surviving relative, who lives out of state.

The indictment Friday is the second in Montelle's death. Christian Jackson, 23, of 1338 Grand Ave., the same address as Montelle's, was indicted in August and is charged with murder with a firearm specification.

Jackson is serving a six-year sentence stemming from an aggravated robbery conviction in Lucas County. In December, he received an additional six months after being convicted of assaulting a corrections officer.

"There was a lot of interest in this case," Detective Clark said. "A lot of community interest and rumors had surfaced. People are curious. Snow-Veley's family kept pushing me and I kept telling them I was not going to sweep it under the rug, but they were very, very appreciative. I felt good about that."

Teen feared revenge

On a steamy June afternoon in 2011, the only hint of life at the Taylors' Grand Avenue home were signs of Montelle's death.

A piece of plywood nailed over a front window at 1338 Grand was decorated with a heart-shaped balloon, stuffed animals, and love notes from his girlfriend. Montelle, a boy from Toledo's central city, was shot dead. He was less than a half mile from home, although Montelle rarely slept there.

At the time of his death, gas and water services had been off at the house since Oct. 15, 2009.

Montelle told neighbors he didn't feel safe in his home, not after his older half-brother, Michael C. Taylor III, shot and killed Darrin Smith, a neighbor and friend.

After Smith's death, Montelle was jumped, beaten, and picked on. He became an unwanted presence in the only place he ever considered home.

"He just wanted to belong," said neighbor Cenia Prior, after Montelle's death. "He felt like an outsider."

The only way in or out of the small, white, one-story house was the front door -- everything else was covered with plywood. Montelle told neighbors and friends' parents that he worried about someone breaking in and looking for revenge.

The teen would sometimes sleep in the back yard. That way, should the house catch fire -- as many of the properties his father owned did -- he wouldn't be trapped in an inferno.

Of the properties that Montelle's father owned or had a hand in -- he, in a previous interview, told The Blade he worked in real estate -- many burned. Michael Taylor II previously told The Blade the fires were arson and set as retaliation for Smith's death.

Neighborhood's pull

Montelle was drawn to Grand Avenue, to the neighborhood, to his father, and his brother.

The teen's mother, Shannon Lipkinssilar, said that before Montelle was killed, she tried to get her son to stay with her in Springfield Township, but he would constantly run back to the central Toledo neighborhood. Ms. Lipkinssilar, who suffered from kidney failure, died less than six months after her son's death.

In the days after Montelle's death, neighbors speculated that had Montelle just stayed away -- if he'd just stayed with his mother, who eventually turned him away because of his penchant for finding trouble -- he might have never met the man whose gun was, police say, trained on the teen.

In a way, Montelle's death started with another.

It rained the night of April 24, 2010, when Montelle's half-brother shot Smith to death. The two argued about the older Taylor shooting off a gun in the Grand Avenue neighborhood.

Not shooting at anyone, he was just shooting. Smith, 20, had enough and asked his friend to stop.

Taylor, then 18, shot Smith; two shots were fatal -- one was fired at such close range that the gunpowder burned through three layers of clothing and was found on Smith's skin, according to testimony from Taylor's trial.

The next morning, Taylor turned himself in to police. He was eventually convicted and was ordered to spend the rest of his life in prison. He is incarcerated at the Ohio State Penitentiary in Youngstown.

Before Taylor's case went to trial, his father was eager to have his son, his oldest, home. Taylor was housed in the Lucas County jail and there he would stay unless he could post a $200,000 bond.

Sources close to Montelle's case said that a life-insurance policy was purchased for the teen and the money that was to be collected after his death would be used to bail out Michael Taylor III from jail.

His mother, who was home sleeping when her son was shot, got a phone call from the nurses at ProMedica Toledo Hospital -- her chronic disease made her a frequent visitor and they knew her personally.

She missed the call at 2 a.m., but called back and asked if either Montelle or Michael was in the hospital.

" 'We have both names in the system,' " Ms. Lipkinssilar recalled a nurse saying at the time. "He said, 'We have Montelle down here. Go ahead and get down here real quick.' I thought he needed a ride home. The nurse said, 'You can't talk to him right this second.' "

With her oldest daughter by her side, Ms. Lipkinssilar learned her son had died before making it to the hospital.

She asked about Montelle's father. He was there, they told her, for "stomach problems."

When she finally had a chance to see her son's father, she asked him, "Why weren't you there?"

In the days that followed, people in the neighborhood and on the streets started to talk. None of it was kind.

"If I found out this was plotted or planned -- I have a lifetime to hate the people responsible," Ms. Lipkinssilar said at the time.

Michael Taylor II, in a 2011 interview with The Blade, confirmed that he went to the hospital for stomach problems. Hospital officials waited until Ms. Lipkinssilar arrived and put them all in a conference room. They said Montelle suffered gunshot wounds and that he died before ever making it to the hospital.

"I was just in shock," Taylor II said in 2011.

He said that he left the Grand Avenue home between 12:30 and 12:45 a.m. on June 10 to stay the night elsewhere.

When he left, he said he saw "a bunch of young men" -- 12 to 15 of them -- hanging out down the street. He thought they were watching his house. He never relayed that information to police, sources said.

He told The Blade at the time that he hypothesized that robbery was the motive for his son's shooting.

Montelle would have been wearing a Chicago Bulls jacket and hat.

Neither was found after the shooting.

"I just take it as jealousy," Taylor II said then.

Contact Taylor Dungjen at [email protected], or 419-724-6054, or on Twitter @taylordungjen.

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