By Chris Fuchs
The Queens district attorney has filed a supplemental indictment against John Taylor, one of two Queens men originally charged in the murders last spring of five workers and the wounding of two others at a Wendy’s restaurant in Flushing, a spokeswoman for his office said.
Although Mary de Bourbon, the DA’s spokeswoman, declined to comment specifically on the indictment, sources familiar with the case said the charges now reflect Taylor’s suspected role as the mastermind behind the murders and robbery.
Specifically, Taylor is accused of directing Craig Godineaux, who pleaded guilty to the indictment in January and was sentenced to life in prison, to shoot six of the workers. Taylor is also charged in the death of Anita Smith, one of the five workers who were murdered execution-style at the restaurant last May. DA Richard Brown is seeking the death penalty against Taylor, 36,
In the original indictment handed up last summer, Taylor and Godineaux were charged with “acting in concert” in the murder of Smith and four others. The charges were couched in those words since at the time it was unclear whether Taylor or Godineaux had allegedly fired the shot that killed her.
But when Godineaux, 30, pleaded guilty before State Supreme Court Judge Stephen Fisher in Kew Gardens in January, he told the court it was Taylor who had murdered Smith, an accusation that is reflected in the supplemental indictment.
Legal sources said the second indictment would serve to reinforce the district attorney’s case against Taylor, who was scheduled to be arraigned May 4.
Five workers were murdered and two others injured during a robbery last spring at the Wendy’s restaurant on Main Street in what law enforcement officials described as one of the grizzliest crimes in the city’s history. The workers were led into the basement, bound and gagged, and shot execution-style.
Initially both men were eligible for the death penalty since they had been charged with first-degree murder. But after Godineaux’s attorney said in court her client was mentally retarded, the district attorney examined the claim and decided not to pursue a capital case against Godineaux, which spared him from facing the death penalty. New York is one of 13 states that do not execute mentally retarded criminals.
Soon after Brown announced he had concluded Godineaux was mentally retarded, he pleaded guilty and was sentenced to five consecutive terms of life in prison.
Reach reporter Chris Fuchs by e-mail at Timesledgr@aol.com or call 229-0300, Ext. 156.
