Jury Selection In Wendys Trial Could Take Months

Eighteen months after one of the most brutal crimes in county history, the alleged triggerman of the Wendys massacre is finally coming to trial in Queens Supreme Court, but the wheels of justice are grinding slowly.
Judge Steven W. Fisher ordered the start of jury selection on September 10, but court observers estimated that the process might take until Thanksgiving and run through a jury pool of 800 before the prosecution presents its case to 12 acceptable jurors.
The case against John Taylor, 38, represents the fourth capital case brought by District Attorney Richard A. Brown.
Brown, a long-time opponent of the death penalty, has been forced by a new state law to prosecute a capital case if it meets certain criteria. Taylors partner in the Wendy slayings, Craig Godineaux, 32, was sentenced to life last year because authorities ruled he is mentally retarded and under the law cannot be executed.
The two defendants allegedly bound and gagged their victims and covered their heads in plastic bags and then shot them at point-blank range. The killers scooped up $2,100 in cash and were quickly caught. Two of the Wendys workers survived.
Standing in front of his bench last week, Fisher told the first jury pool of 140, "This case will be important and interesting and comes at a time of great challenge for our nation." He urged them to do their part.
Court papers gave a chilling picture of what transpired in the tiny Wendys basement.
"As police arrived, Patrick Castro, a male Hispanic in his early 20s walked out of the kitchen carrying Jujoquione Johnson, a male black in his late teens….He had dried blood on his face near his chin from an apparent gunshot injury.
"Castro explained to the police that at about 11:10 p.m., two male blacks, one tall and one short, entered the restaurant. The tall man stood near the door while the short man approached the counter and asked for the manager by name. Thereafter, the manager called the employees, and the two men tied them up with duct tape inside the refrigerator and placed bags over their heads. Then he heard one of the men say, lets get out of here, Im out of bullets. Castro told police that he had been shot but was all right. He said he thought Johnson had been struck in the head with a gun but not shot."
In the hours following the vicious crime, a witness told Detective Radesh Verma that sometime after 11:50 p.m. he had been waiting for the Q-65 bus some seven to eight feet away from Wendys door, when he saw two men exit the restaurant. Both men were black and were walking down Main Street toward Prince Street. The witness was shown a machine-generated photo array consisting of 1,000 photographs of male blacks who had been arrested in the preceding few months. Finally he identified John Taylor. Another witness turned up and identified Godineaux.
In short order, both men were arrested and charged with the murder spree.
Taylor will be represented at the trial by John Youngblood of the State Capital Defenders Office who has filed a series of pre-trial motions designed to block the presentation of certain evidence. Judge Fisher has dismissed most of the defense motions including a move to throw out Taylors confession.
Fisher also denied a motion for a change of venue but did leave open the possibility that he could instruct jurors not to eat at the Wendys across the street from the courthouse. Youngblood felt that the Wendys restaurant on Queen Boulevard might harm his case.
The prosecution is expected to call two employees who survived the shooting to testify at the trial. They also have a .38 caliber semiautomatic pistol found in Taylors knapsack and then linked through ballistics testing, to the crime, his confession and fingerprints.
Court officials said that the case will have two phases including a penalty phase. It is expected that emotions will run high. Family members of the victims have repeatedly called for the death penalty.