By Alexander Dworkowitz
More than two years after the massacre of five people at a Flushing Wendy’s restaurant shocked the borough and the city, the trial of the accused mastermind began with opening arguments that presented a similar set of events in very different lights.
Opening arguments at the trial of John Taylor, 38, of Lefrak City were presented in the Kew Gardens courtroom of State Supreme Court Justice Steven Fisher Tuesday after five weeks of jury selection.
He could face the death penalty if convicted.
Taylor is accused of murdering two Wendy’s employees at the Main Street Wendy’s on May 24, 2000 and ordering his accomplice, Craig Godineaux, to shoot five others, only two of whom survived.
Godineaux, 32, of Jamaica pleaded guilty to shooting five and is currently serving a life sentence. Prosecutors decided not to pursue the death penalty against him after he was determined to be mentally retarded.
The prosecution and defense agreed that Taylor had killed the restaurant’s manager, Jean Auguste, but differed in their accounts of whether Taylor was responsible for the other four deaths.
In “a robbery that John Taylor was determined to get away with at all costs,” he and his accomplice Craig Godineaux tied up seven of the employees and led them “like lambs into a slaughter into a refrigerator,” said Assistant District Attorney Daniel Saunders.
“They were compelled to wait their turns to be shot in the head at point-blank range,” Saunders said, as several victims’ family members left the courtroom, holding back tears.
In 1997, Auguste had trained Taylor at the restaurant, where he had risen to the position of co-manager before being transferred. Taylor had recommended that two of the other victims, including Anita Smith, should be hired at the restaurant, Saunders said.
After meeting while working at a store in Jamaica, Taylor and Godineaux, both pressed for cash, decided to undertake a robbery, Saunders said.
The two entered the Main Street Wendy’s at about 10:30 p.m., pretending not to know each other.
“John Taylor placed an order with Anita Smith,” Saunders said. “She gave him a big smile.”
After eating, Taylor asked one of the employees, “Where’s my friend Jean?” Saunders said.
Taylor then went to the basement to meet with Jean Auguste. After briefly returning upstairs to check on Godineaux, Taylor returned to Auguste, pulled a gun on his former co-worker, and had him gather up about $2,400, so much of which was change that the haul weighed 40 pounds, Saunders said.
Taylor then had Auguste bring in the remaining workers. He and Godineaux tied up the seven men and women, put garbage bags over their heads and marched them into a storage refrigerator, Saunders said.
After Auguste complained he could not breath, Taylor pointed his gun at Auguste, Saunders said.
“In the blink of an eye, Taylor converted the seven witnesses to robbery to six witnesses to murder,” Saunders said.
Smith began to scream, and Taylor shot her, Saunders said.
Taylor then handed the gun to Godineaux, Saunders said.
“He told him very simply, ‘Finish it,’” he said.
Defense attorney John Youngblood agreed Taylor shot Auguste, but contended he did not pull his gun again.
“Mr. Taylor did not shoot anyone else,” Youngblood said. “Mr. Taylor did not cause Craig Godineaux to shoot the other people … It was just supposed to be a robbery. It went wrong.”
In his confession about two days after the murders, Taylor at first blamed Godineaux for all the deaths, but later admitted to killing Auguste.
Youngblood told the panel of five women and seven men that Taylor had admitted to everything he had done.
“The confession is trustworthy because it is so damning,” he said.
The two sides portrayed two very different pictures of the accused.
Saunders described Taylor as someone who thought little of the crime after it occurred, holding onto the Wendy’s surveillance tape after he learned police were searching for him “like it was a souvenir.”
Godineaux, meanwhile, sucked his thumb on the night of the crime and wet his pants when he was arrested, Saunders said.
The defense, however, described Taylor as someone who called the police to help a nephew who was injured on Long Island two days after the massacre, knowing full well the call could lead to his arrest.
In his long confession, Taylor was “basically unburdening the terrible truth that he has carried,” Youngblood said.
Fellow defense attorney Kelley Sharkey said Godineaux had spent six years in prison for crimes ranging from drug dealing to robbery, Sharkey said.
After opening arguments concluded, many of the relatives of victims said they wanted to see Taylor get the death penalty.
“I’m hoping that there’s justice,” said Josh Mele, whose brother Jeremy was in the restaurant. “There’s only one way to have justice: that he dies.”
Reach reporter Alexander Dworkowitz by e-mail at Timesledger@aol.com or call 229-0300, Ext. 141.
