Harold Donovan “Don Don” Taylor, a 29-year-old Black/African American man, was killed during the early morning hours of February 14, 2013, in Rand, West Virginia. Shortly before 5 a.m., Taylor was discovered inside a green Nissan Altima that had crashed in the 300 block of Emory Avenue. The vehicle had been riddled with gunfire, and Taylor had suffered multiple gunshot wounds. What initially confronted responding authorities as a violent shooting scene quickly expanded into a search for the person believed responsible.
The circumstances later presented in court showed that Taylor and Tremale Leon Straughter knew one another and had been childhood friends. According to the prosecution's account preserved in West Virginia Supreme Court records, the two men had argued before the killing. Authorities alleged that Straughter then used an AK-47-style rifle to fire into Taylor's automobile at least 30 times.
Taylor was struck repeatedly and ultimately bled to death from his wounds. The extraordinary number of shots fired left the car heavily damaged and became a central part of the evidence describing the brutality of the attack.
The shooting caused immediate concern throughout the Rand area. As investigators searched for a suspect, Riverside High School, three middle schools and nine elementary schools were closed as a precaution. The manhunt continued for approximately four hours. At about 9 a.m., Kanawha County sheriff's deputies located Straughter on Starling Drive in Rand and took him into custody for questioning. Straughter, who was also 29 at the time, emerged as the principal suspect in Taylor's killing.
The investigation ultimately resulted in Straughter being prosecuted for first-degree murder. Before the case could be decided by a jury, he entered a guilty plea to the murder charge. As part of the plea arrangement, prosecutors agreed to dismiss three counts of wanton endangerment that were also pending against him. The agreement still exposed Straughter to the most severe punishment available for the murder conviction, with the court left to determine whether he would ever have an opportunity for parole.
At sentencing, Straughter expressed remorse for Taylor's death, but the circuit court declined to extend mercy. He was sentenced to spend the remainder of his life in the West Virginia penitentiary without the possibility of parole. The court considered his prior criminal history when deciding against mercy, including a previous federal conviction for possession with intent to distribute cocaine base and other criminal charges that had occurred before Taylor's murder. The sentence effectively ensured that Straughter would remain imprisoned for life for killing the man he had known since childhood.
Years later, Straughter continued challenging aspects of the criminal proceedings. After being resentenced for purposes of appeal in March 2022, he took his case to the Supreme Court of Appeals of West Virginia. Among other arguments, he claimed problems involving his plea agreement, the factors considered when he was denied mercy, his competency proceedings and the effectiveness of his attorney. In a decision issued September 15, 2023, the state's highest court rejected the arguments it considered and affirmed the judgment, leaving his life-without-parole sentence in place.
Taylor's death began as a predawn burst of gunfire on a residential street and developed into a case that profoundly disrupted the surrounding community, prompted widespread school closures and ended with the conviction of someone he had known for years. The criminal case established Straughter as the person responsible for the shooting, and the severity of the attack—dozens of rounds fired into Taylor's vehicle—was reflected in the sentence imposed. More than a decade after the killing, the conviction and life-without-parole punishment remained intact following appellate review.
