(October 15, 2008)—A McLennan County district court jury early Wednesday evening returned a guilty verdict in the capital murder trial of Robert Allen Byrd, 34, who was accused of kidnapping and killing Dana Leigh Taylor of Kemp.
Prosecutors said Byrd and the victim were both affiliated with the violent white supremacist group the Aryan Circle.
Prosecutors were not seeking the death penalty and Byrd was automatically sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Byrd took the stand in his own defense Wednesday afternoon and accused prosecutors of fabricating a case against him.
Byrd was indicted in April 2007 in the death of the 38-year-old woman.
Two women found Taylor’s badly decomposed body on April 27, 2006 in a field off Old Dallas Highway between Elm Mott and Ross just north of Waco.
The body was so badly decomposed, investigators said, that it was impossible to determine how long it had been there.
Forensic investigators were eventually able to determine who the victim was and how she died.
Byrd was already serving a 99-year sentence in connection with the death of a North Texas man in Hood County.
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