Trinity murders

Trinity murders
Date September 29, 1984
Location Louisville, Kentucky, United States
Cause Homicide by firearm
Outcome Solved
Deaths 2
Convicted Victor Taylor
George Wade
Verdict Guilty
Convictions Death (Taylor) Life imprisonment (Wade)

The Trinity murders occurred in Louisville, Kentucky on September 29, 1984, and are named after Trinity High School. Two 17-year-old Trinity High students, Scott Christopher Nelson and Richard David Stephenson, became lost on their way to a high school football game where Trinity was playing DuPont Manual High School at Manual's football stadium on East Burnett Avenue. Nelson and Stephenson stopped at a Moby Dick restaurant at Logan and Oak Streets to get directions, where Victor Taylor and his cousin George Wade said they would lead them to the stadium if they were given a ride. Nelson and Stephenson were instead taken to a vacant lot in the 300 block of Ardella Ct. near the football stadium of Louisville Male High School where they were forced to take off their clothes, hand over their personal property and were bound and gagged. After Victor Taylor sexually assaulted one of them, Nelson and Stephenson were shot in the back of the head to avoid the identification of Taylor and Wade.

The widely publicized murders led to the suspects when a relative who had been given a Trinity High school jacket reported George Wade to the police. Wade implicated Victor Taylor in the crime and the personal belongings of the two murdered students were found in the home of Taylor's mother.

After a change of venue motion due to publicity, the trials of Taylor and Wade were moved to Lexington, Kentucky where Taylor was convicted in 1986 of kidnapping, robbery, sodomy, and murder. Wade had previously testified against Taylor but recanted his testimony, which led to Taylor unsuccessfully appealing his conviction. George Wade was convicted of kidnapping, robbery, and murder. Taylor is on death row at the Kentucky State Penitentiary in Eddyville, Kentucky and George Wade is serving a life sentence at the Kentucky State Reformatory in LaGrange Kentucky.

Wade recanted his statement to the police that Taylor was with him when he kidnapped, sodomized and killed the boys. Wade made this statement more than eleven years after Taylor's conviction.

In 2000 the clothier Benetton ran a controversial advertising campaign titled "We, On Death Row" which featured Victor Taylor and 24 other death row inmates from around the United States.

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