Enlarge Dale Mapp, brother of Yolanda Mapp, speaks to the crowd gathered for a candlelight vigil in her memory. (Staten Island Advance/ Bill Lyons Candlelight vigil for Yolanda Mapp gallery (8 photos)
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- A melee nearly erupted at a murder suspect’s arraignment yesterday, after friends and relatives of a woman shot dead in Mariners Harbor said they heard the alleged shooter yell out a profane taunt.
Tensions were already high in Stapleton Criminal Court, where nearly 50 friends and relatives of Yolanda Mapp, 33, packed the seats to see Baydr Taylor, 32, arraigned on second-degree murder charges.
Taylor, a convicted gun-runner on federal supervised release, is accused of shooting and killing Ms. Mapp outside of Shooters Sports Lounge at 2178 Forest Ave., after he was denied entry at about 2:30 a.m. Sunday because he was wearing body armor. She died early yesterday morning at Richmond University Medical Center, West Brighton.
In contrast to the raucous day in court, a candlelight vigil for Ms. Mapp was held last night in Mariners Harbor.
Taylor, whose face was blank throughout the arraignment, needed to be brought into the courtroom three separate times, as Judge Alan J. Meyer and court officers tried to calm Ms. Mapp’s family.
One man, identified as her brother, Dale, stood up and held up her photo as the court proceedings began. Later, he and other family members started shouting after prosecutor Adam Silberlight said Taylor shot Ms. Mapp “square in the head,” prompting Meyer to stop the proceedings until the scene settled down.
‘SHOW SOME REMORSE!’
The tension boiled over at the end of the proceedings, though.
Meyer ordered Taylor held without bail, and a woman, identified as Ms. Mapp’s niece, started yelling, “Show some remorse, Baydr! Show some remorse!”
That’s when, according to several attendees in earshot, Taylor retorted, “[Expletive] you!” Ms. Mapp’s teenage son, Lamont Bryant, 16, tried to climb over a court bench to get to Taylor, and court officers surrounded him and other family members as Taylor was whisked away.
Taylor’s court-appointed lawyer, Kevin McKernan, said he heard no such retort from his client.
“He was quiet. I did not hear him say anything,” he said.
Several onlookers were shouting profanities throughout the proceedings, and the courtroom’s notoriously bad acoustics make it difficult for voices to be heard clearly.
Taylor is charged with second-degree murder and two counts of criminal possession of a weapon, according to Peter N. Spencer, a spokesman for District Attorney Daniel Donovan.
Silberlight told the court that several witnesses identified Taylor as Ms. Mapp’s shooter, and Taylor acknowledged in a videotaped statement that he fired the weapon. He referred to Ms. Mapp as an “innocent bystander.”
According to prosecutors, Taylor fired into a crowd gathered outside Shooters because he was angry about not being let into the bar.
McKernan said yesterday his client has pleaded not guilty, and his office would be conducting its own investigation into what happened.
Ms. Mapp’s childhood friends, who were gathered outside the courthouse after the proceeding, recalled her as an outgoing woman and a devoted mother.
“She was a great mother and a beautiful person,” said Monica Ascencio, of West Brighton, who noted she had seen Ms. Mapp at a pool party about an hour before the shooting. “She said, ‘I’ll see you tomorrow,’ and she never made it.”Ms. Mapp grew up in West Brighton, then moved to Mariners Harbor about 16 years ago, her friends recalled. For the past 10 years, she worked as a home aide with Stella Orton Home Care, they said.
Taylor is slated to return to court July 22.
CRIMINAL BACKGROUND
He has a criminal record dating back to his teenage years — in 1995, when he was 16 years old, he pleaded guilty to firing a gun at point-blank range three times in a dispute with a man from his community, hitting him in the right arm and left leg. He was sentenced to one and a third to four years in prison.
At the time of Sunday’s shooting, Taylor was still under federal supervision, following his release in 2009 after a 70-month term for gun trafficking; one of the weapons was used in a slaying in Stapleton.
This past May 24, police arrested him on felony drug charges, and though he was initially held on $150,000 bail, he was released on his own recognizance on May 27, then transferred to federal custody, accused of violating the terms of his supervision.
A federal judge, Robert M. Levy, ordered him released on his own recognizance June 2, provided he report to probation officials weekly and undergo drug testing and treatment.
His attorney in the drug case, Leo V. Duval, said he was released because the charges were “without merit.”
”It’s expected to be dismissed,” he said “I expected the federal post-release supervision violation to be dismissed as well. Certainly these new charges complicate things quite a bit.”
When asked he’d represent Taylor in the murder case, he said he’s been contacted by the suspect’s family, and expects to meet them sometime this week to discuss the matter.
Baydr is the brother of Taliyah Taylor, who was high on Ecstacy and marijuana in October 2006 when she mowed down and killed Larry Simon as he was crossing Forest Avenue on the way to Chic-N-Bones, the previous name of Shooters.
The bar changed owners, and its name, last year, and law enforcement sources say it has fast become a trouble-spot, with Sunday’s violence marking the second shooting there this year.
William Crowley, a spokesman for the State Liquor Authority, said that Shooters has no pending liquor license violations, but the shooting has sparked the agency to open an investigation into the bar.
CANDLELIGHT VIGIL
Last night, family and friends gathered to remember Ms. Mapp with a candlelight vigil held in front of the Mariners Harbor Houses along Grandview Avenue. Over 200 people gathered to remember a woman many said was known and loved by everyone in the community. That sentiment was illustrated by a tree decorated with several heart-shaped balloons that said, “I Love You.” Meanwhile, numerous votive candles were used to spell out the name Yolanda.
Her brother, Dale Mapp, 36, said his family was moved by the show of love from the community.
“She was a beautiful sister, a beautiful mother, an independent mother, a beautiful aunt. When you say Yolanda, you couldn’t ask for anything more.”
Ms. Mapp's niece, Elena Richards, 28, of Mariners Harbor, said her aunt was happiest when she was out having a good party. “That was my heart, my heart,” said Ms. Richards. “Every weekend, every weekend we did something...I was there when she got shot. I was there when she took her last heartbeat. I will be with her until the dirt covers her.”
Friend Karie Spicer called for an end to violence in the community. “We gotta stop. We gotta love one another,” she screamed. “We should not be here with this. We should not be here with this.”
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