Van Buren man to stand trial in mother’s murder

VAN BUREN — A Van Buren man was ordered to stand trial Monday for the December death of his mother.

Having heard testimony on Friday and Monday afternoons in the case of Dakota W. Taylor, Associate Circuit Judge Stephen Lynxwiler found probable cause to believe the 27-year-old committed the felonies of second-degree murder and of armed criminal action.

Taylor is charged in connection with the death of his mother, Kathryn Hall, who he allegedly hit with a baseball bat.

Hall, 58, died at a St. Louis hospital and an autopsy determined she died of blunt-force trauma, officials report. The Ellsinore woman also reportedly suffered a non-fatal stab wound.

In binding Taylor over to stand trial, Lynxwiler ordered he appear at 8:30 a.m. July 17 before Circuit Judge Steven Privette for arraignment.

The charges stem from an incident which occurred at the senior apartments in Ellsinore, where Hall lived.

Just before 7:10 p.m. Dec. 10, Ellsinore Chief of Police Dustin Boyer earlier said, Carter County deputies were dispatched to Taylor’s rural Van Buren home.

Taylor reportedly told responding officers he had “done something bad to his mother,” Carter County Chief Deputy Justin Eudaley wrote in his probable-cause statement. “(He) informed Deputy (Curtis) Robinett he had an altercation with his mother.”

Taylor alleged his mother had came at him with a knife and he had struck his mother with a baseball bat, causing her to fall on the knife.

Law enforcement reportedly conducted a well-being check at Hall’s residence. Emergency-medical-services personnel also had responded.

Hall sustained what was described as a stab wound, according to Eudaley, “mid sternum, approximately one and a half-inch long and one and one-half inch wide.”

Eudaley said Hall also suffered “severe head trauma to both sides of her head, and (her) right ear almost tore from her head.”

Hall identified her son as her alleged attacker.