Cold-Blooded Slay Over Stolen ATV

 Cold-Blooded Slay Over Stolen ATV

BRONX, NEW YORK (BRONX NEWS)- Zarnoff Taylor cared about his tricked-out all-terrain vehicle more than life itself. And as it turned out, more than the lives of the two men whom he suspected had stolen it.  

Now, announced Bronx District Attorney Robert Johnson, the 30-year-old Taylor will be spending the rest of his life with no possibility of parole for the murder of one of those men, and the attempted murder of the other.

               

After a two-week-long trial and just one day’s deliberation, on April 21st a jury found Taylor guilty of murder in the first degree (Class A-1 Felony) and attempted murder in the second degree (Class B Violent Felony).  

On August 31st, 2015, he was sentenced by Supreme Court Justice John Carter to life without parole for the murder, consecutive to another 25 years in prison for the attempted murder.

               

Taylor's ATV was his pride and joy, the Yamaha Banshee’s tricked-out engine the envy of anyone who saw it. But when it went missing from the lot where he’d parked it, he and his buddies went looking. On April 16, 2010, Taylor brought 10 men in two vans to Soon Cycle on Ogden Avenue in the Mt. Eden section of the Bronx and found their suspects – 

John Santiago (aka Juan Quinones) 

and Jonathan Torres. Taylor kidnapped the two men at gunpoint, and drove them around for two hours, robbed them, beat them up and interrogated them, because he wanted to know if they stole his ATV.

               

Taylor found proof in their cell phones when he saw a picture of one of the two riding his bike.

               

He shot Santiago at point-blank range, but he wasn’t done with him.  As Santiago was bleeding out, Taylor drove around, and tried to find out where his ATV was. They drove clear across the Bronx, ending up in an industrial area near Co-op City, where Taylor forced Torres to carry the gravely wounded Santiago from the van.  

Then Taylor shot Torres a half dozen times, and pumped yet another six bullets into Santiago. Somehow, Santiago survived, with surgery replacing nearly all his blood volume.  Torres did not survive.

               

Ironically, Taylor never recovered his stolen ATV.

               

One of the other men involved in 

Taylor’s crime, Wader Mejia-Acosta, pled guilty in April to attempted robbery in the first degree and was sentenced to five years behind bars.  The other, Adonis Jimenez, pled guilty to attempted robbery in the second degree and was sentenced to four years.

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