Female Transsexual Denies Being Male Murder Suspect

A woman identified as the man wanted for a 1979 slaying in South Carolina denied Thursday that she is the suspect as a judge ordered a new fingerprint comparison to settle the issue.

Los Angeles Municipal Judge Jacob Adajain ordered the tests after Valerie Nicole Taylor’s lawyer asked for them.

The lawyer, Walter Krauss, said Taylor was once known as Freddie Lee Turner--the name of the suspect in the shooting death in the small town of Gaffney, S.C., 17 years ago. But he said Taylor, 40, an unemployed model, denied that she is the fugitive sought by police.

Burbank police said her fingerprints match those of Turner, who fled South Carolina after the killing and has evaded state and federal authorities since. Taylor was arrested at her Toluca Lake apartment on May 9.

Krauss said he represented Taylor when she changed her name in 1991. He said Taylor’s sex change had nothing to do with the case.

“When I first represented her in 1991 on the name change, she was already a woman. I don’t know when or where she had the operation,” said Krauss. “I don’t think she changed her sex because she was trying not to be found. I think her reasons go much, much deeper than that.

“She doesn’t strike me as the type of person who is capable of murder,” he added. “That’s out of character. She is a very quiet, shy and gentle person.”

Krauss said Taylor does not deny having once been a man named Freddie Lee Turner, only being the suspect sought in the case.

Gaffney police had all but forgotten the case when, a few months ago, Burbank police got a tip from a citizen who said Taylor had admitted to killing someone long ago in Gaffney. Krauss said Taylor denies making such an admission.

Taylor is being held without bail at Sybil Brand Institute for Women.