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Man charged in Jamaica Plain murder dies in custody
Taylor Hurst previously served more than a decade in prison for killing his pregnant fiancée.
A Foxborough man who served more than a decade in prison for killing his pregnant fiancée and was ordered held without bail on a new murder charge last week has died, according to court documents.
Taylor Hurst, 42, died “on or about” last Wednesday, according to a joint filing from the Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office and Hurst’s court-appointed attorney. Both sides have requested the newly filed murder case be dismissed.
The exact cause and circumstances of Hurst’s death remain unclear; neither Hurst’s lawyer nor the Suffolk County Sheriff’s Office, which oversees the Suffolk County Jail, returned requests for comment Tuesday morning. The DA’s office declined to comment.
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Hurst was accused of killing a man named Stephen Gomes, whose body was found under a bed inside an apartment on Patten Street in Jamaica Plain July 6. But according to NBC10 Boston, Hurst’s attorney, Anne Iglehart, said she had “concerns about Mr. Hurst’s ability to appreciate … the process that’s happening right now, due to his medical condition.”
She did not elaborate further.
Hurst pleaded not guilty during his Aug. 22 arraignment and was ordered held without bail at the county jail. He appeared via Zoom from Tufts Medical Center at a hearing the same day, court records show.
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In 2007, Hurst — then 24 — was charged with strangling 23-year-old Katherine MacDougall to death. MacDougall was three months pregnant with their child at the time, and authorities alleged Hurst stayed in their apartment for a couple days after the death, The Worcester Telegram & Gazette reported at the time.
He pleaded guilty to manslaughter and was sentenced to 18 to 20 years in prison. Hurst was later charged with animal cruelty while incarcerated at the Pondville Correctional Center in Norfolk, with prosecutors accusing him of kicking a 10-week-old service dog. He pleaded guilty and was on probation when he was arrested in the Jamaica Plain murder last month.
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