UPDATE, MAY 14, 3:24 P.M.: Joseph Jordan Taylor, the 29-year-old son of 2011 Huntington Beach Surfing Walk of Fame inductee (and fellow arrestee) John Taylor, is scheduled to be arraigned this afternoon for allegedly soliciting undercover police officers to murder a woman this past Tuesday, according to the Orange County district attorney's office (OCDA).
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Joe Taylor will enter the West Justice Center in Westminster charged with one felony count of solicitation to commit murder and one felony count of attempted murder, with a sentencing enhancement for premeditation and deliberation. The Huntington Beach resident is also charged with five prior strike convictions for kidnapping and carjacking in 2009, a DUI causing injury and hit and run with great bodily injury in 2007, and making criminal threats in 2007. In the current case, Taylor is accused of paying Huntington Beach cops posing as hitmen money to murder an unidentified woman, with the agreement to pay them more money once she was murdered, says the OCDA, which notes that shortly after paying the officers, Taylor was arrested. The investigation is ongoing, and no further information will be released at this time, prosecutors add.
Anyone with information regarding this case is asked to contact Homicide Detective Mike Szyperski at the Huntington Beach Police Information Hotline at (714) 375-5066. You can also click on the Submit a Crime Tip link on the HBPD Facebook page. Anonymous tips can be left with Orange County Crime Stoppers at (855) 847-6227 (855-TIP-OCCS), via occrimestoppers.org or by texting to 274637 (C-R-I-M-E-S) from a cell phone. (All text messages should begin with the letters “OCCS.”)
ORIGINAL POST, MAY 14, 12:03 P.M.: A 2011 Huntington Beach Surfing Walk of Fame inductee, two of his sons and a fourth man are behind bars today on suspicion of conspiring to commit a murder for financial gain, according to Surf City's police department.
John Reid Taylor, 67, of Huntington Beach, his sons Matthew Austin Taylor, 27, of Long Beach, and Joseph Jordan Taylor, 29, of Huntington Beach, as well as Travis James Sprague, 36, of Long Beach, were booked on suspicion of solicitation to commit murder, says Huntington Beach Police Officer Jennifer Marlatt.
Matthew Taylor was additionally booked on suspicion of obstructing or resisting a peace officer and failing to provide a DNA sample as required by law, Marlatt said. The youngest Taylor brother, who was arrested Tuesday night in Long Beach, gave his occupation as surfboard representative, according to Orange County Jail Records. “Matt Taylor, his son and partner, shapes and surfs competitively, furthering the Taylor tradition,” stated John Taylor's Surfing Hall of Fame Honor Roll induction bio.
The jail records also list Joseph Taylor, who was arrested Tuesday afternoon in Westminster, as a shaper and father John, who was taken into custody that night in Surf City, as a surfboard maker. Sprague, who was popped Wednesday afternoon in HB, is identified as a diesel mechanic.
Marlatt says the FBI tipped Huntington Beach Police investigators about the alleged conspiracy and that an undercover officer met with one suspect to set a price to have someone they knew well killed. The spokeswoman provided no other details about the case, other than that the four suspects were held in lieu of $1 million bail each.
More from that John Taylor bio:
John grew up on Balboa Peninsula and in Long Beach. Surfing and sailing captivated him at a young age. He raced at age 10 at the Balboa Yacht Club, of which he and his family are still members. In the eighth grade, John made his first balsa wood surfboard under the guidance of Ole, of Ole Surfboards, as that was John's wood shop teacher. He graduated Poly High Long Beach and moved to 13th Street in Huntington Beach up from Gordie's shop at the age of 18. John started making fiberglass molds and surfing for the Hole in the Wall surf team in WSA Men's division in 1967.
At age 23, John opened the the Little Shop of Repairs and John Taylor Surfboards under Gordie's tutelage. Shortly after that, John started tandem surfing and held first place in WSA and the United States Championships for 15 straight years. He was on the Wild World of Sports for three straight years, winning fourth, third and second. In the Hawaiian United States Championships, John won first place in 1978.
After the Hole in the Wall team disbanded in 1985, John worked for Infinity Surfboards for 32 years. He still surfed tandem competitively until Australia in 1999, attaining 4th place out of 37 teams.
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OC Weekly Editor-in-Chief Matt Coker has been engaging, enraging and entertaining readers of newspapers, magazines and websites for decades. He spent the first 13 years of his career in journalism at daily newspapers before “graduating” to OC Weekly in 1995 as the alternative newsweekly’s first calendar editor.