Columbus, Ohio: Pammy Maye Found Guilty in Killing of Darnell Taylor, 5

Updated 23:29 UTC, Nov 10

A Franklin County jury found Pammy Maye, 51, guilty on all counts on Tuesday, November 10, The Columbus Dispatch reported. The verdict covers aggravated murder, three counts of tampering with evidence, and gross abuse of a corpse in the death of Darnell Taylor, 5. WSYX in Columbus also reported that the jury found Maye guilty on all five counts. The jury deliberated for several hours on Tuesday after a two day trial. Maye will be sentenced at a later date.

Defense attorney Sam Shamansky did not dispute that Maye killed Darnell on February 14, 2024, by placing a garbage bag over his head and tying it closed, then walking away for about 10 minutes while the boy suffocated. Shamansky argued that Maye was not guilty by reason of mental disorder and said the verdict should be guilty but insane. Assistant Franklin County Prosecuting Attorney Katherine Wolfe told the jury in closing that Maye knew what she was doing was wrong and that the killing was premeditated. Dr. Daniel Davis, who carried out a forensic psychological evaluation of Maye, testified that she had a history of depression and bipolar disorder, and prosecutors pointed to testimony that she overreported symptoms during the evaluation.

Opening statements began on Monday, November 9, in the Franklin County trial of Pammy Maye, 51, who is charged with aggravated murder, tampering with evidence and abuse of a corpse in the February 2024 death of Darnell Taylor, a five year old boy in her care. ABC6 in Columbus reported that opening arguments were set to begin on Monday, and The Columbus Dispatch reported the statements from the courtroom the same day. Maye is charged, not convicted.

What prosecutors told the jury

Assistant Franklin County Prosecutor Katherine Wolfe told jurors they would hear Maye's own admission that on February 14, 2024, she slipped a garbage bag over Darnell's head while he lay in bed, tied it, and walked away while he suffocated, the Dispatch reported. Wolfe said Maye returned about ten minutes later, pulled the bag over the boy's whole body, and put the body in a sleeping bag inside a living room closet.

Wolfe said that when Jabrell Maye came home from work that night, his wife told him Darnell "was no longer there" and admitted killing him. Wolfe said the evidence would show Maye switched the license plate on a Jeep Cherokee so it could not be traced, washed Darnell's bedsheets, and wore dark clothing while moving the body. Prosecutors say Maye dumped the body in a storm sewer and fled toward Cleveland, where she was arrested in Brooklyn, a Cleveland suburb. "This is a loss of life that never should've happened," Wolfe told the jury. "We ask ultimately that you listen to Darnell's story."

The defense answer

Defense attorney Sam Shamansky did not dispute that Maye killed Darnell. He called the boy's death an "abject tragedy" and told jurors Maye was in the throes of mental illness at the time. "We're talking about a woman who was deeply and profoundly mentally ill," Shamansky told the jury. "What I'm going to prove to you is the woman who committed this act was ill equipped to understand the wrongfulness of this act." He is seeking a finding of not guilty by reason of insanity.

Prosecutors then called their first witness, Nicole Zachariah, the former Columbus 911 dispatcher who took Jabrell Maye's call that night, and played the 911 recording in court. "She just woke me up and said he not here no more," Jabrell Maye told Zachariah, according to the Dispatch.

How the case reached trial

Pammy and Jabrell Maye took over care for Darnell in May 2023. The Dispatch reported they were family friends of the boy's biological family and were recommended as a temporary custody placement. In July 2026, prosecutors offered a plea deal requiring guilty pleas to aggravated murder and abuse of a corpse, with a possible life sentence without parole, or with parole after 20, 25 or 30 years. Maye formally declined through her attorney, and the case was set for trial on November 9 before Franklin County Common Pleas Judge Mark Serrott.

ABC6 reported the case reached trial more than two years after the death because Maye was found not competent last year, was sent to a psychiatric facility for treatment, and was ruled able to stand trial about seven months ago. The Dispatch reported in April that a separate evaluation would test whether she met the legal test for an insanity finding. The trial continues in Columbus.