Murder Trial Begins For Champaign Co. Teen

CHAMPAIGN COUNTY, IL — A murder trial against a Champaign County teenager charged as an adult in the reported killing of his surrogate mother began Monday. Springfield News-Sun reported 15-year-old Donovan Nicholas has pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity to aggravated murder and murder charges, with gun specification, in Champaign County Common Pleas Court. Nicholas faces life in prison if convicted in the April 2017 killing of 40-year-old Heidi Fay Taylor, according to the news report.

Nicholas was 14 and an eighth-grader at Graham Middle School at the time prosecutors claim he stabbed his surrogate mother more than 60 times before shooting her at his home, as Taylor was Nicholas' father's live-in girlfriend and surrogate mother, according to court testimony, Springfield News-Sun reported.

More than 150 potential jurors were expected to report Monday because of notoriety of the case that made national headlines last year because of Nicholas' 9-1-1 call where in the call, obtained by Springfield News-Sun, he can be heard telling police dispatchers that another personality named "Jeff" killed Taylor.

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