[3/19/04]Moans and loud weeping erupted in Warren County Circuit Court Thursday as a Vicksburg man was found guilty of setting his longtime girlfriend on fire.

“This is so wrong,” said 28-year-old Doris Jackson, the Vicksburg woman who was burned in July at the South Street apartment she shared with Bobby Taylor, 31. “If I said Bobby did it, it would be one thing, but as God as my witness, this is wrong.”

Taylor, convicted of aggravated assault with extreme indifference, fell to his knees, weeping before members of his family as the verdict was read. The jury for the trial that began Tuesday had deliberated for about an hour.

The maximum sentence for the charge is 20 years in prison. Warren County Circuit Judge Frank Vollor did not set a date for Taylor’s sentencing.

Taylor’s attorney, James Penley, said he and his client, a former utility meter reader for the City of Vicksburg, would decide about an appeal after his sentence is handed down.

The trial stems from the early-morning hours of July 17, when Jackson was taken to River Region Medical Center with burns covering most of her body. Her injuries resulted in treatment for two weeks at The Burn Center in Greenville.

After the verdict was read, Taylor’s mother was led from the courtroom crying, and Jackson wept silently as tears streamed down her face.

The couple testified separately that they were playing with rubbing alcohol and a lighter after she went home from a night of drinking and playing slot machines at a local casino.

They said that after he poured drops of the alcohol on her hand, a friend knocked on the door of their apartment. As Taylor was returning to the bedroom, Jackson was standing in the hall, he flicked the lighter and flames engulfed her.

Taylor testified he grabbed a blanket to extinguish the fire and helped her into the shower.

Experts called by the prosecution said burn patterns from the ignitable liquid showed Jackson was lying down and most likely unconscious when the fire erupted.

Ninth Circuit Court District Attorney Gil Martin, whose office prosecuted the case, said it is unusual for his office to try a case without a victim’s cooperation.

“This was an act of domestic violence to an extreme and needed to be prosecuted,” Martin said. “There is a history of violence in their relationship that goes back a number of years.”

Jackson testified that during the course of their nine-year relationship Taylor had beaten her, given her black eyes and shot her. Two affidavits signed by Jackson charging Taylor with aggravated assault also were admitted as evidence in the trial. She never followed through on the charges.

“We care about her, that’s why we prosecuted this case,” Martin said. “We are trying to protect her from herself.”

When Taylor was arrested at the hospital, he was on probation from the Mississippi Department of Corrections after serving a year in the state penitentiary on an aggravated assault charge.

After the trial, Taylor was returned to the Warren County Jail, where he has been since August, when his bond was revoked. Taylor posted a $75,000 bond on July 28 with the condition that he not contact Jackson. He was ordered to return to jail in August after taking Jackson for treatments in Greenville.