A Louisiana judge linked to a high-profile gang-rape case is finding herself in the spotlight for personal reasons, as her son is maneuvering to overturn his convictions for multiple rapes.
Judge Gail Horne Ray, tasked with presiding over the trial of 21-year-old Desmond Carter, faces intense scrutiny. Carter stands accused of sexually assaulting Madi Brooks, a 19-year-old Louisiana State University student, in a vehicle with two other suspects in East Baton Rouge this past January.
Tragically, after being ejected from the car, Brooks was struck and fatally injured by another passing vehicle shortly thereafter, according to allegations.
Compounding the drama, Judge Ray’s son, Nelson Taylor, age 46, is revisiting the courtroom in an attempt to nullify several rape convictions.
Back in 1997, according to reports from WBRZ, Taylor entered guilty pleas for three counts of forcible rape and five counts of aggravated burglary. These offenses were committed while he was still in high school.
The attacks stretched from late 1995 to the spring of 1996, and saw Taylor break into his victim’s homes armed with a gun or a knife.
The then-17-year-old would wear a mask during the rapes and use tape to cover the girls’ eyes and mouths, prosecutors said, with Taylor’s plea deal allowing him to avoid a life sentence.
He received a sentence of 50 years at the time, but was released on parole in 2022 as a Tier 3 sex offender.
Taylor is now trying to have his rape charges and their sentenced set aside, arguing that a similar motion in 2001 was never ruled on by a judge.
He initially filed in November, but the case was delayed as every judge in Louisiana’s 19th Judicial District Court system recused themselves because he is Ray’s son. The Louisiana Supreme Court has since assigned retired First Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Michael McDonald to handle the case.
District Judge Gail Horne Ray has come under scrutiny over her serial rapist son’s attempts to quash his convictions for a series of sex attacks in the 1990s. His criminal past led the judge to be briefly removed from the Madi Brooks trial, before she was put back in charge of the hearings
Ray’s son Nelson Taylor, 46, pleaded guilty in 1997 to three counts of forcible rape, and five counts of aggravated burglary, for a series of sex attacks where he taped up his victims with duct tape
Judge Ray is set to preside over the trial of an alleged attacker of Madison Brooks, 19, who was fatally hit by a car in East Baton Rouge, Louisiana, on January 15, 2023, after she was allegedly left on the side of the road by her accused rapists
Following Taylor’s release, he was arrested again in 2024 after being accused of exposing himself and masturbating in front of a housekeeper at a hotel in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
That case is still ongoing, and Taylor’s court dates have been significantly delayed as all sitting judges in the 19th District – as well as East Baton Rouge District Attorney Hillar Moore – recused themselves due to his mother being a judge.
The controversy surrounding Ray’s son’s status as a serial rapist has already impacted the judge’s presiding over Carter’s case, weeks before the trial has even begun.
Ray was briefly recused from the case after prosecutors complained about her son being a convicted rapist, before she was returned to the preside over Carter’s trial by the state Supreme Court in May.
The Daily Mail has contacted Judge Ray’s judicial assistant for comment.
Ahead of Carter’s trial, the suspect’s attorneys made headlines this week as they demanded Madison Brooks’ loved ones be banned from wearing pink at his court proceedings.
According to prosecutors, Carter and two other men gang raped Brooks in a car after drinking with her in a bar on January 15, 2023.
Brooks was allegedly ‘dumped’ out of the car by the men after the attack, and when she stumbled across a highway she was fatally struck by a moving car.
Casen Carver, 18, (left) Kaivon Washington, 18, (center) and Desmond Carter, 17, (right) are charged with first-degree rape
In a rejected legal filing ahead of his trial, Carter demanded that Brooks’ loved ones be banned from wearing pink in the courtroom
Madison Brooks had been drinking at a bar before she was allegedly raped and fatally struck by a car on January 14, 2023
The Brooks family and their supporters have taken to wearing pink to commemorate the late student at public events and court hearings.
Carter’s attorneys filed a motion to prohibit Brooks’ supporters from wearing Brooks’ favorite color in the courtroom, arguing it could prejudice or intimidate the jury.
The defense cited several cases that found a ‘carnival atmosphere’ in courtrooms violated a defendant’s right to a fair trial, an argument that was characterized as a ‘gross mischaracterization of the facts at hand’ by prosecutors, per WBRZ.
But prosecutors said Brooks’ family and friends have routinely worn pink at multiple prior legal proceedings related to her death.
Prosecutors wrote in their argument to allow pink in the courtroom that Brooks’ supporters would be ‘silent, passive spectators’ to the facts, and described Carter’s demand as ‘absurd.’
Carter is facing rape charges alongside Kaivon Washington and Casen Carver, as prosecutors claim they assaulted Brooks in a car after they drank together at a bar.
The defendants deny raping Brooks, and say only consensual sex happened in the back of the car.
In footage of the night Brooks died released by authorities, Brooks was seen stumbling across a road after she was allegedly dumped by the sidewalk by the men, moments before a moving car struck her.
Footage released by authorities shows the student crossing the road before she was struck by a moving car, and she later died from her injuries
Brooks was allegedly raped by Carter and Washington in the back of their car while the other two suspects watched after a night of drinking at a bar in Tigerland
Authorities have said her blood-alcohol level was .319 percent, almost four times the legal driving limit, and she stumbled into the four-lane road where she was hit by a truck.
In legal filings last year, attorneys for Carver and Carter claimed that injuries consistent with sexual assault allegedly found on Brooks’ body were not their doing.
They claimed that Brooks had consensual rough sex with another Louisiana State University student the night before, and say it was that encounter which caused her injuries.
A motion claimed the evidence ‘will gut the State’s theory of the case’ and prove their innocence.
The filing was condemned by prosecutors, with District Attorney Hillar Moore said the filing was ‘totally inappropriate and not in accordance with the applicable rules of law’.
The motion was ultimately rejected by a judge, as it was branded ‘irrelevant.’