The suspect in the disappearance of a Nelson County teenager was denied bond during a hearing Thursday.
Randy Allen Taylor, 48, has been held without bond since his arrest Aug. 11 in connection with the disappearance of 17-year-old Alexis Murphy of Lovingston.
Wednesday, Taylor was denied bond but his lawyer maintained there is not enough evidence in the case to keep his client behind bars. The Nelson County Commonwealth's Attorney claimed Taylor is a danger and a flight risk. A grand jury is scheduled to hear the case in late September.
Gas station surveillance video shows Murphy and Taylor at a Liberty gas station at the same time the day she went missing, and Taylor doesn't deny that the two interacted.
Taylor's attorney, Mike Hallahan, told NBC29 in Charlottesville last week that his client was not the last person to see Murphy the day she went missing. He said while he and Murphy were parked at the gas pumps that day, she approached him and "made a comment to him about smoking marijuana based on her seeing him at another car wash in Lovingston weeks or a month before that."
The lawyer said Taylor, Murphy and another man -- described by Hallahan as a black man in his mid to late 20s -- went back to Taylor's camper in Lovingston. The two men smoked and drank, while Murphy did neither, the lawyer said.
Hallahan said Murphy and the other man left at the same time in separate cars, and that was the last Taylor saw of them.
Alexis Murphy's family last saw her when she left their home Aug. 3. She was wearing a pink blouse, floral spandex pants and brown boots, and carrying a gray purse.
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Her car, a 2003 Nissan Maxima, was found three days later in the parking lot of a movie theater near Charlottesville, more than 35 miles northeast of Lovingston.
The following day, more than 50 law enforcement officials converged on the area, searching for her by ground and helicopter.
The bond hearing is scheduled for Thursday afternoon in Nelson County Juvenile & Domestic Relations Court.
The News & Advance reports that Judge A. Ellen White has closed Thursday's hearing to the public because the circuit court has ordered search warrants sealed, and the case is still under investigation.
Taylor has maintained his innocence.
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