By Kimberly Hopson
L’Observateur

EDGARD – Earnest Joseph III, the man charged with the murder of 15-year-old LaPlace resident Taylor Adams, was sentenced to 28 years of hard labor during a recent sentencing hearing in Edgard.
Joseph, then 27, was indicted in 2011 on second-degree murder charges for beating the Riverside Academy student to death inside her own home in the 2500 block of Yorktowne Drive in 2010.
An autopsy report indicated the victim sustained blunt force trauma to the head but did not specify a murder weapon. Detectives suspect the incident took place sometime after 1 a.m. on Dec. 5, 2010, based on Adams’ Facebook activity that evening. Authorities named Joseph as a suspect three days after the young girl’s murder. He was apprehended by U.S. Marshals near Gulfport, Miss., shortly afterward.
Adams’ mother Gaylyn Adams discovered her daughter’s body after returning from work at about 6:30 a.m. Gaylyn Adams worked as a security guard in LaPlace and often worked a 12-hour shift overnight and told detectives she had not seen or spoken to her daughter since about 9 p.m. on Dec. 4, 2010, and that she expected her daughter to be home by herself.
Joseph and Adams lived on the same street, within a couple of blocks of each other. Evidence showed that an intense struggle took place inside the home.