5 years later: convicted serial killer George Brinkman gets another chance in court

CLEVELAND, Ohio (WOIO) - Convicted killer George Brinkman is getting another chance in court.

It’s been five years since the shocking murders of a mom and her two daughters in North Royalton and a Stark County couple just a day later.

The chilling murders shook northeast Ohio back in June 2017.

42-year-old Suzanne Taylor and her daughters Taylor, 21, and Kylie Pifer, 18, were found brutally murdered inside their North Royalton home.

The evidence led police to a family friend, George Brinkman, who confessed to the crime.

19 Investigates profiled how police solved the case in our 3-part series, To Catch a Killer.

Ever since then, life has changed for Suzanne’s brother Ken Taylor.

“I mean everything is different, holidays. And you know, I have no family left. That was my family,” he said.

Taylor can’t believe he may soon have to face another excruciating trial, after an appeal last year.

The Ohio Supreme Court decision stunned the victims’ families.

The court threw out Brinkman’s conviction and death sentence in the North Royalton case, finding in the 2018 trial, that the judge failed to advise Brinkman of his rights before he pleaded guilty.

Brinkman’s appeals attorney called the mistake “a massive failure.”

Now Suzanne, Taylor, and Kylie’s family is in limbo again as they wait for justice.

“Pretty upset, you know knowing that this happened over a mistake and it’s already hard enough having to go through with the first time and having to go through it again now. And there’s so many concerns and so many questions and you don’t know anything, you know how long it’s gonna take again to put it behind you,” Ken Taylor said.

Taylor feels like they’re being victimized all over again and he’s lost a lot of faith in the justice system.

He said the whole court process has been stressful for him.

Court dates have been canceled and rescheduled many times this year due to Covid-19 and other reasons.

He just wants it to end.

“I just I don’t want it to fight for answers. I want to be able to be prepared if I have to, you know be in court in a certain day, you know, I just want to get it over with,” Taylor said.

Taylor said he’s thankful for all of the hard work that went into a conviction during the first trial.

But he worries this time around they won’t get the justice his sister and nieces deserve.

“He doesn’t deserve to be on this Earth. He’s a horrible person,” he said.

“I mean, I want him to get the death penalty and I think that’s the best thing for him,” Taylor said.

A lot could be decided in the next few weeks when Brinkman is back in court, including whether there will be a new trial in the North Royalton case.

But whatever happens next in this case, Brinkman won’t be getting out of prison anytime soon.

He still sits on death row for the Stark County murders.

Brinkman was initially scheduled for a pretrial Tuesday at Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court.

That pretrial has been rescheduled for June 28.

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