July 6 stabbing incident may have been latest chapter in domestic violence saga

A late-night tip of a possible stabbing in the area of Royal Arms Apartments on East Criser Road early Tuesday morning, July 6, may, not only have saved a man’s life but revealed the most recent chapter in a history of domestic violence involving the victim. According to a warrant for “Malicious Wounding” issued against 33-year-old Tiffany Lynne Taylor, responding Front Royal Police Officer R. D. Lowry found a man walking with a female, later identified as Taylor. Asked if he “was okay” by the officer, the man, later identified as 26-year-old Clayton M. Williams, responded, “I’m good.”

However, Officer Lowry noticed the man, who was walking with his hand on his back, stumble. As Lowry exited his patrol car, the male fell to the ground, at which point the officer noticed blood on his hand. After raising William’s shirt, a stab wound was verified visually by the officer. Based on information from two eyewitnesses and a subsequent statement from Williams that Taylor had stabbed him, Taylor was taken into custody.

FRPD’s weekly arrest report cites Taylor’s arrest at 3:13 a.m. According to the RSW Jail website, she was booked into RSW at 3:25 a.m. Her address is listed as 405 East Criser Road, apartment 203. That is the same address listed for the victim, Clayton Marquis Williams, who is listed in the FRPD arrest report as being charged at 4:39 a.m. that same morning with “an Other Authority Arrest”.

According to the RSW website, Clayton Marquis Williams was booked on a “Violation of a Protective Order” charge at 5:17 a.m., Tuesday morning, July 6. He is listed as released at 4:30 p.m. that afternoon.

Above, Tiffany L. Taylor; below Clayton M. Williams – Photos RSW Jail website

But unlike Taylor, according to the jail website, July 6 was not Williams’s first booking into RSW. A search of the RSW website indicated 7 bookings dating from September 2015 to 2021, with the last one prior to his July 6 arrest, listed on June 2, 2021. Just five weeks before he was allegedly stabbed by Taylor, with whom he shares the 405 East Criser Road address, Williams was charged with the last of five “Simple Assault against a Family Member” charges ranging over the past couple of years. The arresting agency on that June 2, 2021, charge is listed as Shenandoah 171.

In addition to the domestic violence charges, Williams had one charge of the Sale of Schedule I or II Narcotics (2016 case status – charge null prossed) and one “Strangulation Resulting in Bodily Harm” (2015 case status – guilty, with the execution of the entire sentence postponed/suspended).

Tiffany Taylor has a hearing scheduled on her Malicious Wounding/Stabbing with the intent charge on the 9 a.m. docket of Warren County General District Court on August 19.