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| Inmate Sentenced to Death in Cellmate's Slaying |
| By Associated Press |
| Published: 03/17/2003 |
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A Missouri man already imprisoned for killing a high school girl was sentenced on March 6 to death in the slaying of his cellmate. Michael Taylor, 23, was convicted Jan. 17 of first-degree murder in the October 1999 strangulation of Shackrein Thomas, 20, at the Potosi Correctional Center. St. Charles County jurors, who deliberated three hours before convicting Taylor, recommended the death penalty the next day. During the three-day trial held in St. Charles on a change of venue from Washington County, Taylor's defenders argued that their client should be acquitted by reason of insanity. Washington County Prosecutor John Rupp countered that Taylor had faked symptoms of schizophrenia to help his case. Taylor had told investigators that a voice from the father of darkness told him it was time to eliminate Thomas, Taylor's cellmate of nine days. Taylor also told police he put on his tennis shoes for 'traction,'' punched Thomas in the face and put him in a chokehold for about 20 minutes until his body went limp, Rupp has said. Taylor said he summoned officers hours later only because Thomas' body was in the way of the toilet, Rupp said. Taylor already was serving a life sentence in the January 1995 rape and drowning of 15-year-old schoolmate Christine Smetzer in a bathroom stall at St. Louis County's McCluer North High School. |
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