THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, July 28, 1994 TAG: 9407280526
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B5 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY JOE JACKSON, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: Short : 44 lines
A Circuit Court jury found a 31-year-old Norfolk musician guilty of first-degree murder Wednesday, then urged that he be sentenced to 28 years in prison.
The defendant, Robert W. Taylor, also was found guilty of stealing the car of the victim, Glen D. Jones.
The jury recommended that Taylor be sentenced to 25 years for the murder, plus three years for grand larceny. The maximum sentence for the murder charge is life; the maximum for grand larceny is 20 years.
Immediately after the jury's recommendation, Judge Alfred Whitehurst confirmed the sentence.
On March 6, Taylor beat Jones unconscious with a hammer during an argument over drugs and money in the 3600 block of Lenoir Circle. He then grabbed a knife and stabbed Jones repeatedly in the neck, nearly severing it , testimony showed.
Taylor, a band leader, then loaded Jones' body into the trunk of a car that Jones had borrowed from a friend. He drove to Richmond and dumped the body in a gully beside a highway in Henrico County. He abandoned the 1985 Oldsmobile in Chesapeake.
Investigators said they got a call from a neighbor who saw Taylor trying to stuff what looked like a body into the trunk of the car. When they arrived at the address, the car and the man were gone, but they did find a lot of blood.
Taylor confessed to the killing when he was picked up by police. Investigators found Jones' car keys in Taylor's pocket.
Taylor said that Jones approached him about buying cocaine and he said he did sell drugs. He told police that he killed Jones in self-defense when the two started arguing about the drugs. The jury didn't buy that argument after two days of testimony.
KEYWORDS: MURDER TRIAL CONVICTION by CNB