Subscriber Benefit
As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowA federal inmate in Terre Haute has been sentenced to life in prison for the murder of a cellmate.
Lawrence Taylor, 44, formerly of Akron, Ohio, and current inmate of the Federal Bureau of Prisons, was sentenced after pleading guilty to second-degree murder in the brutal stabbing death of Jan Stevens.
“This murder extends beyond the taking of a life – it shatters the lives of those closest to the victim. Taylor’s act was heinous; well justifying the imposition of a life sentence,” John Childress, acting U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Indiana said in a press release.
The sentence was imposed last week by U.S. District Judge James R. Sweeney II.
According to court documents, Taylor and Stevens were inmates at the Federal Correctional Complex, in Terre Haute, and housed within the Special Housing Unit.
They were cellmates in the SHU for just three days prior Stevens’ death on Jan. 12, 2019.
On that day, a prison staff member walked by Taylor’s and Stevens’s cell and observed Stevens lying on the lower bunk, partially covered with a sheet, with his head at the foot of the bed. Taylor was also inside the cell, standing in front of the door window.
Upon a second glance, the staff member saw a laceration to Stevens’s neck, along with blood spattered against the wall and pooling on the floor, authorities said.
The next day, a forensic pathologist conducted an autopsy of Stevens and found his cause of death to be 43 stab wounds to his body, most significantly to the neck area, leading him to bleed out.
During an interview with FBI agents, Taylor admitted to killing Stevens with a weapon he had possessed for the previous three months.
“This life sentence reflects the FBI’s commitment to justice for all victims including those who are incarcerated in federal correctional facilities,” FBI Indianapolis Special Agent in Charge Herbert Stapleton said in a press release. “The brutality of this violent murder deserves the maximum penalty allowed under the law.”
At the time of the murder, Taylor was serving a 284-month sentence for a series of bank robberies in 2009. Prior to the murder of Stevens, Taylor was projected to be released from the Bureau of Prisons in September 2031.
Please enable JavaScript to view this content.