TERRE HAUTE, Ind. (WTWO/WAWV) — An inmate held at the Federal Correctional Complex, in Terre Haute, has been sentenced to life in prison after admitting to stabbing his cellmate 43 times, leading to their death, according to the United States Attorney’s Office Southern District of Indiana.
Lawrence Taylor, 44, formerly of Akron Ohio, admitted to FBI agents that he had killed his cellmate, Jan Stevens, on January 19, 2019, according to the United States Attorney’s Office.
According to court documents, Taylor and Stevens were cellmates housed in the Special Housing Unit (SHU) at the Federal Correctional Complex, in Terre Haute, for only three days before Stevens was found dead inside their cell.
On January 19, 2019, SHU staff said they walked past Taylor’s and Stevens’s cell and observed Stevens’s laying on the lower bunk, partially covered with a sheet. Upon a second glance, the staff member reported seeing a laceration on Stevens’s neck, along with a pool of blood on the floor and blood splattered against the wall of the cell.
Taylor was also inside the cell at the time, and was observed standing in front of the door window of the cell, said the United States Attorney’s Office.
The next day, January 20, 2019, The United States Attorney’s Office said, a forensic pathologist conducted an autopsy of Stevens and found his cause of death to be 43 stab wounds to his body, mostly in the neck area, leading to him to bleed out.
Then during an interview with FBI agents, Taylor admitted to killing Stevens with a weapon he had possessed for the previous three months, said officials.
At the time of the murder, the attorney’s office said Taylor was serving a 284-month sentence for a series of bank robberies in 2009. After the murder of Stevens, Taylor was sentenced to life in prison on charges of second-degree murder.
“This life sentence reflects the FBI’s commitment to justice for all victims including those who are incarcerated in federal correctional facilities. The brutality of this violent murder deserves the maximum penalty allowed under the law,” said FBI Indianapolis Special Agent in Charge Herbert J. Stapleton. “The FBI will continue to work closely with the Bureau of Prisons and all of our law enforcement partners to investigate and apprehend those who commit violent acts and hold them accountable.”
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