After more than 12 hours of deliberations over three days, a jury this morning found a Memphis nurse guilty of second-degree murder in the 2009 shooting death of her husband.
Pamela Taylor, 39, stood and stared straight ahead as the Criminal Court jury foreman announced the verdict which carries a sentence of 15 to 25 years in prison with no parole.
Her $150,000 bond was automatically revoked and Judge Paula Skahan set Taylor’s sentencing for Jan. 18.
After a trial that included eight days of testimony and some 35 witnesses, jurors were asked to decide whether Taylor planned the killing as prosecutors contended or shot her husband in self defense as their troubled marriage was headed for divorce.
Michael Taylor, then 39, was shot in the heart and behind the right ear on the morning of Dec. 23, 2009, at the couple's apartment at the Madison Humphreys Center near Interstate 40 and Walnut Grove Road.
His mother, Diane Welch, testified last week that she warned her son that his wife would kill him before she would let him leave her.
“All my son wanted to do was to live his life,” Welch said this morning after the verdict. “He went home to brush his teeth and she ambushed him. We wanted first-degree murder, but we’re happy with second degree.”
Pamela Taylor was charged with premeditated first-degree murder which carries life in prison.
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