Killer gets life sentence, no parole

Staff report

Tuesday, July 21, 2009

Kendrick Jerome Taylor, 19, was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole after a Charleston County jury found him guilty of murder in the September killing of Thomas Yelton.

Circuit Judge Roger Young sentenced Taylor on Friday.

"This was a senseless murder committed by a young man who chose the wrong path very early in his life," 9th Circuit Solicitor Scarlett Wilson said.

Less than three weeks before Yelton's murder, Taylor pleaded guilty to distributing powder cocaine and unlawful carrying of a weapon.

On Aug. 28, 2008, Circuit Judge Thomas Hughston sentenced Taylor to three years, suspended on the 190 days he already had served in jail, plus two years of probation, according to the 9th Circuit Solicitor's Office.

On Sept. 13, Taylor drove to Oakwood Avenue in North Charleston to see Yelton. Taylor pistol-whipped Yelton in the head and shot him multiple times, the Solicitor's Office said.

Yelton died at the scene.

A North Charleston police investigation traced phone calls from Yelton's phone to a co-defendant, who testified against Taylor in last week's trial, the Solicitor's Office said.

The police also linked the shell casings at the murder scene to a pistol that Taylor hid after allegedly fleeing an armed robbery three days after the murder.