NORTH CHARLESTON, SC (WCBD) – A rally and prayer vigil will be held at the Al Cannon Detention Center on Monday for 24-year-old inmate Timothy Da’Shaun Taylor.
At 11 a.m., Taylor’s mother and others are expected to urge members of the public to push for the release of her son.
On Tuesday, a federal judge is scheduled to sentence Taylor for his role in a 2011 robbery in Mount Pleasant.
It is a crime that Taylor has already served a sentence for after pleading guilty to state charges.
Federal prosecutors launched a second robbery case against him in 2016 after Taquan Brown, an inmate serving time for voluntary manslaughter, sent prison officials a letter claiming he saw Taylor and others rape and kill 17-year-old Brittanee Drexel.
On June 21, 2016, the Federal government filed an Indictment charging him with conspiracy to commit armed robbery for this same exact robbery. Taylor released the following statement.
I had no involvement with anything to do with Brittanee Drexel. I don’t know Taquan Brown and I don’t know why he would call my name. I am being prosecuted again for a crime I already helped them solve and already did my time for, all because some guy in prison is trying to cut a deal. It’s not fair to be charged for the same crime twice and that’s not how our system is supposed to work.
Drexel vanished in April 2009 after traveling from upstate New York to Myrtle Beach.
Authorities questioned Taylor about Drexel’s disappearance. According to his defense team, he voluntarily took a polygraph test. The results of the test were inconclusive. Taylor has never been charged in connection with the Drexel case.
Taylor’s defense team objected to the second robbery case, claiming it was a violation of the U.S. Constitution’s Fifth Amendment clause against double jeopardy. The argument was rejected by Judge David Norton, who is presiding over the case.
Taylor’s attorneys are now asking for a maximum sentence of 6 years in prison.
