CHARLESTON, SC (WBTW) – Timothy Taylor, a man allegedly connected to the disappearance of Brittanee Drexel, has been given a sentencing date for robbery charges unrelated to the Drexel case.
Taylor faces between 10 and 20 years for his role in a 2011 robbery. His sentencing hearing is scheduled for Dec. 9 at 10 a.m. in Charleston. Taylor pleaded guilty in July of 2017 to federal charges for a robbery at a local McDonald’s.
In 2011, Taylor was prosecuted in state court for the same robbery. He cooperated with local authorities and completed his probationary sentence.
However, the federal government later filed an indictment charging him with the same armed robbery. Taylor’s lawyer says prosecutors added the federal charges so Taylor would give evidence in the Brittanee Drexel case.
Drexel was 17 years old when she vanished during her spring break trip to Myrtle Beach in 2009. Court documents say an FBI agent testified in court that an eyewitness said Taylor was involved in Drexel’s disappearance.
In the documents, FBI agents name Tequan Brown as an eyewitness who says Taylor and others sexually abused Drexel. Brown says he saw Drexel try to run from the house and she was pistol whipped, and taken back inside.
Taylor issued the following statement in 2016:
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.
The Charleston Post and Courier reports prosecutors say Taylor failed a polygraph about Drexel’s disappearance. If he had passed it, prosecutors said they would have offered “him as little as no prison time.”
