Death recommended for man convicted of killing cellmate in '99

ST. CHARLES, Mo. -- Jurors recommended the death penalty Saturday for a Missouri inmate who killed his prison cellmate.

Michael Taylor 23, was already serving a life sentence for killing a high school girl in 1995.

St. Charles County jurors deliberated three hours Friday before finding Taylor guilty of first-degree murder in the October 1999 strangulation of Shackrein Thomas, 20, at the Potosi Correctional Center.

On Saturday, the jury recommended Taylor be sentenced to death for the crime.

Washington County Prosecutor John Rupp had argued that Taylor told investigators that a voice of "the father of the dark side" told him internally "it is time" to eliminate Thomas.

Taylor told investigators he put on his tennis shoes for "traction," punched Thomas in the face and put him in a chokehold for about 20 minutes until his body went limp, Rupp said. Taylor said he summoned guards hours later only because Thomas' body was in the way of the toilet, Rupp said.

During the three-day trial, Taylor's defenders argued their client should be acquitted by reason of insanity.

State public defenders Sharon Turlington and Robert Wolfrum argued that Taylor never got proper help for mental problems and childhood abuse, and that he had been hearing voices since he was 12.

Thomas, of Madison, Wis., was serving an eight-year term for stealing a cell phone, selling methamphetamines and forging a check. He and Taylor had been cellmates at Potosi for nine days.

Taylor was serving a life term in the January 1995 rape and drowning of 15-year-old schoolmate Christine Smetzer in a bathroom stall at St. Louis County's McCluer North High School.

Prosecutors couldn't seek the death penalty in that case because Taylor was 48 days shy of his 16th birthday when he killed the girl. In Missouri, 16 is the minimum age to be eligible for the death penalty.