Poplar Bluff man charged with paraplegic's death

POPLAR BLUFF, Mo. -- Murder charges have been refiled against a Poplar Bluff man accused of fatally shooting a paraplegic Butler County man.

Milton Roy Taylor, 36, was arraigned Thursday on charges of first-degree murder, first-degree burglary and first-degree robbery. Taylor was charged earlier this week. Similar charges were dropped in April when a witness changed testimony on the day Taylor's trial was to begin.

Taylor is accused of killing Charles Eugene Kinney at his Butler County home on Nov. 13, 2000. Firefighters found Kinney's body in his charred home, but an autopsy determined Kinney was dead before the fire started.

Taylor's alleged accomplice, Michael Todd Estes, 36, pleaded guilty to first-degree murder in September 2001 and was sentenced to life in prison without parole.

In a separate case, Taylor was sentenced last November to 12 years in state prison after he pleaded guilty to felony possession of a controlled substance. He also received a concurrent three-year term for felony escape from custody for fleeing the Dunklin County jail, where he was held as a murder suspect, last August.