Swordsman pleads guilty, sentenced to probation

A Chaffee, Mo., man arrested in November for wielding a sword in the Cape Girardeau Wal-Mart store has pleaded guilty and been sentenced for five years probation. Richard A. Taylor, 57, pleaded guilty Tuesday to unlawful use of a weapon and resisting arrest in New Madrid County before Circuit Judge Fred Copeland. Copeland placed Taylor on five years probation with conditions that he continues psychiatric evaluation and mental health counseling, continues to take his prescribed medications, submits to periodic drug testing and makes restitution to Wal-Mart. In return for the guilty plea, counts of assault of a law enforcement officer, property damage and possession of marijuana were dismissed. At the same time, Taylor pleaded guilty to unlawful use of a weapon on a Scott County charge, which alleged that on the same day, he went into a Scott City pharmacy with a pocketknife and demanded his medication.