May 24, 2023
A Frierson man accused of knifing a romantic rival in 2020 was found guilty of second-degree murder in Caddo District Court Tuesday, May 23, 2023.
The six-man, six-woman jury in District Judge Donald E. Hathaway Jr.’s court took 30 minutes to unanimously convict Cortney Fitzgerald Taylor, 37, in the September 7, 2020 slaying of Derek Taylor.
When Cortney Taylor entered the Marion Street apartment of a former girlfriend, he found her asleep with victim Derrick Dewayne Taylor, 46, no relation, and knifed the latter in the heart as he slept.
The knife punctured the right ventricle of Derrick Taylor’s heart and he bled to death. Although the sleeping former girlfriend did not see the assailant, surveillance video captured him entering and leaving the apartment. Cortney Taylor also made a phone call from jail to the woman in which he implicated himself in the murder by repeatedly stating that she could not testify against him because she was asleep at the time of the attack.
Cortney Taylor fled the murder scene and when U.S. Marshals attempted to arrest him in December 2020, he shot at the officers and evaded capture. However, he was arrested a short time later in Bossier City without incident.
When Cortney Taylor returns to Judge Hathaway’s court June 22, 2023, he faces a mandatory sentence of life in prison without possibility of parole, probation or suspension of sentence.
Cortney Taylor was prosecuted by Assistant District Attorneys Jason Waltman and Kendra Joseph. He was defended by Elizabeth Gibson and Carter Lawrence.
The case was docket No. 380953.
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