Taylor and Stevens were sharing a cell in January 2019.
(AP Photo/Michael Conroy)
A federal judge in Indianapolis has imposed a life sentence on a prisoner who murdered his cellmate at a U.S. prison in Indiana in 2019.
Lawrence Taylor, 44, admitted to stabbing Jan Stevens to death in January 2019 at the high-security USP Terre Haute facility, according to investigators.
Taylor pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and received a life sentence Feb. 12, according to a filing this month in U.S. District Court.
A U.S. Bureau of Prisons spokesperson said the sentencing “sends a clear message—those who threaten or harm others will be held accountable.”
Taylor was originally charged with first-degree murder before entering the plea. Judge James Sweeney sentenced him to life in prison.
“This murder extends beyond the taking of a life — it shatters the lives of those closest to the victim. Taylor’s act was heinous; well justifying the imposition of a life sentence,” acting U.S. attorney John Childress said in a statement Thursday.
According to court records, Taylor was serving a lengthy prison sentence in 2019 for his role in a series of bank robberies a decade earlier.
Taylor originally pleaded not guilty to a first-degree murder charge in 2022. The case went on for two years, as Taylor underwent evaluations for psychiatric conditions. He was ultimately determined to be competent to stand trial.
“This record clearly shows that Taylor is beyond reform. He is, and will remain, a threat to the safety of any person, no matter who or where they are,” Childress, the interim prosecutor, wrote in a sentencing memorandum in early February.
The victim had been placed in the same cell only days before the attack, according to prosecutors. A coroner’s report, cited in court records, stated the cause of death was blood loss resulting from numerous stab wounds.
Citing the coroner’s report, the sentencing memo noted that Taylor stabbed Jan Stevens 43 times, apparently in an outburst of anger over conditions at the prison.
In its own sentencing memo, Taylor’s defense team alluded to allegations against the prison bureau, including his belief that he was being poisoned.
"Lawrence reports that BOP is putting sleeping pills in his food and not giving him enough calories on meatless diet. They are also drugging his coffee. Lawrence had to quit taking medications because of his belief that officers were tampering with capsules and replacing prescribed medications with sleeping pills,” the filing said.
It also documented severe abuse and neglect that Taylor suffered beginning in childhood. Among the findings were that Taylor’s mother suffered from severe addiction and that both parents abandoned him at a young age.
The report listed diagnoses of psychiatric disorders and said that Taylor’s time in solitary confinement likely exacerbated existing mental health issues.
