He is a mental patient but today that didn’t save Marlon Taylor from going to jail. The 21 year old had been convicted of attempted murder on July 16th and today Justice Michelle Arana sentenced him to 12 years in jail. He was tried and convicted of attacking Leon Leslie on January 8th of 2008 in Sandhill. Taylor chopped Leslie on his neck and left hand with a machete. Despite mitigation pleas from Taylor’s mother Cordelia Haylock, his aunt Florita Haylock, and family friend Raymond “Shine” Flowers – Taylor received the 12 year sentence. His mother Cordelia Haylock told us her son has
a mental problem and didn’t deserve to go to jail.
Cordelia Haylock, Mother of Convict
“He has a mental problem but I know patients with mental problems need delicate care and no offense but prison is not the one. I think they should send him to a physiatrist to get treatment for it. He needs a little bit of help because a lot has been going on in Sandhill that a lot of people haven’t known what is going on over there. Those guys have been molesting and harassing my son and I think he has had enough of them. He is not a violent person. I have been on Albert Street from 2006 I would call it working out there and so has he. They have been doing a lot of things to him Keith and they knocked him down two times with a car. They are not saying what they are doing, they are just saying what he has been doing. There is always two sides to a story. Somebody won’t just get up and attack you with a machete if you don’t do something to them. You have to do something to that person to make that person react back to do that to you. I am not happy Keith.”
Cordelia Haylock says she plans to appeal. We should note that in delivering her sentence, Justice Michelle Arana noted that Marlon Taylor has a previous conviction for wounding and that he chopped Leon Leslie while he was already down on the ground.
