ST. LOUIS COUNTY, Mo. — In court Monday, Deonte Taylor decided to take his chances with a jury, turning down a 20 year plea deal from St. Louis county prosecutors.
Without that deal Taylor faces at least 35 years behind bars for charges of sodomy, conspiracy to commit murder, witness tampering and exposing someone to HIV.
Taylor was largely silent, and a bandage and bruises could be seen on his forehead. According to Taylor's attorney, Venus Harry, Taylor believes he is innocent and wants a trial by jury.
Police ignore child abuse allegation
In 2015, Taylor was a teachers aid in the Hazelwood school district.
Prosecutors say he took a 7 year old student out of class at Lusher Elementary and molested him.
The second-grader reported it and police collected some evidence but an I-Team investigation revealed that's where the police involvement ended.
When questioned about why the case was not investigated, Former Florissant Police Chief Tim Lowery admitted, “We made a mistake, we made a huge mistake.”
By 2018, Taylor was teaching at Walnut Grove Elementary in the Ferguson-Florissant school district.
Around that time, the child he was accused of abusing in 2015 reported it to a new teacher.
That's when Florissant police finally arrested Taylor, matching his DNA to what was recovered from the child three years earlier.
Taylor was charged with sodomy.
Hitman for hire
Then, while behind bars in early 2019, prosecutors say Taylor and his boyfriend, Michael Johnson, tried to hire an inmate in the St. Louis County Justice center to kill the student and his family.
“He wanted to get them out the way so he can get himself out of prison,” said John White, the inmate Taylor allegedly approached about the murder for hire plot.
White was in county jail for a probation violation and scheduled to be released.
“Basically, he had a job he needed done and he felt like he was being wronged," White said.
"You want to make it look like an accident so ...it doesn't come back on him,” recounted White about how Taylor allegedly approached him.
When asked why White agreed to accept the job, the father of 10 said he had no intention of going through with it.
“I could see how serious he was. And if he didn’t get me to do it, he was going to get somebody else. And maybe that next person would’ve done it. So I think I did the right thing,” said White.
White met with Taylor’s boyfriend in a north city parking lot and says he received a few hundred dollars as a down payment for the murder.
“He was just saying 'I appreciate you doing this because Deonte needs to be home and I need my baby home with me.' He handed me $500 and said I had to get back to church because 'I’m the choir director,'” said White.
The I-Team confirmed Johnson was the Choir Director of a St. Louis area church at the time.
Police arrested Taylor's boyfriend soon after that meeting.
Both now face conspiracy to commit murder charges.
What's next?
A trial date for Taylor is set for April 2022.
White believes he could be called to testify in that trial.
We're also told cameras will be allowed in the courtroom.