The State Supreme Court has set a date for the execution of convicted murderer Leon Taylor. He is scheduled to die by lethal injection just after midnight, September 10, at the Eastern Reception, Diagnostic and Correctional Center at Bonne Terre.
Taylor was convicted of the 1994 murder of Robert Newton, who was attending a gas station in Jackson County where Taylor and two of his half-siblings had purchased gas.
Taylor pulled a gun and demanded money from Newton, who gave the trio $400 in a bank money bag. Taylor then led Newton to a back room and shot him in the head, killing him.
Taylor then turned the gun on Newton’s eight-year-old step daughter Sarah Yates and pulled the trigger, but the gun jammed and the little girl was spared. Taylor wanted to return to the gas station and get the girl but his step-siblings wanted to leave, so they did.
The state’s next scheduled execution is that of Michael Shane Worthington, for the murder 19 years ago of Mindy Griffin in St. Louis. He is scheduled to be executed early the morning of August 6.
