08.11.10
St Louis Strip Clubs: Man sentenced to life for killing two outside KC strip club
A St. Louis-area man was sentenced this morning to life in prison without parole for the killing of two men outside a Kansas City strip club.
Deonta R. Taylor, 32, of Florissant, Mo., was sentenced in Jackson County Circuit Court where a jury in June found him guilty of two counts of first-degree murder. He was also found guilty of two counts of armed criminal action.
Taylor was convicted in the shooting deaths of Drell D. Fisher and Reginald L. Barnes. Both men were 33.
They were shot to death in February 2009 in the parking lot outside Gerry’s Silver Slipper on Independence Avenue. There was no trial testimony about a motive, but club records showed that Taylor’s driver’s license was used to enter the club that morning. Several eyewitnesses also picked him out of a photo line-up.
The defense maintained that the witnesses were not credible and that Taylor’s driver’s license had been stolen prior its use at the club.