John Jefferson
Background: The Boca Raton, Fla. neighborhood where Stanley Taylor was reported to be stabbed (Google Maps). Inset: Terry Taylor (Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office).
A Florida woman was charged with second-degree murder after her husband died of injuries that were allegedly inflicted by a cane affixed with an illegal blade.
Terry Taylor, 58, remains in custody after police charged her in the death of her husband, Stanley Taylor, 67. According to a news release posted to the Boca Raton Police Services Department Facebook page, officers responded to a medical emergency at the Taylor address at about 10:30 a.m. on Jan. 13. When they arrived, they found Stanley Taylor suffering from a stab wound to the torso. Terry Taylor had allegedly told neighbors to call police and tell them that her husband had “fallen on a knife.”
According to the probable cause affidavit, Terry Taylor claimed to her neighbor that her husband was “cutting something in the kitchen and fell” on a kitchen knife. She also said that Stanley Taylor was having a “diabetic episode.”
Police said that while Stanley Taylor was receiving medical treatment, he said that it was his wife who had attacked him, stating, “The bitch stabbed me” and claiming that she tried to kill him. When police spoke with Terry Taylor, she allegedly admitted to a “physical altercation” that was sparked by an argument over a stereo system, which belonged to her father, that her husband had sold to his brother.
During the altercation, Terry Taylor claimed that her husband “stabbed himself” because he “black[ed] out about what happened.” She allegedly told police the couple had “physically struggl[ed]” over a wooden cane “while hitting each other.” She eventually reached for a different cane and allegedly “went at him with it.”
“While stating this, she made a swinging motion with her left hand,” police said. “She described the cane she grabbed as an illegal brass cane that had a sharp point to the end.”
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The second cane Terry Taylor grabbed had an additional, illegal feature — a sharp blade attachment that could be removed. Police believe Terry Taylor made efforts to clean up both the alleged murder weapon and the scene.
From the affidavit:
Closer examination of the brass cane revealed the grip to detach from the shaft and ferrule by being unscrewed. Once disassembled, the grip is attached to a blade. The blade, measuring approximately 18 inches in length and inch in width, had visible vertical streaks indicating the blade was wiped. The blade was tested by CST Householder using a Phenolphthalein Presumptive Blood Test Kit, which yielded positive results for blood residue. It should be noted that the blade’s width is consistent with the approximate width of the wound in Stanley’s abdomen … Additionally, several rags were visible in the kitchen garbage and on the couch, indicating the possibility that the scene was attempted to be cleaned.
It was also revealed through a blood test that Stanley was not experiencing any sort of diabetic episode and did not receive “any medications for diabetic shock,” police said.
Meanwhile, as medical personnel tried to save Stanley Taylor’s life at the hospital, he died from his injuries. The affidavit stated that the two stab wounds were very deep, “in close proximity to his back.”
Police charged Terry Taylor with second-degree murder and booked her into the Palm Beach County Jail where she is being held without bond.
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