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The Telegraph
September 7, 2014
A Madison teenager Friday pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 20 years in prison for an armed robbery in which a victim was killed after refusing to give up a six-pack of beer.
Brian Lee Taylor, 18, was 16 at the time of the shooting, but he was the oldest of the four suspects. Authorities believe he is not the one who fired the fatal shot. He has no significant criminal record, his attorney, Steve Griffin, said.
He pleaded guilty to a charge of armed robbery in exchange for a prosecution agreement to drop two counts of first-degree murder.
Assistant State’s Attorney Crystal Uhe told the court the victim, Charles Weiss, had just come from a store and was approached by the four teens.
He refused to give up anything, including the beer he had just purchased, so one of the four robbers shot and killed him. He was later found in the back yard of a nearby home. Just before he died he told police, “They tried to rob me.”
The incident was on Nov. 8, 2012. All four suspects have been in the Madison County Jail since shortly after the incident.
All four of the teens were charged with first-degree murder. The three older suspects were charged as adults because the crimes were Class X or greater. The 14-year-old, Mylan Newbern, believed to be the shooter, was charged with first-degree murder and armed robbery after he was certified to stand trial as an adult.
The cases of all of Taylor’s co-defendants are pending.
Weiss died of a single gunshot wound to the chest, but all four suspects were charged because they were acting together, and all three are accountable under the law for the crime, authorities said.
Granite City police held a news conference shortly after they interviewed dozens of people to track the suspects down. The investigation involved several hours straight of work from dozens of members of the Major Case Squad of Greater St. Louis.
“One of our citizens on Thursday was gunned down in cold blood. He had done nothing wrong but go to a store,” Granite City Police Chief Rich Miller said at the time.
“This case stemmed from an attempted armed robbery that led to the shooting death of Charles Weiss,” said Maj. Jeff Connor, assistant chief of the Granite City Police Department. “This was a random crime, which actually made this a difficult crime to solve.
“It was a crime of opportunity for these thugs. They saw this man; they waited in the alley for him and shot him,” Miller said during a news conference at the Granite City Police Department.
Taylor will have to serve at least 85 percent of his 20-year sentence, but he will get credit for about two years served in the Madison County Jail. As part of his plea agreement, he agreed to testify in an future trials.
