Murderer brandishes cane during courtroom outburst

Frustrated that his sentencing was delayed for a second time in a month, a convicted murderer threatened personnel in a Rolling Meadows courtroom and struck a lectern so hard with his wooden cane that the cane broke.

“Give me my time,” Patrick Taylor shouted as he hit the lectern.

No one was hurt during the incident, and Cook County sheriff’s deputies immediately grabbed the cane and surrounded Taylor, then took him to a prisoner holding area.

Taylor, who has had vocal outbursts during other hearings, had been accompanied by several sheriff’s deputies during the hearing before Cook County Judge Hyman Riebman.

Taylor is convicted of murdering aspiring rapper and producer Marquis Lovings in August 2006 in Lovings’ Rolling Meadows condominium.

Taylor was shot multiple times a month or so after Lovings’ murder, and requires the use of a cane.

Previously, Taylor has used both a wheelchair and crutches.

Tuesday’s brief hearing ended when Taylor uttered a series of expletives and threatened to spit at and strike law enforcement personnel.

During his trial, which concluded with a conviction in July, Taylor frequently expressed his displeasure through comments audible to observers and courtroom personnel.

Convicted of first-degree murder and home invasion in July, Taylor faces a sentence of natural life in prison for the death of Lovings, a 1995 Barrington High School graduate who prosecutors said supplemented his fledgling music career by selling cannabis. The combination of drugs and money led Taylor to target the 30-year-old victim, who was shot to death in front of four witnesses, all of whom identified Taylor as Lovings’ attacker.

The unavailability of the state’s aggravation witness, a former Markham prosecutor who encountered Taylor during the early 1990s, forced the delay, said Taylor’s attorney, Cook County Assistant Public Defender Jim Mullenix.

“Patrick is accepting of the fact that he’s going to serve a lot of time in jail and wants to move on,” said Mullenix, who intends to introduce a psychiatric report and Taylor’s family history as mitigation during sentencing.

“We can’t just concede,” said Mullenix, pointing out that the law requires following proper sentencing procedures.

At one point, Taylor demanded his life sentence, something that Mullenix will argue against during the next hearing scheduled for Nov. 3.

Mullenix suggested that imposing a set term on Taylor that carries the possibility of release — even though he may be a very old man when that day comes — might make Taylor a more cooperative inmate.

“If you give him life, there’s no incentive for him to behave,” Mullenix said.