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NEW YORK — New York's last inmate on death row was resentenced Thursday to life without parole for the execution-style killings of five employees at a Wendy's restaurant.
John Taylor, whose death penalty sentence was overturned last month by the state's highest court, showed no emotion as he was led into a New York City courtroom nearly filled with relatives and friends of the victims.
"Look at me, John Taylor; look at me. Do you know the pain I am feeling for my child?" Jean Truman Smith said angrily as she gave her victim impact statement before the sentencing. Her daughter, 23-year-old Anita, was one of seven employees shot in the head by Taylor and a co-defendant in 2000.
All the victims were blindfolded during a robbery and herded into the Queens restaurant's walk-in freezer, where they were forced to kneel and were shot at close range. Two victims survived but were critically wounded.
Taylor, 43, shackled and handcuffed, avoided eye contact with the family members.
"I want to say I am sorry," Taylor said quietly after he rose to address the court. "I know this is not enough."
Judge Randall Eng sentenced Taylor to life without parole, saying, "It was a night of unprecedented horror."
Taylor was convicted in November 2002 of 20 counts of murder and attempted murder and was sentenced to death by lethal injection. He has been held ever since on death row at the New York State Correctional Facility in Clinton.
The Queens prosecutor's office fought unsuccessfully to have Taylor's case declared an exception to a 2004 Appeals Court's decision that found New York's death penalty law unconstitutional because of a flaw in its mandated instructions to the jury.
