BONNE TERRE — Missouri on Tuesday executed 58-year-old Leonard Taylor, who was convicted of killing his girlfriend and her three children at their home in Jennings nearly two decades ago.
A state executioner delivered a fatal dose of pentobarbital at 6:07 p.m., and Taylor was pronounced dead a short time later, according to the Missouri Department of Corrections.
“Muslims don’t die. We live eternally in the hearts of our family and friends,†Taylor wrote in his final statement following a verse from the Quran. “From Allah we come, and to Allah we all shall return. Everybody will get their turn to die.â€
Taylor was the third person to be executed in Missouri in three months. His death marked only the second time since 2015 that more than one person was executed in a calendar year.
He was convicted in 2008 of killing 28-year-old Angela Rowe and her three children, Alexus Conley, 10, AcQreya Conley, 6, and Tyrese Conley, 5, at their home on Park Lane in Jennings. He has insisted he is innocent of the killings.
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Rowe’s older sister, Gerjuan Rowe, attended Tuesday’s execution along with eight other loved ones.
“Justice was served,†Rowe said. “Now, I get a little peace.â€
Rowe and her children were found Dec. 3, 2004. Rowe was covered by blankets and shot four times, once fatally in the head. The children were also shot and lined up on a bed.
Prosecutors said they believed the family was shot on the night of Nov. 23 or early morning of Nov. 24, 2004.
Taylor had called his brother just before midnight, then again at 12:05 a.m. Nov. 24, and admitted to the killings. The brother told police Taylor stayed in the house with the bodies because he was waiting for a letter from his wife in California.
On Nov. 26, Taylor’s sister-in-law drove him to the airport. She testified at trial she saw him drop a long-barreled revolver into a sewer before he left.
Taylor was arrested Dec. 9 in Kentucky in possession of fake IDs and pamphlets about creating a false identity, authorities said. Police later tested the sunglasses he wore that day and found blood that matched Rowe’s DNA.
A jury sentenced Taylor to death on Feb. 29, 2008, for the four murders.
Taylor had since filed several appeals, including a request last month asking ºüÀêÊÓƵ County prosecutor Wesley Bell to hold a hearing to review discrepancies in the state’s evidence and consider new declarations from Taylor’s daughter and her mother saying Taylor was actually in Los Angeles at the time of the killings.
Bell denied that request last week, finding “the facts are not there to support a credible case of innocence.â€
On Monday, Missouri Gov. Mike Parson denied Taylor’s petition for clemency.
“Leonard Taylor brutally murdered a mother and her three children. The evidence shows Taylor committed these atrocities and a jury found him guilty,†Parson said in a statement. “Despite his self-serving claim of innocence, the facts of his guilt in this gruesome quadruple homicide remain.â€
Taylor, meanwhile, met with his three daughters, his sister, his two attorneys and a spiritual adviser.
On Tuesday morning at around 11 a.m., he ate a last meal of a seafood platter, cheeseburger, fries and a milkshake.
At 5:52 p.m., it was announced all pending appeals and petitions, including one before the U.S. Supreme Court, had been denied. At 6:06 p.m., the order for execution was given.
Taylor was pronounced dead at 6:16 p.m.
Afterward, Gerjuan Rowe reflected on the years waiting for Taylor’s death. She said it was painful to answer questions from investigators during his appeals and see his photo on her television screen.
She said she still missed her sister and her nieces and nephew and wondered what they would be like now as adults.
The execution, she said, gave her a bit of peace.
Still, “It’s not going to change nothing,†she said. “Not really.â€
From the archives: Post-Dispatch coverage of Leonard Taylor case
Leonard Taylor of Jennings was sentenced to die for the 2004 shooting deaths of his girlfriend Angela Rowe, 28, her daughters Alexus Conley, 10, and AcQreya Conley, 6; and her son Tyrese Conley, 5.
Here is the Post-Dispatch coverage of the case from 2004 to 2023.
“Muslims don’t die. We live eternally in the hearts of our family and friends,†Leonard Taylor wrote in his final statement following a verse …
Attorneys for Leonard Taylor had filed a motion with the Supreme Court, asking that the execution be pushed back 90 to 120 days so experts cou…
"We are not filing a motion to vacate Leonard Taylor's sentence — the facts are not there to support a credible case of innocence," the prosec…
Defense attorneys want the Missouri Supreme Court to postpone the execution date by 90 to 120 days.
Dr. Jane Turner said there is “significant scientific probability†that a full review of the autopsy records “would discredit Dr. Burch’s tria…
They want to trigger a state law that lets a prosecutor seek a hearing if the prosecutor has information a defendant could be innocent or wron…
Leonard Taylor was convicted of killing Angela Rowe, 28; and her children, Alexus Conley, 10, AcQreya Conley, 6, and Tyrese Conley, 5.
The prosecutor said after the sentencing that Taylor "earned his four death sentences."
The man who lived in plain sight for 19 months in north ºüÀêÊÓƵ County was cornered in the backseat of a friend's car in Kentucky.
A witness in a quadruple-murder trial told a jury she saw Leonard Taylor throw a revolver into a sewer.
Perry Taylor stated that he had been dragged out of his truck and beaten by police in Atlanta.
A man also living at the home on Park Lane in Jennings was wanted for questioning but has not been found, a Major Case Squad official said.
“Despite his self-serving claim of innocence, the facts of his guilt in this gruesome quadruple homicide remain," Parson wrote of Leonard Taylor.