Feltus Taylor Jr. (1962 – June 6, 2000) was an American murderer. He was convicted and later executed by the state of

Louisiana Louisiana ( ; ; ) is a state in the Deep South and South Central regions of the United States. It borders Texas to the west, Arkansas to the north, and Mississippi to the east. Of the 50 U.S. states, it ranks 31st in area and 25 ...

for robbery and the murder of Donna Ponsano.

Crime

Donna Ponsano worked as a cook at Cajun's Fabulous Fried Chicken restaurant on Florida Boulevard in

Baton Rouge Baton Rouge ( ; , ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of Louisiana. It had a population of 227,470 at the 2020 United States census, making it List of municipalities in Louisiana, Louisiana's second-m ...

. At approximately 7:00 a.m. on the morning of March 27, 1991, Keith Clark, the restaurant's manager, arrived to assist Ponsano in opening for business. After tending to morning chores in the rear of the restaurant, Clark returned to the front and noticed Taylor knocking at the front door. Taylor, a former employee of the restaurant whom Clark had hired approximately six months earlier, had been fired by Clark about two weeks previously for poor performance, he and Clark were still friendly. Clark opened the door for Taylor. Taylor, who was experiencing financial problems, asked Clark to rehire him. Clark refused, but assisted him in searching for another job by giving him money to buy a newspaper and sitting with him in a restaurant booth to review classified job advertisements. Clark found that a local

Popeyes Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen, Inc. is an American multinational chain of fried chicken restaurants founded in 1972 in New Orleans and headquartered in Miami. It is currently a subsidiary of Toronto-based Restaurant Brands International. , Popey ...

restaurant was seeking a cook, and called to recommend Taylor for the job. He made a 9:00 a.m. appointment with the Popeyes manager responsible for hiring, and intended to accompany Taylor to discuss his qualifications. While waiting for Taylor's appointment, Clark continued with his morning routine, and Taylor helped by sweeping the dining area of the restaurant. As Clark was placing money into the cash registers, Taylor decided that robbery was the solution to his financial problems. He exited the restaurant to retrieve a .22 caliber handgun and handcuffs from his car which was parked in front. Upon re-entering the restaurant, Taylor grabbed Ponsano, held the gun to her head and demanded that Clark open the restaurant's floor safe located in a storeroom at the rear of the building. Clark complied after Taylor threatened to shoot Ponsano in the head. As the three of them went to the back of the restaurant, Clark tried to escape through a rear entry door. However, he failed because the door was locked. Taylor then handcuffed Clark and Ponsano together. Clark opened the safe, and gave Taylor its contents, approximately $800.00. Clark tried to convince Taylor not to continue with the robbery, but he refused, saying that his financial problems were too serious and that his car payment of $134.00 was due. Taylor refused an offer from Clark to loan or give him a personal check, and instructed Clark not to inform the police about the robbery. After Clark told Taylor that he would not lie to the police, he again asked Clark to rehire him. Ponsano expressed her opposition to rehiring Taylor by stating "you're not going to give him his job back, are you". Taylor then shot Ponsano five times, in the head and upper forearm. After emptying the gun, he exited the room, reloaded, returned and shot Clark in the head. He then emptied the cash register of approximately $580.00, exited through the front door, got into his car and drove away. Between 8:00 and 8:30 a.m., while Taylor was herding Clark and Ponsano to the back of the restaurant, another employee of Cajun's, Viola Kaglear, arrived for work. She recognized Taylor's car in the front of the building. When no one responded to her knocking on the front door, Kaglear looked into the front windows and saw Taylor and Clark going into the storeroom. She waited a few minutes, went to the rear of the building, and looked through a two-way peep hole in the back door where she saw Taylor exit and return to the storeroom. On hearing gunshots, she ran to a neighboring Frostop restaurant where she alerted Josephine Hookfin, a Frostop employee, and William H. Johns, a food salesman, of the shooting. Hookfin immediately called the emergency services. During the 911 telephone call, Taylor exited the restaurant, and got into his car. As he drove away, Johns was able to read the automobile's license plate number, and relayed it to Hookfin and Kaglear, who gave it to the 911 operator. When the police and emergency medical personnel arrived at the scene, they found Ponsano and Clark lying in the storeroom handcuffed together, each with multiple gunshot wounds to the head. Ponsano received treatment and surgery in a nearby hospital, but died two days later. Clark survived, but suffers from

paralysis Paralysis (: paralyses; also known as plegia) is a loss of Motor skill, motor function in one or more Skeletal muscle, muscles. Paralysis can also be accompanied by a loss of feeling (sensory loss) in the affected area if there is sensory d ...

and minor

brain damage Brain injury (BI) is the destruction or degeneration of brain cells. Brain injuries occur due to a wide range of internal and external factors. In general, brain damage refers to significant, undiscriminating trauma-induced damage. A common ...

. At approximately 10:00 p.m. on the day of the shooting, police arrested Taylor near his apartment for attempted

first degree murder Murder is the unlawful killing of another human without justification (jurisprudence), justification or valid excuse (legal), excuse committed with the necessary Intention (criminal law), intention as defined by the law in a specific jurisd ...

and

armed robbery Robbery is the crime of taking or attempting to take anything of value by force, threat of force, or use of fear. According to common law, robbery is defined as taking the property of another, with the intent to permanently deprive the person o ...

. Thereafter, he confessed and led the police to the stolen money, which was hidden in a field not far from his apartment. Taylor informed the police that he had thrown the murder weapon into the

Mississippi River The Mississippi River is the main stem, primary river of the largest drainage basin in the United States. It is the second-longest river in the United States, behind only the Missouri River, Missouri. From its traditional source of Lake Ita ...

Trial

Taylor was indicted by a grand jury for the first-degree murder of Donna Ponsano, in violation of Louisiana Revised Statute 14:30. The jury found Taylor guilty, and unanimously recommended the

death penalty Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty and formerly called judicial homicide, is the state-sanctioned killing of a person as punishment for actual or supposed misconduct. The sentence ordering that an offender be punished in s ...

. The court sentenced Taylor in accordance with the recommendation.

Imprisonment

Taylor's spiritual advisor on death row was

Helen Prejean Helen Prejean ( ; born April 21, 1939) is a Catholic religious sister and a leading American advocate for the abolition of the death penalty. She is known for her best-selling book '' Dead Man Walking'' (1993) based on her experiences with two ...

, a Roman Catholic nun and one of the leading advocates against the death penalty. The two corresponded for almost the entire duration of Taylor's incarceration in

Angola Angola, officially the Republic of Angola, is a country on the west-Central Africa, central coast of Southern Africa. It is the second-largest Portuguese-speaking world, Portuguese-speaking (Lusophone) country in both total area and List of c ...

Execution

On June 6, 2000, Taylor was executed by

lethal injection Lethal injection is the practice of injecting one or more drugs into a person (typically a barbiturate, paralytic, and potassium) for the express purpose of causing death. The main application for this procedure is capital punishment, but t ...

at Louisiana State Penitentiary at the age of 38. In his final statement he said, "I want to tell you, Keith, and the Ponsano family that I always regretted what I've done. It was my own doing. After this is over with, I hope you can find the peace to move on." His official last meal consisted of ribs, toast, onion rings, shrimp, corn on the cob, and cheesecake.

References

External links

* ''State v. Taylor'', 669 So.2d 364 (La., 1996).
Feltus Taylor
''The Clark County Prosecuting Attorney''. Retrieved on November 14, 2007.

''

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