An L.A. County Superior Court judge sentenced a Canyon Country father convicted of violently shaking his baby and causing her death to 15 years to life in state prison Wednesday, according to the L.A. County District Attorney’s Office.
Marcel Taylor, now 30, pleaded no contest to second-degree murder, was sentenced forthwith and remanded to the custody of state prison, according to Jonathan Hatami, a Valencia resident and assistant head deputy for the Complex Child Abuse Unit in the DA’s Office.
The terms were part of a plea deal negotiated with the D.A.’s Office, Hatami said.
“Nothing can bring Jelani back, but hopefully Jelani’s mom, her family and the Santa Clarita community can feel a sense of justice that Marcel Taylor was ultimately held responsible and accountable for her murder and sentenced to 15 years to life in state prison for her untimely death,” Hatami wrote in a message Wednesday. “We are appreciative of all the hard work by LASD Homicide in helping bring Marcel Taylor to justice.”
Taylor had been held in L.A. County Sheriff’s Department custody at the Pitchess Detention Center in lieu of $2 million bail since his Nov. 4, 2021, arrest, according to records available online.
During his preliminary hearing in 2022, witnesses testified Marcel Taylor was “flat” and “calm” in his reaction to his 2-month-old girl being found unresponsive on Sept. 26, 2021.
The first responders and detectives said on the stand Taylor told them he fed and burped Jelani. Then, when he awoke, according to Detective Art Spencer of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department Homicide Bureau, at 3 a.m. he found his daughter unresponsive.
The homicide detectives testified they suspected Taylor violently shook his baby upon finding her not breathing at 3 a.m.
A Special Victims Bureau detective testified at Marcel Taylor’s preliminary hearing that the child reached the pediatric intensive care unit in “grim and grave” condition with brain swelling. Although Jelani Taylor was alive when admitted to the hospital initially, three days later, she was pronounced dead at the Children’s Hospital Los Angeles on Sept. 26, 2021.
