JUDGE REDUCES TAYLOR SENTENCE TO 10 YEARS

BEAUFORT -- A Hampton County man who last month admitted to smoking
marijuana before causing the traffic accident that killed a Hilton Head
Island teacher will serve less time in prison after a circuit court judge on
Thursday reconsidered his earlier ruling and reduced the man's sentence from
12 to 10 years. Micah Taylor was 17 on Dec. 18, 2000, when he ran a red
light on William Hilton Parkway, causing the accident that killed a Hilton
Head Middle School science teacher. Stephenie Cecil, 29, who had been
turning onto the highway from Gumtree Road, died at the scene.

Taylor pleaded guilty to felony driving under the influence charges on April
18, and Fourteenth Circuit Court Judge Jackson Gregory gave him a 12-year,
no-parole sentence with a $10,000 fine.

"I do realize that it's a tough sentence, but it's a very serious crime,"
said Gregory during Thursday's hearing.

The maximum Taylor could have faced was 25 years with a $25,000 fine.

Though he lessened the time Taylor will spend in prison, Gregory stood by
his initial reasoning, citing the 14 minutes the car chase lasted, Taylor's
use of marijuana before the wreck and the heavy traffic on the north end of
the island, where he said anybody should expect to hit somebody if he runs a
red light.

In April, Taylor admitted in court to smoking two blunts -- marijuana-filled
cigars -- before the accident that occurred at 11:44 a.m. Taylor had come to
the island as a passenger in a friend's Nissan Altima, he said, to go
Christmas shopping. While at the Publix supermarket on 45 Pembroke Drive,
his friend, Joshua Mikell, then 18, stole a woman's purse and ran back to
the car, which Taylor was parking. Taylor, who did not have a driver's
license, said he panicked and drove off. Mikell threw the purse out the
window shortly afterward.

The woman who owned the purse and two construction workers began to chase
after them in two separate vehicles before Sheriff's Office deputies joined
in the pursuit. The chase reached speeds of 60 to 65 miles per hour in 45
mph zones, until the fatal conclusion 14 minutes later.

Now a thin 20-year-old, Taylor stood before the judge on Thursday in a
detention center sweat shirt, accompanied by his parents and his public
defender, Trasi Campbell.

"My client was not involved in the purse-snatching whatsoever. There's never
been any indication that he was," said Campbell on Thursday. "My client came
down from Estill and was a passenger in the car and never had any intention
of driving."

"The state's position is that the sentence was reasonable," said deputy
solicitor Steve Knight. "I thought it was fair."

"All they asked for was, 'Give me a break on the sentence,' " Knight said
after the hearing.

Such motions are common, he said, even with pleas. The no-parole condition
means Taylor will serve an automatic 85 percent of the sentence, or eight
years and six months. Taylor also was given a $10,000 fine, which remains
unchanged.

Micah Taylor's mother, Lizzie Taylor, said she wanted compassion for her
son. He had no prior criminal record and no intention of committing a crime,
and he was very remorseful for what happened, she said. She felt her son's
sentence was not in line with other recent cases.

"A lot of people on the island thought the sentence was too much," she said.
"All I ask is they be fair. Micah tried to help the lady. He still can't
sleep."

She thought the high-speed chase by sheriff's deputies was unnecessary for a
misdemeanor purse-snatching, and also had contributed to Cecil's death. The
call to dispatch originally had gone out as an armed robbery. "They already
had the license plate number of the car," she said. "All they had to do was
call in the license plate number."

Steve Cecil, Stephenie Cecil's father, was present on Thursday and said he
was still satisfied with the sentence, though he wondered why it had to be
reconsidered.

"I thought it was kind of ridiculous; why even sentence him in the first
place?" he said. "It's still substantial. I just showed up to make sure it
wasn't reduced even more."