MAN GETS LIFE IN PRISON ON $20 DRUG CHARGE

Sentence Required By 3 Strikes Law

A 41-year-old Milford man was sentenced Friday to spend the rest of his
life in prison for selling $20 worth of crack cocaine to an undercover
officer.

Tyrone L. "Scrap" Taylor, of the 500 block of Truitt Ave., was convicted
Sept. 24 of delivery of cocaine - his third conviction for that offense.

That conviction subjected Taylor to Delaware’s tough "three-strikes" law,
and Superior Court Judge James T. Vaughn Jr. had no choice in handing down
a sentence of life without parole.

Defense attorney David W. Jones told Vaughn it was pointless for him to
argue against the sentence, which was required by law.

However, he added: "It’s certainly unfortunate that our law is such that an
individual who sells three $20 pieces of crack cocaine over a 15- or
20-year period of his life is required to have a sentence [that is the same
as if] he had killed someone."

According to court records, Taylor was convicted of cocaine delivery on May
2, 1990, and again on March 17, 1993.

Taylor, who earlier wrote a letter to Vaughn calling himself "not a drug
dealer, but a drug user," told the judge he was reconciled to serving a
life term.

"I’d like to give praise to the Lord: I’ve been fortunate enough to accept
him into my life shortly after I came to prison," Taylor said.

"I’m free on the inside. I may be locked up, but I’m free," he said. "If I
never see the streets again, I look for hope in the next life."

After Taylor was led to the downstairs lockup, another defendant came
before Vaughn: Robert B. Dunn, a 20-year-old Sussex County man charged with
possession of marijuana.

"I always wish that when defendants like Mr. Taylor are sentenced to life,
that young defendants like Mr. Dunn could be here to see what happens,"
said Dunn’s lawyer, public defender Sandra W. Dean.

Dunn, who already is serving a five-year prison term for robbery, received
a 15-month sentence.