Prosecutors recommend probation for Breonna Taylor's ex-boyfriend
Prosecutors have recommended probation in a plea deal for Jamarcus Glover, the man whose drug dealing led Louisville police to the home of Breonna Taylor in March 2020.
According to court documents obtained by NPR, Glover entered guilty pleas last week. Prosecutors have agreed to drop most of the charges he faced and are recommending up to 8 years of probation.
The circumstances of Taylor's death — killed by police late at night in her own home as they arrived to execute a search warrant for an ex-boyfriend's crimes — helped fuel a nationwide movement calling for racial justice and an end to police brutality and led to moderate reforms of the Louisville police department.
Lawyers for Taylor's family have maintained that Louisville Metro Police Department's tactics, including no-knock warrants and coordinated late-night raids, were out of proportion with the crimes Glover was suspected of committing. That point, they said Tuesday, was underlined by the prosecutor's recommendation of probation.
"It's a tragic reminder of how a ridiculous, militarized operation was the catalyst for a 26 year old's woman's murder," Sam Aguiar, a lawyer who represented Taylor's family, wrote in an email to NPR. "They were treating these guys like they were each Pablo Escobar, when in reality they were low level offenders."
At the time of the raid, Glover and an associate named Adrian Orlandes Walker were wanted by police for suspected involvement in a drug dealing ring that operated out of vacant homes in west Louisville.
Glover and Taylor had dated off and on for several years, according to her family's lawyers, but had broken up by then. Glover has consistently maintained that Taylor was not involved in any drug dealing.
Louisville police obtained several search warrants for different locations where they believed Glover and Walker had operated. That included Taylor's apartment, which police said had been used by Glover to receive mail and possibly stash money or drugs.
Early in the morning of March 13, Glover was apprehended by Louisville police and arrested. About the same time, 10 miles away, police raided Taylor's apartment.
Officers pounded on the door before forcing entry. Inside, Taylor was asleep alongside her boyfriend Kenneth Walker, who is not related to Adrian Walker.
Taylor's boyfriend, believing intruders had broken into the apartment, fired a single shot that struck an officer in the leg, after which police opened fire. Taylor, hit by six bullets, was killed.
No officers were charged in her death. Two LMPD officers who were involved were fired in January. A third retired earlier this year.
Last year, prosecutors drafted a plea deal that would have required Glover to serve 10 years in prison and implicate Taylor as a co-defendant, Glover declined.
The current plea agreement requires Glover to forfeit money and vehicles seized by police during their investigation and allows him to move out of state, according to court records obtained by NPR. He is scheduled to be sentenced next month. [Copyright 2021 NPR]
