ST. LOUIS COUNTY, Mo. — A former Lusher Elementary School teacher’s aide was sentenced to 50 years in prison Thursday for sexually abusing a 7-year-old student in his office in 2015.
The St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office said Deonte Taylor, 39, was sentenced Thursday for the following sex crimes: 15 years each for three counts of first-degree statutory sodomy, and five years for knowingly exposing the victim to HIV. The sentences will run consecutively.
A St. Louis County Jury convicted Taylor of the crimes on April 21.
At Thursday’s sentencing hearing, Taylor also pleaded guilty to two counts of conspiracy to commit murder. He was sentenced to five years each on both counts, with the sentences to run consecutive and concurrent to the 50 years of sex crime sentences.
According to the prosecuting attorney’s office, Taylor conspired to murder the victim and his mother to keep them quiet about the abuse.
John White, who said Taylor and a man named Michael Johnson offered him $20,000 to commit the murders, was present at the sentencing hearing. White instead went to the police about the plans. Johnson is named as Taylor’s codefendant.
When asked why White agreed to accept the job, the father of 10 said he had no intention of going through with it.
“I could see how serious he was,” White told 5 On Your Side in 2021. “And if he didn’t get me to do it, he was going to get somebody else. And maybe that next person would’ve done it. So I think I did the right thing.
“He was just saying 'I appreciate you doing this because Deonte needs to be home and I need my baby home with me.' He handed me $500 and said I had to get back to church because 'I’m the choir director,'” said White.
The I-Team confirmed Johnson was the Choir Director of a St. Louis area church at the time.
Lusher Elementary School is in the Hazelwood School District.
The boy and his mother were also present, along with several others involved in the case: the nurse practitioner who treated the boy after the assault, a forensic interviewer from the Children’s Advocacy Center, two detectives and a St. Louis County Police DNA analyst who found Taylor’s DNA on the boy’s body and clothing.
“At every stage of this case there were many individuals involved in bringing this case to justice and also keeping these victims safe - not only in our office and law enforcement, but also concerned citizens," said St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney Wesley Bell. "These were despicable acts committed against an innocent child who was placed in this predator's care, followed by the cowardly and cruel effort to have the victim and his mother killed. Now that this predator stands convicted of all charges, I hope the victim and this family find closure and healing,” said St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney Wesley Bell in a release announcing the charges.
The Florissant Police Department investigated the sexual assault, but the investigation took several years, a mistake the department admitted.
Taylor was teaching at Walnut Grove Elementary in the Ferguson-Florissant School District in 2018 when he was arrested in the case.