2 sentenced in killing of Y sports director

Man shot through door of Baltimore home while trying to prevent break-in

A Baltimore judge handed out sentences Thursday morning to two men involved in the killing of Jordan Taylor.

Taylor, a director at the Y in Catonsville, was shot through his front door in West Baltimore’s Franklintown neighborhood in November 2019 while trying to prevent a break-in as his wife, Twila Taylor, called 911. The assailants mistakenly thought the Taylors had a safe inside their home.

“He was the soul of our family,” Jordan Taylor’s father, Jeff, said at the hearing.

Baltimore Circuit Court Judge Jennifer Schiffer sentenced 30-year-old Khalil Madden — who, in an April jury trial, was acquitted of murder charges but found guilty of conspiracy to commit robbery with a dangerous weapon and conspiracy to commit first-degree burglary — to 40 years in prison.

With no DNA or fingerprints left by the assailants, investigators had little to start with to solve the case. A security camera did capture a light blue Honda CR-V that fled the scene. Police looked for records of any stolen vehicles matching that description and found a blue Honda CR-V taken during a residential burglary in the 2500 block of North Calvert Street on Sept. 10, 2019, according to charging documents. Also taken during that burglary was an iPhone that Madden pawned the next day, the documents show.

Staci Pipkin, Madden’s attorney, told the judge that while Madden stole the car driven to commit the crime, he was not present the night Taylor was shot and that claim is in line with evidence.

Madden now faces a first-degree murder charge for allegedly killing an inmate while in pretrial detention, Pipkin said Thursday.

Aaron Butler, 50, was standing alongside Madden when he was handed a life sentence with an opportunity for parole after 35 years in accordance with a plea deal. Butler pleaded guilty to felony first-degree murder in April to avoid a trial.

Per state law, felony murder charges can be brought against anyone involved in a crime that results in a death, even if they didn’t pull the trigger. Andrea Jaskulsky, Butler’s attorney, said Thursday that Butler did not shoot Taylor; however, surveillance camera footage from neighbors showed Butler scouting the house in the days leading up to the attempted robbery.

“I’m truly sorry to your family for your loss. I wish I had the power to go back in time to change what happened,” Butler said at the hearing attended by a dozen of Taylor’s family and friends.

Another suspect, Donta Holdclaw, was also charged in Taylor’s death, but his case was dismissed after he died last year. The fourth and last suspect, Elease Frazier, was also charged, but prosecutors dismissed her case in March 2021 for a lack of evidence.

Phone records show Butler called Madden multiple times the night of the shooting, according to charging documents, and Butler’s cellphone records indicate he was in the area of Taylor’s home when the crime occurred. In 911 calls made by Twila Taylor and played during Madden’s trial, a man can be heard shouting, “Where the safe at?”

Before sentencing, family members at the hearing explained that the Taylors did not have a safe.

“They obviously got the wrong house,” Schiffer said.

During the three-hour hearing, Taylor’s parents, brother-in-law and former co-worker all spoke about the loss for their family and community.

“His legacy and spirit are alive in countless ways,” Taylor’s mother, Julie, said while wearing a heartshaped necklace with her son’s fingerprint.