The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Woman convicted in 2019 Brookhaven hotel killing
She is sentenced to life in prison plus 25 years for murder, other charges.
A woman was convicted last week in the 2019 killing of a 28-year-old man at a Brookhaven hotel after an argument over money, according to the Dekalb County District Attorney’s Office.
Shauntae Taylor, 30, was arrested after Miguel Angel Munoz was found dead in a room at the Courtyard by Marriott on Executive Park Drive on Sept. 4, 2019.
At the time, Brookhaven police said his death was a result of a “violent act that took pla ce i nside the room.” He was found by a housekeeper lying on his back on the floor with a single shell casing at the base of the bed, according to an incident report. The room was in a state of “somewhat disarray,” police wrote at the time, with clothing and other objects knocked over and onto the floor.
He’d been shot in the upper abdomen, the district attorney’s office said Thursday.
The investigation revealed Munoz checked into the hotel the night before, and by 4:30 a.m., Taylor and another woman, whom she was prostituting, visited him in his room, according to a news release. Taylor then left the other woman and Munoz alone, but when she returned she became angry that the woman had changed her mind about engaging in drugs and sexual activity, prosecutors said.
Still, Taylor demanded payment from Munoz “for their time,” the release states. When he refused, Taylor repeatedly struck him in the head with a gun, according to the release. That’s when the other woman ran from the room, and Munoz was shot and killed.
Surveillance video showed both women fleeing in a car. Taylor was found and arrested two weeks later at a nearby Days Inn.
She was convicted March 28 of murder, felony murder, aggravated assault and weapons offenses. Dekalb County Superior Court Judge Asha Jackson sentenced her to life in prison plus 25 years.
The other woman also was arrested in 2019, but the district attorney’s office did not return a request for clarification on whether she still faces charges.