A 23-year-old bulldozer driver was ordered Friday to spend the rest of his life in prison for the armed kidnapping and robbery of two teenagers at a light rail station in Timonium last October and the subsequent rape of one of the victims.
Kiheem Malik Taylor subjected the couple, both 17, to "torture" and "an absolute living hell" during a two-hour ordeal in which they were "in fear of death," Baltimore County Circuit Judge Robert N. Dugan said. He sentenced the defendant to prison for the maximum term allowed under law - two consecutive life sentences plus 100 years.
"A civilized society cannot tolerate such despicable, criminal behavior," said the judge, who noted that the victims suffered humiliation and embarrassment and, in the girl's case, a "loss of innocence."
Speaking over the sobs of Taylor's mother, Dugan said he hoped to ensure "that the defendant spends the rest of his life behind bars."
Addressing the court, but without looking at either his relatives or those of the two victims, Taylor maintained that police had arrested the wrong man.
"I'm innocent," he said. "I had nothing to do with this. Putting me away is not going to change the fact that the man who did this is still out there."
Taylor was initially charged with 32 counts, including eight sex offenses, among them first-degree rape and committing an "unnatural or perverted" act. He also was charged with armed robbery, kidnapping and carjacking. At a bench trial in May, he was found guilty of eight of the charges, two of which were combined at the time of sentencing for a final total of six.
An accomplice, Brian T. Scott, will be sentenced in October.
Police said after the Oct. 10 incident that the victims had been sitting in a car at the Deereco Road park-and-ride lot when two men approached the vehicle, brandished pistols and demanded that they open a door. The boy was forced into the trunk and the girl was made to undress in the back seat.
The two men drove around for two hours, during which the young woman was raped, Baltimore County State's Attorney Scott Shellenberger, who prosecuted the case, said in court.
He told the judge that Taylor, not content with simply stealing the victims' car and money, made "sport" of the incident by forcing the girl to "perform all these acts on him" and pose for pictures.
The victims were ultimately released in Baltimore's Cherry Hill neighborhood, where they flagged down a passing police car.
