In the quiet evening of March 23, 2019, a tragedy unfolded inside a home in the 6800 block of East 3rd Avenue in Gary, Indiana, forever altering the lives of a local family. Thirteen-year-old Lavell Edmond, a male, was at home with his mother, 35-year-old Temia Haywood, and his sister when the sound of gunfire shattered their peace. Responding to a report of shots fired at approximately 8 p.m., police officers entered the residence to a grim scene.
They discovered the bodies of both Lavell and his mother, who had each suffered multiple gunshot wounds. Both were pronounced dead at the scene, and their deaths were officially ruled as homicides.
The investigation into the double homicide quickly gained momentum, aided by surveillance footage from a doorbell camera that captured images of two men near the home around the time of the shootings. This crucial evidence, released to the public, led authorities to identify one of the suspects. Within days of the incident, charges were filed against Darren “Duke” Taylor, a 39-year-old man from Indianapolis. He was apprehended in Indianapolis on April 4 by members of the Lake County Metro Homicide Unit and the Great Lakes Regional Task Force.
Court documents and witness testimony began to unravel the motive behind the brutal slayings. Lavell's sister, who escaped the attack by jumping from a second-story window, told investigators she heard her mother on the phone shortly before a knock at the door. She then heard a man's voice, followed by gunshots. Her brother's last words were, 'Mom is shot.' It was revealed that Temia Haywood had been in a long-term, on-again, off-again relationship with Taylor's father. Relatives indicated that Haywood had been trying to end the relationship, but Taylor's father 'would not let go.' Taylor was identified from the surveillance footage by his own father and by Lavell's father, who was Taylor's cousin. Another man, identified as Nelson Gaines, was with Taylor at the time of the incident.
Darren Taylor was charged with four counts of first-degree murder and two counts of burglary. Following a jury trial, he was convicted of two counts of murder and one count of armed robbery. The court sentenced Taylor to sixty years for each murder conviction and an additional ten years for the armed robbery conviction. With further sentencing enhancements for the use of a firearm, he received an aggregate sentence of 150 years in the Indiana Department of Correction. While Taylor was brought to justice, the identity of the second man seen in the surveillance video remained unconfirmed by witnesses.
