Facts of the Crime: Convicted and sentenced to death in the April 2, 1993 murder of Otis Flake.
Taylor and Darryl Birdow broke into the Fort Worth home of Otis Flake. The invaders tied the mentally ill, 65-year-old victim up then strangled him with two wire coat hangers. They then stole a television and some other household items. Eleven days earlier, 87-year-old Ramon Carillo was murdered in his home, seven blocks away from Flake's home. He had also been strangled with a coat hanger. A friend of Flake's later testified that she came to his home and saw Taylor and Birdow coming from the back side of the house. Taylor had a white bag in his hand. Taylor was apprehended after a four-hour chase from Fort Worth to Waco driving the cab of a stolen 18-wheel truck.
At one point, he tried to ram two police cars and run over two state troopers standing on the side of the road. The chase ended when a trooper stood in front of the truck and shot out its tires with a shotgun. Upon his arrest, Taylor confessed to tying and stealing from both of the victims, but he said that Birdow killed them. Taylor had been paroled only three months prior to the murders after serving nine months on a Burglary conviction. Accomplice Birdow was sentenced in 1994 to life in prison.
Victim: Otis Flake
Time of Death: 6:30 pm
Manner of Execution: Lethal Injection
Last Meal: Spam and cheese, a three-layer white icing cake, a salad, French fries and three bananas
Final Words: "You ain't got to worry about nothing. I am going home. I hope to see all of y'all one day. Lord have mercy on my soul. Stay strong. It's bad to see a man get murdered for something he didn't do. But I am taking it like a man, like a warrior."
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