Inset: Timothy Taylor (NYPD/CrimeStoppers). Background: Taylor being arrested by police and U.S. Marshals in Philadelphia in June 2023 (U.S. Marshals Service).
A 38-year-old man in New York will spend decades behind bars for killing his ex-wife less than two weeks after allegedly killing his current wife, telling police that “unlike his first victim,” his ex-wife “deserved it.”
Timothy Taylor earlier this month pleaded guilty to one count of second-degree murder in the 2023 slaying of Tishawn Folkes-Taylor, authorities announced.
Taylor is also facing a pending indictment in Brooklyn for the alleged murder of his current wife, who he is accused of stabbing to death on May 13, 2023.
At the time of Folkes-Taylor”s murder, Taylor had three pending charges in Schenectady City Court involving her, including criminal obstruction of breathing, criminal contempt, and harassment. Authorities also emphasized that the two children of Taylor and Folkes-Taylor were in the home when he killed his ex-wife.
Taylor reached a deal with prosecutors in which he agreed to plead guilty to his ex-wife’s murder in exchange for a sentence of 22 years in a state correctional facility.
According to a news release from the Schenectady County District Attorney’s Office, Taylor on May 27, 2023, travelled from North Carolina to Schenectady, checking in to the Imperial Hotel, which was less than two miles from Folkes-Taylor’s home. After checking in at around 11 p.m., Taylor walked the streets of Schenectady, waiting to enter his ex-wife’s home in the 1000 block of Pleasant Street in the early morning hours of May 28.
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Taylor stabbed Folkes-Taylor to death, then “exited the house through a bedroom window” before again walking the streets, this time discarding articles of clothing along the way.
While Taylor was in Schenectady, police in Brooklyn were searching for him as a suspect in the murder of his current wife two weeks earlier. Taylor made his way to Philadelphia where authorities, with the assistance of U.S. Marshals, detained him and had him extradited back to New York.
While Taylor was in Philadelphia, he was questioned by an NYPD detective and a Schenectady PD investigator regarding the women’s deaths.
“He told the detectives that after he had killed his then-current wife he felt bad, and he knew he had to come to Schenectady to kill his former wife because he harbored so much animosity toward her and in his words, she, unlike his first victim, deserved it,” the release states.
Prosecutors said that street camera video and surveillance footage from various stores played a critical part in solving this case.
“People should know that Tishawn Folkes-Taylor, while facing down her killer and knowing his intent, made sure to protect her children and after stabbing her more than 22 times, Mr. Taylor fled into the night without harming them,” District Attorney Robert M. Carney said in a statement. “These children, particularly the oldest who was a high school student at the time, and their extended family, were instrumental to our office in bringing this case.
The DA added it was his hope that, with the additional charges being brought in New York City, that Taylor “never lives in the world again as a free man.”
Taylor is currently scheduled to appear in Schenectady County Court before Judge Matthew J. Sypniewski on Sept. 16, 2025, for his sentencing hearing.
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