Upshur County man sentenced to 99 years for threatening victim

UPSHUR COUNTY — A man was sentenced to 99 years in prison in Upshur County. On Tuesday, a jury of five men and seven women found Taylor guilty of retaliation against a witness from Jan. 2021, according to our news partner KETK. Charles Lance Taylor, 45, broke into the house of a woman that he previously dated on June 23, 2020 and assaulted and strangled her, according to Upshur County District Attorney, Billy W. Byrd. “The assault was so bad it required the victim to be hospitalized for a brain bleed,” said Byrd.

On Sept. 17, 2020, a Morris County grand jury returned an indictment against Taylor for assault and his sentence was enhanced to 25 years to life in prison. Taylor had the assault charge pending. Then, on Jan. 12, 2021, he called the victim in Upshur County and threatened to kill her for filing charges against him in Morris County, said the DA. On Nov. 1, 2021, Taylor was sentenced to four years of probation for the assault in Morris County.

The victim provided her testimony in this case and the state also demonstrated text messages and phone calls where Taylor made threats to the woman. He had seven prior felony convictions and four misdemeanors that dated back to the 1990s. Officials said on a different occasion Taylor attacked another woman in 2015 in Smith County and threatened to slice her throat and run over her with her own car. He had assaulted the victim in Upshur County several times and it was not reported, according to the DA.