Crime & Safety

Landry Family to Taylor: You Could Have Stopped It

Robert Taylor, 18 of Detroit, was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Robert Taylor wasn't the gunman in the high-profile Matthew Landry murder case. But he had plenty of chances to stop his loose-cannon street friend from escalating a random carjacking to the cold-hearted killing of the 21-year-old Chesterfield Township resident in August 2009, the victim's family said.

"We know he didn't pull the trigger, but he could have stopped it," Gina Coil, Matthew Landry's older sister, said just after Taylor was sentenced Thursday by Macomb County Circuit Court Judge Diane Druzinski to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Before learning his fate, the judge asked a shackled Taylor if he had anything to say to the court.

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"I do feel kinda bad, you know what I'm saying, for the situation," he said quietly. "I do feel bad ... he lost his life for something that wasn't necessary."

He also said, "I do wish he was alive so he could tell ya'll what happened."

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An unshaven Taylor appeared in navy blue jail garb. It was a stark contrast to the clean-shaven, tie-wearing defendant in trial. He showed no emotion when he was told he will spend the rest of his life behind bars.

Statements from Matthew's mother

Matthew Landry's mother, Doreen Landry, spoke directly to the defendant who essentially lived on the streets in a gang-riddled neighborhood on Detroit's east side.

"I can't even imagine what it was like for you to grow up ... I wonder if you even knew how wonderful it was like to have a family," she said.

"What's even more sad is what you did to my son Matt. ... What else is sad, you knew right from wrong and yet you did it anyway."

She implored him to set a good example from prison to his younger sister and brother.

"They probably look up to you," she told him. "Reach out to them. Make sure they don't glorify what you've done."

Families embrace

After the judge handed down her sentence, the Landry family hugged in relief.

"I'm just glad it's over," Robert Landry, Matthew's father, said. "It's been a long 18 months. There isn't a day that goes by that I didn't miss him."

The family members were also embraced by the defendant's mother, Rhonda Taylor, outside of the courtroom after the sentencing.

"It was very brave of her," Doreen Landry said of the exchange. "The only thing I could say to her was to take care of those two other kids."

Rhonda Taylor, who stated she actually has six children, said "I'm sorry. I feel really bad about the situation."

She maintained that her son followed the older defendant, Ihab Masalmani's lead and had no intention of killing Matthew Landry.

"He didn't know it was going to happen," she said.

Taylor's stepfather, Lance Owens, pointed out that Taylor was 16 when the crime took place.

"He was a child at the time," he said.

Taylor's defense lawyer, Louis Zaidan, said "two families lost two men. What is so sad is neither family will ever see their potential."

Random killing shocked region

Masalmani, also spelled Maslamani, is already serving life in prison for the murder and a slew of other felonies in Iona County. He is believed to have been the instigator of the crime.

According to authorities, the pair rode their bikes to a Quiznos restaurant in Eastpointe, where they decided to “hit a lick,” meaning carjack someone, because they didn’t want to ride miles back to Detroit in the summer heat. Landry and his 2000 Honda Accord became their target.

After beating and forcing him into the car, the pair robbed and held him hostage at gunpoint for several hours. They took him to a drug den—where they played it off like he was their friend—and, eventually to a burnt-out abandoned house on Detroit’s east side. Despite Landry’s pleas for his life, Masalmani shot him execution style in the back of the head. Taylor, protesting that his friend reaped cash out of the crime, requested the murder weapon as his prize. He later sold the gun, Assistant Prosecutor William Cataldo said.

Landry’s badly decomposed body was found four days later. The house was on the same street, Madeline, where Taylor previously lived just blocks away, Cataldo said.

A DNA sample on an orange Polo hat that Masalmani wore in a surveillance video after the murder—and that was recovered in Landry's car—matched Taylor's DNA. The testing suggests he is one in 5.5 million people of his race with the likelihood of having that genetic makeup, Lynne Helton, a forensic scientist with Michigan State Police, testified.

Criminal case closed

Eastpointe police Det. Steve Sellers investigated the case that required delving into a rough-and-tumble neighborhood where residents were resistant to police cooperation. Eastpointe and Detroit police officers' persistence led to Taylor being identified as the second suspect in the case.

"I'm just glad that the two people involved got the maximum sentences," Sellers said.


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