NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — House Speaker Cameron Sexton said he now blames the Senate for the death of a Belmont University student after he said they refused to pass mental health legislation during a special session in August.
Sexton, R-Crossville, went on SuperTalk 99.7 to talk about the death, where Shaquille Taylor, 29, was deemed incompetent but is accused of killing Jillian Ludwig, who died a week ago after being shot in the head by a bullet. Taylor's charges were bound over by the grand jury.
"We were working to address language around this," Sexton said. "If we had passed that in special session, this individual in September would have been involuntarily committed and this would have never happened. The people who evaluated him this year knew the history he had and knew he would offend again. She should be alive today."
Metro Nashville Police said they believe the shots came from the Metro Housing and Development Agency housing across the street. Ludwig wasn't discovered until an hour later.
"We talked about the mental health front a lot before special session. Now, the DA has to fight against him being declared incompetent again. Because guess what he gets to do again?" Sexton said. "This individual, there should be a mechanism to put him under involuntary commitment so he can't purchase a gun, though I doubt he did. In eight years, how many victims has this guy created?"
Taylor has an intellectual disability and language impairment, according to court records obtained by NewsChannel 5. That determination meant he wasn't able to participate in a trial where he was accused of shooting into a car in 2021 off of Dickerson Pike where a 3-year-old and 1-year-old were in the back seat. He admitted to detectives in 2021 that he did it.
His mother testified in court that he developed pneumonia at birth which led to a brain infection. According to his mother, he was diagnosed with an intellectual disability, graduated with a special education diploma, and still functions at a kindergarten level.
TAYLOR'S CRIMINAL HISTORY
Taylor was last arrested Sept. 21, according to police. He was driving in a grocery store parking lot in a truck that had been previously carjacked by two men in ski masks on Sept. 16. He was charged with felony auto theft and was subsequently released on bond. He failed to appear in court on that charge last Friday. The court issued a failure to appear warrant.
- 2011: Police seized a .40 caliber handgun from Taylor during an incident when he was a juvenile.
- 2015: Taylor was charged with robbery and given probation
- 2016: Taylor violated that probation when he was charged with aggravated burglary and was sentenced to a year in jail.
- 2021: Taylor was arrested after he and another man fired a gun into a car on Dickerson Pike in East Nashville. He was charged with aggravated assault.
- May 2023: He was released from custody after three court-appointed psychologists deemed him incompetent to stand trial, but also found he didn't pose an imminent threat to himself or others.
- Sept. 2023: Taylor was charged with auto theft and released on bail, but an arrest warrant was issued for him last Friday when he failed to show up in court.
