Taylor Hurst appears at his arraignment Monday, March 5, 2007, in Worcester, Mass., where he was charged in the strangulation death of his pregnant girlfriend Katherine MacDougall (AP Photo/Telegram & Gazette, Mark C. Ide).
A 42-year-old Massachusetts man who spent more than 15 years in prison for killing his pregnant fiancee finds himself behind bars again, this time for allegedly murdering his roommate.
Taylor Hurst is accused of beating 52-year-old Stephen Gomes to death in July in Boston. Police arrested Hurst on Thursday on a murder charge.
Prosecutors with the Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office described the alleged course of events — as well as Hurst’s criminal past — during a court hearing Friday, local NBC affiliate WBTS reported. After responding to calls for a death investigation on July 6 in the area of 56 Patten Street, Boston police found Gomes’ body under a bed, and his face had “significant and multiple fractures” along with other head trauma, prosecutors said.
Earlier that day, Hurst allegedly fled a traffic stop in Gomes’ SUV after cops approached the vehicle for being illegally parked. The defendant reportedly admitted to getting into a fight with his roommate.
Hurst made his first appearance from a hospital bed and his attorney said she had concerns about his “ability to appreciate” the charges against him due to an unspecified “medical condition.”
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Hurst has been out of prison since 2023, after he served roughly 15 years behind bars for the 2007 slaying of his pregnant fiancee Katherine MacDougall. He was originally facing a murder charge after cops found her strangled to death in March 2007 at their home in Worcester. The defendant ended up pleading guilty to manslaughter the next year after the victim’s family pleaded for mercy.
At the time, according to the local Worcester Telegram & Gazette, MacDougall’s family noted that Hurst was under some “very powerful drugs” when he killed MacDougall. The victim’s brother read a statement to the court, per the Telegram & Gazette:
In the course of trying to make sense of all of this, from blaming ourselves to anger with Taylor, to a sense of hopelessness that things would never be OK again, we have had to ask ourselves some difficult and important questions. The biggest of these were about love, about Katie’s love for Taylor and about Taylor’s love for Katie. In exploring the depths of these issues, we have come to an amazing conclusion … Yes, what Taylor did was horrible and inexcusable. But was it unforgivable? We all know what it means to need forgiveness and have chosen not to withhold such from anyone. God implores us to forgive as we have been forgiven. So, in questioning whether or not Taylor could love Katie and still do something so horrible, we believe that he could, and did, and still does.
In the end, the judge honored the family’s request and allowed Hurst to plead guilty to manslaughter. He was sentenced to 18 to 20 years behind bars.
Prosecutors said Hurst was also on probation for animal cruelty for kicking a puppy while he was incarcerated in 2023, Boston.com reported.
A probable cause hearing is scheduled for Sept. 17, per WBTS.
The post Man who strangled pregnant fiancee to death now accused of murdering roommate first appeared on Law & Crime.
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Author: David Harris
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