Taylor gets maximum sentence in 1996 murder of Curtisha Morning

State Supreme Court Justice William Condon today sentenced Kalila Taylor to 25 years to life in prison for the murder of Riverhead High School student Curtisha Morning in 1996.

Kalila Taylor was convicted for a second time last month of stabbing Morning in a fit of jealously in February 1996.  Taylor stabbed Morning, 17, more than 90 times, according to prosecutors, who said the attack was provoked by Taylor’s belief that her boyfriend, the father of her child, showed a romantic interest in Morning. 

Her first conviction, in 1999, was overturned in 2004 by an appellate court, which ruled that the trial judge incorrectly instructed the jury regarding DNA evidence.

Taylor is now 35 years old.

“It is our hope this second conviction will provide the Morning family with some measure of peace and closure,” District Attorney Thomas Spota said.

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