LAUDERDALE COUNTY, Miss. (Queen City Newsfeed) – A Lauderdale County man has been sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole following his conviction for the 2021 killing of Denisha Knight.
District Attorney Kassie Coleman announced Thursday that Montrell Deundtrae Taylor, 31, received the sentence from Circuit Court Judge Charles Wright after a jury found him guilty of Capital Murder at the conclusion of a four-day trial. Taylor was convicted in the death of Knight, who was shot and killed in her home on Sandflat Road in Meridian on September 30, 2021.
Taylor was arrested by the Lauderdale County Sheriff’s Department on October 22, 2021, and was indicted for Capital Murder in June 2023.
“Far too often victims of domestic violence are killed when they choose to leave their abuser,” Coleman said in a statement. “The Defendant assaulted Denisha Knight two weeks prior to her death, and she ended their relationship. The District Attorney’s Office will continue to seek justice on behalf of domestic violence victims. The actions of domestic abusers will not go unchallenged, and they will be prosecuted. I am thankful for the jury’s verdict. I hope the Knight family finds some comfort in knowing that the Defendant has been held accountable. My prayers remain with Denisha’s loved ones who have endured so much over the past three and a half years.”
The case was investigated by the Lauderdale County Sheriff’s Department and prosecuted by Coleman and Assistant District Attorney Tommy Whitfield.
Knight’s parents, Dennis and Hazel Knight, described their daughter as a devoted mother, daughter, and friend who had a passion for sports and mentoring youth through coaching. They expressed gratitude to the sheriff’s department and lead investigator Clifford Holloway, and said they were thankful that justice had been served.
Taylor will serve his sentence in the custody of the Mississippi Department of Corrections.
