Lawyer: Breonna Taylor’s ex was offered plea deal to implicate her in ‘organized crime syndicate’

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — The man at the center of a drug investigation that led to the March 13 police killing of Breonna Taylor in her Louisville home was offered a plea deal that would have required him to implicate her in the crimes, an attorney for the Taylor family said.

Attorney Sam Aguiar on Monday posted an image of the plea agreement on his Facebook page.

Taylor’s ex-boyfriend, Jamarcus Glover, was the focus of the drug investigation that led Louisville police to execute a no-knock search warrant at the home of Taylor, an EMT and hospital worker. Louisville police Sgt. Jonathan Mattingly, Detective Myles Cosgrove and Detective Brett Hankison used a battering ram to break down Taylor’s door, at which point her boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, fired a single shot.

Walker, who told authorities he believed it was a home invasion, shot Mattingly in the leg. The three officers opened fire, unloading more than 20 rounds into Taylor’s apartment and the apartment next door.

Taylor, who was struck at least five times, died on the floor of her hallway. She and Walker had been asleep when the officers arrived.

Editor’s note: The image below contains language that might be upsetting to some readers.

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According to the image posted by Aguiar, as well as reporting by multiple media outlets, the proposed plea deal would have Glover acknowledge that over a period leading up to April 22, he and several co-defendants — including Taylor — had “engaged in an organized crime syndicate that trafficked large amounts of crack cocaine, methamphetamine and opiates into the Louisville community.”

The syndicate sold the drugs out of abandoned or vacant houses on Elliott Avenue in the Russell neighborhood of Louisville, the document alleged. Elliott Avenue is about 10 miles from Taylor’s apartment on Springfield Drive.

“Read this (expletive),” Aguiar wrote on Facebook. “Commonwealth Attorney Tom Wine tried to give the Elliott Avenue defendants a plea deal on July 13 which would have identified Breonna Taylor as a ‘co-defendant’ for actions related to the arrests on April 22, 2020. Umm ... when was Breonna Taylor ever a co-defendant?”

Aguiar also pointed out that Taylor was killed more than a month before that April date.

WDRB reported that Glover, a convicted felon, turned down the plea deal, which could have resulted in him being released on probation instead of serving prison time.

In an exclusive video interview with the Louisville Courier Journal, Glover, 30, said the information police used to obtain the warrant for Taylor’s apartment was misleading and incorrect. Taylor had nothing to do with the drug trade, he said.

“The police are trying to make it out to be my fault and turning the whole community out here, making it look like I brought this to Breonna’s door,” Glover told the newspaper from an unidentified location.

Glover, 30, was a fugitive at the time of the interview for failing to post bond on prior drug charges. He was arrested on the outstanding warrant Thursday, about 15 hours after speaking to the Courier Journal.

Police obtained the no-knock warrant for Taylor’s home based on information that they claimed indicated Taylor could be holding drugs or cash for Glover, who was reportedly seen going to her home in January, picking up a package and driving to a known drug house.

A search of Taylor’s apartment after her killing turned up neither drugs nor cash.

Glover denied Taylor’s involvement in anything criminal.

“There was nothing never there or anything ever there, and at the end of the day, they went about it the wrong way and lied on that search warrant and shot that girl out there,” Glover told the newspaper.

Aguiar, who is representing Taylor’s family in a civil suit, indicated that the plea deal smells of desperation.

“This goes to show how desperate Tom Wine is to justify the wrongful search of Breonna Taylor’s home, her killing and arrest of Kenneth Walker,” the attorney wrote on Facebook. “Thank God his office recused itself, as we sure as hell know what they would’ve done. And shame on that office.

“Breonna Taylor is not a ‘co-defendant’ in a criminal case. She’s dead. Way to try and attack a woman when she’s not even here to defend herself.”

Aguiar described the wording of the plea proposal as “absolutely disgusting.”

Wine told WDRB in a statement that the offer that included Taylor was a “draft” and part of the negotiations with Glover and his defense attorney. That defense lawyer, Scott Barton, told the news station that he received several plea offers on behalf of his client.

Taylor’s name was not in the most recent offer, Barton said.

Wine said in a statement that, “out of respect for ... Taylor,” he had her name removed from any other negotiation plea sheets.

Glover’s interview with the Courier Journal came a day after the newspaper reported on an internal report from within the Louisville Metro Police Department that alleges Taylor had more extensive ties with Glover than previously made public. Along with the 39-page report, the paper reviewed transcripts from jailhouse phone calls Glover made during multiple stays in the metro jail.

According to the report, GPS tracking of Glover’s Dodge Charger showed the car was driven to Taylor’s home six times in January. Photos included in the document show him going in and out of her apartment.

In a Jan. 3 call from the jail, Glover called Taylor and asked her to contact one of his co-defendants in the April 22 drug case to bail him out. The Courier Journal reported that Taylor responded that the man was “already at the trap,” slang for a drug house.

In another call Glover made to his current girlfriend on March 13, after Taylor’s killing, he told the woman Taylor had been “handling all (his) money and that she’d been holding $8,000 for him.

None of the supposed cash was found in Taylor’s apartment, and the newspaper reported that it could not substantiate Glover’s jailhouse claim that Taylor held drug money for him.

A Fraternal Order of Police spokesman told the Courier Journal that he wished the information contained in the report had been made public sooner. He said it would have countered initial reports that police officers raided the wrong apartment.

Though Taylor’s apartment was not the main target in the investigation, and Glover had already been arrested prior to the raid at her home, her address was listed on the search warrant.

Keturah Herron, of the American Civil Liberties Union of Kentucky, told the Courier Journal that the internal report was a case of victim-blaming.

“We have seen this, historically, not just in Breonna’s case, but in cases across the nation,” Herron said. “They did it with Freddie Gray. They did it with Trayvon Martin. And then just recently, they did it with Jacob Blake.

“What’s important here is that regardless of what Breonna was involved in from the day that she was born until March 13, it does not give reason for her to be murdered the way she was murdered.”

Robert Schroeder, interim chief of the Louisville Metro Police Department, and Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer also criticized the release of the internal report. Schroeder took issue with the leak potentially compromising investigations into Taylor’s shooting.

“We want to protect the integrity of all of our investigations,” Schroeder said, according to the Courier Journal. “This kind of leak and this kind of reporting is simply not helpful to the process. It seems irrelevant to the goal of getting justice, peace and healing for our community.”

Fischer agreed, saying it would be “unjust to draw conclusions about this case before the investigation is complete and the full truth comes out.” He said the report represented “a small fraction” of the investigation and that releasing “select information” is divisive at a time when the city needs unity.

“Breonna Taylor’s death was a tragedy. Period,” Fischer said. “Justice, peace and healing are what is needed for her, for her family and for our community.”

Cox Media Group