Patrick Warren Taylor, 34, Fort Myers, took a plea deal instead of standing trial on charges of attempted robbery with a firearm, possession of a firearm by a convicted felon and cocaine trafficking.
Collier County Circuit Judge Franklin Baker accepted Taylor’s no-contest plea and adjudicated him guilty of the felony charges. Judge Baker sentenced him to 30 years in prison on each of the three charges.
Taylor also agreed to plead no contest to a charge of dwelling burglary, which he was facing in an unrelated case. Prosecutors dropped a charge of grand theft in exchange for his plea.
Judge Baker also sentenced him to 30 years in prison on the dwelling burglary charge. All of the sentences are to be served at the same time.
Taylor is a documented career criminal in Collier County with CCSO.
Collier County Sheriff’s Office reports detail the events leading up to Taylor’s arrest:
On July 24, 2009, an undercover detective with the Collier County Sheriff’s Office’s Vice Narcotics Bureau purchased 59 grams of crack cocaine from Taylor for $1,670 in an undisclosed parking lot in Golden Gate. Six days later the undercover detective met again with Taylor at the same location to conduct a larger cocaine transaction.
Taylor arrived with another man, Jarrett Javon Irons, 22, Cape Coral. Both men got inside the detective’s undercover vehicle. Taylor pulled out a .32-caliber handgun and held it to the detective’s head. Irons, who was in the back seat, grabbed the detective from behind. Both men demanded the detective’s money. A struggle ensued and the detective was able to get the gun away from Taylor.
Deputies were in the immediate area acting as backup. They rushed the detective’s undercover vehicle and took Taylor and Irons into custody.
At the time of his arrest, Taylor was free on a $25,000 bond for a then-pending dwelling burglary and grand theft charges. Taylor and a co-defendant were arrested and charged June 11, 2009, with breaking into a Golden Gate Estates residence.
Irons remains in jail on $100,000 bond, awaiting trial on an attempted robbery charge stemming from the incident with the undercover detective.
With his Naples cases resolved, Taylor will be turned over to federal marshals in the U.S. Middle District of Florida in Fort Myers, where he is on federal probation for conspiracy to distribute cocaine.
In addition to his federal cocaine distribution conviction, he has three felony convictions for grand theft of a motor vehicle in Lee County.
