A man convicted of abducting and killing a Nelson County teenager has been sentenced to two life terms in prison.
Jurors recommended had recommended the same sentence for 48-year-old Randy Taylor, who was found guilty in the August 2013 death of 17-year-old Alexis Murphy. Her body has never been found.
Murphy's family last saw her Aug. 3, 2013. She was spotted on surveillance video on that date at a Liberty gas station in Lovingston; the video shows that Taylor was there at the same time.
Surveillance video from the gas station also showed Murphy's vehicle following Taylor's truck. Murphy's car was found several days later in an Albemarle County parking lot.
Taylor's attorney, Mike Hallahan, told NBC29 in Charlottesville last year that his client was not the last person to see Murphy that day. He said while he and Murphy were parked at the gas pumps that day, she approached him and "made a comment to him about smoking marijuana based on her seeing him at another car wash in Lovingston weeks or a month before that."
Hallahan told NBC29 the teen then told Taylor she "knew a guy" and told him to follow her in his car to arrange a drug deal with a third individual.
The lawyer said Taylor, Murphy and another man went back to Taylor's camper in Lovingston. The two men smoked and drank, while Murphy did neither, the lawyer said.
Hallahan said Murphy and the other man left at the same time in separate cars, and that was the last Taylor saw of them. The lawyer told NBC29 law enforcement found a hair belonging to Murphy in Taylor's car.
