JACKSON, ALABAMA — A Jackson man has been sentenced to life in prison after pleading guilty to felony murder in the January 2021 shooting death of Thearthur Dixon, a 72-year-old Thomasville log truck driver, who was killed during a robbery inside his truck cab.
Kylyn Debroderick Taylor, 26, entered his guilty plea on October 13 in Clarke County Circuit Court. His trial had been scheduled to begin October 19, according to Clarke County District Attorney Stephen Winters.
The Killing
Dixon was shot and killed on January 28, 2021, around 5 a.m. on Waterway Road, a dirt road off Walker Springs Road near the Bradford Gravel Pit outside Jackson. He was reportedly at the location for work. Prosecutors said evidence presented at the earlier trials of Taylor’s co-defendants established that Dixon was killed during the commission of a robbery.
The Co-Defendants
Taylor was one of three men charged. Hikeem Lamont Edmond and David Demetrious Taylor were previously convicted following separate jury trials. Edmond was sentenced to life in prison without parole in October 2025 after a Clarke County jury convicted him on two counts of capital murder. Circuit Judge C. Robert Montgomery ordered the sentences to run concurrently.
During Edmond’s seven-day trial, Winters and Chief Assistant District Attorney Bill McCorquodale presented evidence that Edmond and a co-defendant shot Dixon inside his truck during a robbery.
The Arrests
The investigation first led authorities to Edmond and Kylyn Taylor, who were arrested in Montgomery the day after the killing. At the time, the two were facing Montgomery charges involving the robbery of a Dollar General store, the kidnapping of an individual, and a separate robbery. Reports at the time said the suspects fled Montgomery police in a vehicle pursuit that ended when their vehicle collided with a police vehicle. Both were apprehended.
Edmond, 23 at the time of the killing, was identified as a Bessemer resident. Taylor, then 20, was living near Gainestown Road in the Choctaw Bluff area.
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