Mark Taylor, a former Houston County schoolteacher convicted last year of intimidating his former fiancee, was ordered Thursday to spend the remainder of a five-year sentence in prison, with his probation revoked, according to the Houston County district attorney.
Taylor was found to have violated nine conditions of his probation, including contacting his victim, fleeing from the state and other offenses, District Attorney Kelly Burke said in a news release.
Judge Katherine K. Lumsden revoked Taylor's sentence and ordered him to prison for the balance of his sentence, which is about 4 years, Burke said.
Taylor has been in jail since January, having been arrested on a warrant for violating probation by not reporting to a probation officer.
Taylor, 43, a former Northside Middle School seventh-grade science teacher and Warner Robins High School track and field coach, pleaded guilty in July 2007 to threatening his former fiancee, also a teacher, via a text message on her cell phone that said he would damage her reputation if she told anybody anything about him, according to court records.
Part of his plea agreement was that he would not appeal the termination of his job and that he would follow the terms of his probation, which included banishment from the county, Burke said.
However, he was again arrested on an outstanding warrant issued in August for aggravated stalking after reports that Taylor had again stalked his former fiancee, the prosecutor said.
"Mr. Taylor just doesn't get it," the district attorney said Thursday after the probation revocation hearing. "He was unrepentant, unapologetic, combative and demeaning. His defense was that the victim and the state were out to get him and set him up. It was ineffective in light of strong evidence presented by the state that Mr. Taylor alone was responsible for his plight."
Burke added: "Mr. Taylor had the gall to claim that Iraq has a better justice system then we do. I doubt that Iraqi prisoners get a four-hour probation hearing, or get to attack their victims with character assassination, or get to accuse the government of a conspiracy to keep someone in jail. Mr. Taylor got to do all that and more, but it only lengthened his misery as Judge Lumsden was not amused by his rantings. I am satisfied that Mr. Taylor got his due today and that everyone in Houston County is a little safer tonight."
Taylor was initially accused of stalking, threatening and making unwanted contact with his former fiancee, who had broken off their engagement in May 2007. He was investigated by police after a complaint by Northside Middle School principal Ed Mashburn, authorities said.
Additional charges of stalking, simple battery, making harassing phone calls and false imprisonment were dismissed as part of the plea agreement.
Taylor maintained that he never harmed his former fiancee nor intended to do anything that would have scared or intimidated her, according to previously published reports.