HOUSTON (Covering Katy News) - A 30-year-old former volunteer with a Katy area fire department is headed to prison for more than sixteen years for several armed robberies beginning in Katy in 2020.
Federal Prosecutors say Xavier McCoy-Taylor of Houston began his crime spree by holding up the Murphy USA gas station on Marketplace Drive near I-10 and the Katy Walmart.
The second armed robbery happened in Cinco Ranch at the CVS on Westheimer Parkway at the Grand Parkway in Fort Bend County.
On September 25, 2020, McCoy-Taylor robbed a CVS on Beechnut Street in Houston. During the robbery, he held the pregnant clerk at gunpoint. As he left the building with his gun still in hand, a Texas state trooper who was in the parking lot, approached and yelled at him to stop. McCoy-Taylor then pointed his firearm at the trooper.
Katy Police Dept.
Xavier McCoy-Taylor
U.S. Attorney Alamdar S. Hamdani announced the guilty plea on Tuesday, July 11, 2023.
U.S. District Judge George C. Hanks handed McCoy-Taylor a 34-month sentence for a robbery that he pleaded guilty to, and the judge added another 84 months for two firearms charges, which must be served consecutively.
At the time of McCoy-Taylor's arrest, he worked as a patient care assistant at Memorial Herman Hospital. He previously worked as a volunteer emergency medical technician for the Westlake Fire Department in the Katy area on Saums Road near North Fry Road.
A spokesperson for Westlake F.D. told KHOU 11 News that McCoy-Taylor was a volunteer who stopped showing up for work.
In imposing the sentence, Judge Hanks noted that McCoy-Taylor was a "wolf in sheep's clothing" in that he had a loving family and went to work every day at a job where he was entrusted to help the most vulnerable people in the community.
Judge Hanks McCoy-Taylor held innocent victims at gunpoint for no apparent reason other than enjoying it. He added that McCoy-Taylor should not be able to walk the streets of Houston for a very long time.
"This defendant was an EMT and had every opportunity to be a productive member of society," Hamdani said. "Instead of serving the public, he decided to endanger it, pointing a gun at a pregnant store clerk and then pointing it at a Texas State Trooper. As a result, he will spend the next years taking care of his jail cell instead of his patients."