St. Tammany Jury Finds Slidell Man Guilty of Manslaughter in the Fatal Shooting of Co-Worker at Hyundai Auto Dealership
August 19, 2024
District Attorney Collin Sims reports that on August 16, 2024, a St. Tammany Parish jury deliberated for approximately 4 hours before finding 25-year-old Brian Montrell Taylor of Slidell guilty of manslaughter in the shooting death of 22-year-old Zakary Stewart. Assistant District Attorneys Jay Adair and Taylor Nicholson prosecuted the case. Judge Scott Gardner presided over the five-day trial. Detective Scott O’Shaughnessy headed the investigation for the Slidell Police Department.
Testimony during the trial established that in 2022, Taylor and Stewart were co-workers at a Hyundai auto dealership in Slidell. During September, 2022, the two began feuding after Taylor sent Stewart’s girlfriend several unwelcomed text messages. On the afternoon of September 16, 2022, while both men were at work, tempers flared between the two and a physical altercation erupted outside one of the dealership’s service bays. A surveillance camera at a business across the street captured portions of the encounter. Punches were thrown by both men, resulting in their noses being bloodied. Co-workers intervened and separated the two combatants. As a manager steered Stewart away from Taylor, Taylor ran into the service bay and emerged holding a handgun. Co-workers heard Taylor chamber a round and pleaded with him “Don’t do it, Brian, don’t do it!” While Taylor held the gun by his side, the two men moved toward each other and resumed fighting. During the scuffle, Taylor aimed the gun at Stewart’s chest and discharged the weapon. Stewart collapsed to the pavement. Taylor ran back into the service bay to retrieve a backpack. The surveillance video showed that as multiple co-workers rushed to Stewart’s aid, Taylor jogged past Stewart’s prone body without glancing downward. Desperate 911 calls were placed and officers with the Slidell Police Department arrived quickly on the scene. However, Stewart was declared dead before medical personnel could render any assistance.
After the trial testimony concluded, prosecutors and defense counsel made closing arguments to the jury. While addressing the jury, the attorneys on each side spent much of their time discussing the concept of self-defense and the legal doctrine that the “aggressor” in a conflict cannot claim the right of self-defense. ADA Taylor Nicholson asserted the physical encounter started when the defendant shoved Stewart from behind, making the defendant the aggressor and therefore precluding him from claiming self-defense. She reminded the jurors that after the fight had apparently ended, Brian Taylor immediately armed himself and “went looking for Zakary.” She noted that during their testimony, multiple witnesses had described Brian Taylor as looking “focused” and “enraged” when he returned with the gun in his hand, and that he did not look scared.
Defense counsel argued it was the victim who was actually the aggressor; a crazed man driven by rage and hatred. He said the defendant was lucky to have had a gun when “that guy” (i.e., the victim) decided “this is the day.” Defense counsel urged the jury to find Brian Taylor was justified in his use of deadly force and to acquit the defendant.
In the State’s rebuttal closing argument, ADA Jay Adair countered the defense’s claims of self-defense by replaying critical portions of the surveillance video, calling it “the final three minutes of Zakary’s life.” As the video was replayed in slow motion, Adair pointed to the moment the defendant initiated the physical altercation by shoving Stewart in the back. Later, as the video showed Taylor sprint off camera and quickly return with a gun in hand, Adair called it an act of aggression that escalated the encounter beyond a simple fistfight. He said once Taylor did that, he wasn’t merely “standing his ground”, he was advancing the conflict and therefore lost any legal authority to claim self-defense. Adair acknowledged that Stewart didn’t walk away when he perhaps should have but he received a disproportionate penalty for that transgression: his death. Adair said Stewart didn’t deserve to die and that the defendant should now be held accountable.
Judge Gardner set Taylor’s sentencing for September 4, 2024. Manslaughter carries a sentence of up to forty (40) years in prison. Because Taylor discharged a firearm during the commission of a “violent felony”, he faces a mandatory minimum of twenty (20) years in prison.