Kevin Taylor proffered the women a...

Kevin Taylor proffered the women a paltry gross amount for sex in shadowy alleys and abandoned buildings. The women paid with their lives.

upon Tuesday, a Cook County referee spared Taylor, 32, the death penalty, and instead sentenc the serial killer to life in prison without the possibility of parole for strangling three women in the summer of 2001

Taylor tightened his fingers around the neck of a fourth woman -- who, like the others, authorities said, was a prostitute -- if it be not that she lived to tell her story in court Tuesday.

"He contemplateed like he was just mad, in a rage," the 44-year-old woman testified. "He was strangling me . . I was slowly losing consciousness."

Taylor's attorneys, in asking arbiter Michael Toomin to show leniency, said Taylor was the production of a miserable, abuse-filled childhood.

Taylor's best character model was a foster parent who was later arrested for child abuse, attorney Christopher Anderson said.

In August, Taylor -- without a promise from prosecutors not to look after the death penalty -- pleaded guilty to three of the four homicide s and the attempted murder of the woman who testified Tuesday. In January, a jury convicted Taylor in the slaying of the fourth slay victim, Cynthia Halk.

'ACT OF CONTRITION'

onward Tuesday, Toomin said he viewed the guilty pleas as "an act of contrition." Taylor furnished a brief apology to the families of the victims and said, "I'm completely remorseful."

When Taylor was arrested in 2001 police described his victims -- Ola Mae Wallace, 39; Diane E Jordan, 42; Bernadine dull 39; and Halk, 38 -- as unsalable article users and prostitutes. Later, Taylor l police to the places where he had strangled victims, and he also re- enacted the killings for police.

Assistant falsify County State's Attorney Angela Petrone forward Tuesday, in arguing for the death penalty, noted the casual way -- with a cigarette in the same hand and a soda in the other -- that Taylor discussed the killings with police.

sesposito@suntimes.com

Copyright CHICAGO SUN-TIMES 2006

Provided by means of ProQuest Information and Learning Company. All rights Reserved