Man to serve 9 years for shooting, robbery in Harris Teeter parking lot

WILMINGTON — A judge sentenced a Wilmington man to almost a decade in prison related to a shooting and robbery that took place more than a year ago.

A local man, 52-year-old Robert Taylor will serve up to nine years after pleading guilty to robbery with a dangerous weapon, assault with a deadly weapon inflicting serious injury and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon in New Hanover County Superior Court on Monday.

Taylor admitted to shooting and robbing a man in a Harris Teeter parking lot at 3501 Oleander Drive in December 2021. Officers found an adult male shot in the stomach, who referred to Taylor as “New York.” Police knew the perpetrator went by the nickname from an incident investigated the month prior.

On Nov. 27, 2021, officers were called to a dwelling on Calhoun Drive and a man, who was inside the home with two others, indicated a Black male named “New York” entered the residence and fired multiple shots. He suspected the shooting was “drug-related,” a press release from the district attorney’s office noted, but no arrests were made.

Law enforcement conducted a traffic stop after the Harris Teeter shooting in December, which led to Taylor’s arrest. Officers also apprehended Erica Fahey and another female.

“That female told police Taylor and the victim were rivals in the drug and prostitution business,” according to a press release.

Monitored phone calls while Taylor was in jail confirmed he attempted to dispose of the firearm. The female who told police about the prostitution rivalry said Taylor passed off the gun to Fahey after the shooting incident; Fahey then allegedly handed it off to another male, who man helped detectives locate the weapon.

Law enforcement were able to collect two .9mm shell casings at the Calhoun Drive and Harris Teeter scenes.

After collecting the handgun from the Harris Teeter incident, they test-fired it. Preliminary tests confirmed it was the same gun used in both instances.

Taylor’s co-defendant, Fahey, entered a guilty plea to a firearm offense and drug charges. She also admitted she was with Taylor the day he fired shots into the Calhoun Drive home in November 2021.

Taylor pled guilty discharging a firearm into an occupied dwelling on Calhoun Drive, and another count of possession of a firearm by a convicted felon for an unrelated incident that happened almost two decades ago, the press release detailed.

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