Ex teacher’s aide sentenced for raping 2nd-grader, exposing him to AIDS, and hiring hit man to try to kill boy

ST. LOUIS (TCD) -- A 39-year-old former teacher’s aide was sentenced this week to 50 years in prison for raping a young boy and knowingly exposing him to AIDS.

Court records show a judge handed Deonte Taylor a 45-year sentence for the three counts of statutory sodomy, then five years for recklessly risking infection of another with HIV when actor is knowingly infected. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports Taylor also entered the guilty plea for two counts of conspiracy to commit murder.

Taylor was convicted April 21. According to the St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office, Taylor committed statutory sodomy on the 7-year-old boy at Lusher Elementary School. Taylor then reportedly worked with Michael Johnson to find someone "to murder his child victim and the boy’s mother and grandmother."

John White reportedly said Taylor and Johnson offered to pay him $20,000 to commit the crime. According to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Johnson is reportedly Taylor’s boyfriend, and Taylor met White in jail.

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports the boy testified Taylor removed him from music class on Nov. 13, 2015, and took him to a nearby bathroom. Taylor then reportedly brought the boy to a classroom and showed him pornographic videos on his phone. The boy was forced to perform oral sex on Taylor, then Taylor raped him.

The boy has reportedly tested negative for HIV.

Taylor was reportedly fired from Lusher Elementary School in 2015 for unrelated reasons, then hired to teach fifth grade in the Ferguson-Florissant School District.

KSDK-TV reports White went to the police after Taylor and Johnson offered him the $20,000 to kill the victim and his family members. White was reportedly in jail at the time for a probation violation. Taylor reportedly said to White in the rec yard of the jail, "I got something I need you to do for me. I want to know if you would take a hit."

White shared with the station, "He told me that it was a 10-year-old boy and his mother and grandmother and I kind of got interested like, 'Are you serious? You want to hurt a baby?'"

Taylor reportedly provided White with the victim’s address, phone number, Social Security number, and other personal information. He supposedly ordered White to make it look "like an accident," such as carbon monoxide poisoning or a fire while the family was sleeping, and to "try to put it on the kid playing with matches."

Johnson, Taylor’s boyfriend, reportedly worked as a choir director at the time at a Baptist church. Johnson even allegedly offered White diet tips while handing him the money to commit the hit.

White told KTRK he went to police because "if I didn’t do it, he would have gotten somebody else to do it."

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