Olmsted County Jury Finds Man Guilty in Machine Gun Case
Rochester, MN (KROC-AM News) - An Olmsted County jury has returned a guilty verdict in the case of a Twin Cities man who was caught with a machine gun in Rochester last year.
Jury Returns Guilty Verdict
The jury found 32-year-old Richard Larue Taylor guilty of illegal possession of a firearm by a person convicted of a crime of violence and possession of a trigger activator for a machine gun. He was also convicted of a misdemeanor count of fleeing police.
Deputies Capture Suspect at Rochester Gas Station
The charges against the St. Paul man stem from his arrest in early February 2025 in Rochester. The criminal complaint says Ramsey County Sheriff's Office Apprehension Unit deputies were following Taylor in an attempt to take him into custody on an active arrest warrant when GPS tracking placed his location in Rochester.
The court document says the deputies confirmed that he was a passenger in a vehicle stopped at a gas station in northwest Rochester. It describes how he attempted to flee on foot after law enforcement surrounded the vehicle.
Illegal Machine Gun Conversion Device Found
After he was taken into custody, the charges say Taylor was searched and deputies found a loaded Glock handgun with an extended magazine that was also equipped with a semiautomatic sear switch that transformed the weapon into a fully automatic machine gun.
Previous Conviction For Gang-Related Shooting
Minnesota court records show Taylor was convicted of second-degree assault and illegal possession of a firearm for his involvement in a gang-related shootout at a shopping center in Brooklyn Center 10 years ago. He was given a five-year prison sentence.
Taylor is now being held without bail pending his sentencing hearing, which has been scheduled for October.
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