A family in Bridgeport says they finally have justice, nearly five years after a young man was shot to death, now that his killer has been sentenced. The sentence came down in a Bridgeport courtroom in a case that had weighed heavily on the victim's family for years.
Luis Morales of Bridgeport was sentenced to 62 years in prison for fatally shooting 23-year-old Clinton Taylor. According to authorities, Morales shot Taylor ten times with a nine-millimeter pistol, an act of violence that ended the young man's life.
The killing happened at a dollar store on Park Avenue, just nine days before Christmas in 2021. The location, an ordinary neighborhood store, made the brazen nature of the shooting all the more shocking to those who knew the victim.
Taylor's mother, 49-year-old Aisha Sewell, said she finally has justice for her only son. She spoke about the case virtually, from the nursing home in Naugatuck where she now lives, describing an emotional day after a long wait for the outcome.
Sewell said she is suffering from what she described as a terminal cardiac condition, and that her heart is broken in a different way as well. The loss of her only child, she said, has layered grief on top of her own serious health struggles.
Despite all of that, she said that she finally has the measure of justice she had been seeking, knowing that her son's killer has at last been held accountable for his crime. For her, the sentencing marked the end of years of waiting for that accountability.
Members of the family shared photographs of Clinton that had never before been made public, holding tightly to his memory as they spoke about him. They described the day as a deeply emotional one, balancing their grief with a sense that justice had finally been served.