'Just like throwing trash out': Young mother pushed out of car onto highway and shot by man she met on dating app

Nathaniel Taylor, right, learned his fate in the death of Taya Land, left. (Taylor’s mug shot from Macomb County Prosecutor’s Office; Victim’s photo from GoFundMe)

A 22-year-old Michigan man who shot and killed a teen mother and left her on a highway shoulder after the two met on a dating app was sentenced to 17 to 50 years in prison.

Nathaniel Taylor learned his fate on Wednesday in the death of 17-year-old Taya Land, prosecutors announced in a news release .

Taylor pleaded no contest in April to one count of second-degree murder and one count of felony firearm, prosecutors said.

“This sentence ensures the defendant is held accountable for this senseless loss of life,” said Macomb County Prosecutor Peter J. Lucido in a statement. “I hope this will bring some closure to the family who have suffered a great tragedy.”

Prosecutors said Taylor met with Land on Oct. 14, 2022, and they got into an argument before Taylor pushed her out of his vehicle and shot her three times in the head with a 9 mm gun, officials said. Police found her body at 3:45 that morning on I-94 near 8 Mile Road in St. Clair Shores.

“Just like throwing trash out, but she wasn’t trash,” her cousin Shunice Spearman told Detroit’s Fox affiliate WJBK at the time. “A person doesn’t deserve to be killed. No matter what.”

Taylor was arrested days later, on Oct. 19. Police said they tracked him down through cellphone data, Detroit NBC affiliate WDIV reported.

Detective Jeffrey Rodgers of the Michigan State Police testified that Taylor told him after his arrest he met her on the Tagged app and she “hit him up” for marijuana, the Macomb Daily reported.

He picked her up. They drove to a Home Depot parking lot and smoked pot and engaged in sexual activities, the newspaper reported. But then she started “freaking out,” the news site reported the detective saying Taylor told him.

“He said his gun was on his hip, and she saw it and went for it, and a struggle ensued — he said several times they were wrestling — and the gun went off two or three times,” said Rodgers. “He told me he got back into his vehicle and left the scene and that he threw her cellphone, purse and pants out the window of his car.”

Family members said Land was mature for her age and doted on her then-1-year-old daughter.

“We had to teach her to grow up a little faster than everyone else due to her being a young parent,” Land’s sister Dazshanay Bridget told Detroit ABC affiliate WXYZ . “But she took joy and pride in her child, she loved her baby.”

The post ‘Just like throwing trash out’: Young mother pushed out of car onto highway and shot by man she met on dating app first appeared on Law & Crime .