A man who attempted to carjack a car and subsequently tried to have a witness killed pled guilty on March 7, 2022, in federal court in Cedar Rapids.
Christopher Daniel Taylor, age 39, from Cedar Rapids, Iowa, was convicted of attempted carjacking, using and carrying a firearm during and in relation to a crime of violence, and attempted witness tampering.
At the plea hearing, Taylor admitted that on December 3, 2020, he attempted to take a car from another person in Cedar Rapids. During the attempted carjacking, he displayed a firearm. He subsequently attempted to have a witness killed to prevent the witness from testifying or otherwise communicating information about his federal offenses to law enforcement.
Sentencing before United States District Court Judge C.J. Williams will be set after a presentence report is prepared. Taylor remains in custody of the United States Marshal pending sentencing. Taylor faces a mandatory minimum sentence of 7 years’ imprisonment and a possible maximum sentence of life imprisonment, a $750,000 fine, and 5 years of supervised release following any imprisonment.
The case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Kyndra Lundquist and was investigated by the Marion Police Department, the Cedar Rapids Police Department, and the Cedar Rapids Safe Streets Task Force. The task force is composed of representatives from the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Cedar Rapids Police Department.
Court file information at https://ecf.iand.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/login.pl.
The case file number is 21-CR-0016.
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