Breonna Taylor's ex-boyfriend sentenced to probation in various drug cases

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Breonna Taylor's ex-boyfriend Jamarcus Glover, the target of a narcotics investigation that led police to Taylor's apartment the night she was killed last year, has been given probation in a move that wraps up his criminal cases in Jefferson County.

Glover, 31, will serve out five years of probation in his home state of Mississippi, if officials agree to his supervision, two Jefferson Circuit Court judges ordered during sentencing hearings Tuesday and Thursday.

Glover otherwise will be on home incarceration in Louisville for up to 120 days until his possible move to Montgomery County, Mississippi, and he can't possess any guns.

His attorney, Paul Mullins, did not immediately respond Thursday to a request for comment.

Prosecutors with the office of Jefferson Commonwealth's Attorney Tom Wine had offered Glover a deal, which he accepted in October, that had him plead guilty to a string of charges mostly related to cocaine trafficking and possession and serve probation instead of an eight-year prison sentence.

Judge Mitch Perry approved the plea agreement and five-year probation sentence Tuesday on two counts of cocaine possession and one count of drug trafficking, while Judge Olu Stevens handled Thursday's sentencing hearing on an additional cocaine possession charge.

The commonwealth had "no objection" to Glover serving probation in Mississippi, First Assistant Commonwealth's Attorney Erwin Roberts previously said.

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Glover, a previously convicted drug trafficker, had other charges in the cases that went back a few years related to marijuana, meth and opiate trafficking as well as engaging in organized crime, but they were dismissed as part of the plea deal.

Police showed up at Taylor's home on March 13, 2020, because they believed Glover was holding cash and drugs at her home. He was one of several people arrested in a narcotics investigation focused on several vacant Elliott Avenue properties about 10 miles away from Taylor's home in Louisville's South End.

Jamarcus Glover
Jamarcus Glover

Three LMPD officers opened fire during the raid at Taylor's home after her boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, fired a shot that struck one of the officers. Walker later said he thought intruders were at the door and never heard police announce themselves.

Taylor was fatally struck by the gunfire from the LMPD officers and bled to death in her hallway.

She was 26 years old, and the Black woman's death — along with the murders of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery and other Black citizens — sparked months of daily protests against racism and police brutality in Louisville and other cities.

The search warrant for Taylor's apartment on Springfield Drive in the South End cited a trip Glover made there in January 2020 and how he left with a "suspected USPS package" and drove to a "known drug house."

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But the LMPD detective behind the warrant, Joshua Jaynes, also wrote he had verified through a U.S. Postal Service inspector that Glover received packages at her home — which turned out to be untrue.

Then-interim police Chief Yvette Gentry fired Jaynes at the start of this year for violating department policy on truthfulness, though Jaynes is appealing his termination in Jefferson Circuit Court.

Glover previously told The Courier Journal in an exclusive interview Taylor had no involvement with any illegal drug trafficking and the information in the search warrant was misleading and wrong.

No drugs were ever found in Taylor's apartment.

The house on Elliott Avenue in Louisville's Russell neighborhood, where Jamarcus Glover claims he was forced out by the city as part of a plan to gentrify the neighborhood. July 6, 2020
The house on Elliott Avenue in Louisville's Russell neighborhood, where Jamarcus Glover claims he was forced out by the city as part of a plan to gentrify the neighborhood. July 6, 2020

None of the three officers who opened fire during the raid at Taylor's home remain on the force.

Sgt. Jonathan Mattingly, who was shot in the thigh, retired from LMPD earlier this year.

Myles Cosgrove, whom the FBI concluded fired the fatal shot that killed Taylor, and Brett Hankison were fired for their actions that night.

Hankison was the only officer indicted by a grand jury last fall and faces wanton endangerment charges in a pending criminal case for bullets he fired into a neighboring occupied apartment.

No one has been directly charged for Taylor's death, with an FBI investigation into the case ongoing.

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Sam Aguiar, who has represented Taylor's family in lawsuits against LMPD, told The Courier Journal in October his "gut reaction was that the last thing the administration needed was for (Glover's) case to go to trial."

"It would’ve shed more light on the PBI operation and how ridiculous it was," Aguiar previously said, referring to the Place-Based Investigations unit that came under scrutiny in the months after Taylor's death for its narcotics-related work.

"It would’ve opened the door to how the detectives lied on more search warrants. It would’ve opened the door to so much more too."

Glover had been out of jail while awaiting sentencing, though he was arrested last August on charges of drug trafficking and participating in a criminal syndicate, with his attorney saying at the start of this year he had been in solitary confinement for several months.

After he was arrested, Glover said he turned down an offer from Louisville prosecutors to plead guilty and serve 10 years in prison if he would acknowledge Taylor was part of a criminal organization.

Reach Billy Kobin at bkobin@courierjournal.com.

Correction: This story has been updated because an earlier version misstated the area of town where Breonna Taylor's apartment was located.

This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: Breonna Taylor case: Ex-boyfriend Jamarcus Glover gets probation