Fulton County Magistrate Judge Karen Woodson. (Courtesy photo)

The Georgia Supreme Court said a Fulton County judge went a bit overboard when she slammed a murder defendant with 13 counts of criminal contempt in response to a "profanity-laced tirade" in her courtroom—one count for each obscene word the man said.

Fulton County Magistrate Judge Karen Woodson—who retired in 2019—sentenced Sylvester Taylor to 230 days in jail, to be served after he either bonded out of jail or his underlying charges, which include murder and attempted rape, are resolved.

The opinion noted that even the prosecution agreed Taylor should not have been sentenced on multiple counts for the 2014 outburst, wrote Justice Sarah Warren in Monday's opinion.

"But here, even assuming that each of the 13 obscene words Taylor uttered during his outburst could warrant a conviction for contempt if used at different times during his criminal proceedings, the same is not true when the words are uttered during one continuous—and very brief—outburst," she said. "Indeed, in similar contexts, we have held that a defendant may not be convicted of two or more counts of the same crime where the evidence shows that the two counts are part of a single incident."

The order vacated the convictions and instructed the trial court to "convict and resentence Taylor for only one instance of contempt."

As detailed in the opinion and appellate briefs, a preliminary hearing before Woodson was concluding when he burst out "I ain't killed that bitch. That bitch killed herself. She committed suicide. Y'all keeping me locked up because that bitch committed suicide."

Woodson said "Wait a minute," but Taylor continued.

"I'm educated. I went to the University of Georgia. I studied motherfucking law. That bitch killed her motherfucking self. You know that. She put the needle in her own motherfucking arm. That bitch committed motherfucking suicide. Y'all going to keep me motherfucking locked up while the bitch committed suicide. Ain't nobody raped that bitch. Nobody hit that bitch. Check this. Ain't nobody say motherfucking nothing to me, man. I ain't tell nobody shit. Y'all can kiss my black ass."

Woodson did not immediately enter a contempt order but deferred action until a hearing nearly a week later.

"The record does not reflect that the appellant was accorded any prior notice of the precise charges," said the brief filed by Taylor's public defender, David Cooper, and Georgia Public Defender Council Appellate Division lawyers James Bonner Jr. and Brandon Bullard.

"The only notice appears in the 9 April 2014 adjudication order itself," the brief said, which cited Taylor "raising his voice loudly in open court" and his "use of no less than thirteen profane or obscene words in the courtroom."

Taylor "was entitled to know that he would be facing jeopardy of 13 or 14 consecutive 20-day terms," his brief said.  

Taylor "disrupted the court once in a single continuous outburst that lasted no more than a minute," it said. "That single outburst framed the appropriate unit of punishment. It was error for the court to sanction [him] multipliciously, imposing cumulative punishments based on the number of vulgar words he used."

A brief submitted by senior assistant Fulton County district attorney Kevin Armstrong reached the same conclusion: "Under the circumstances presented, the state agrees there was only one act of contempt which occurred."

Bullard said he was "gratified that the court granted Mr. Taylor some relief, which, as the state conceded, was consistent with the law: The substance of a contempt is the single continuous act of misbehavior, not every little bothersome thing that someone might have done in the course of that act."

His brief noted that the underlying charges against Taylor have been stayed due to concerns over his mental capacity, and Bullard said he could not discuss the pending case. 

Woodson was forwarded a copy of the opinion, but offered no comment.