Update (July 15, 2021): A case of a former teacher’s aide who was accused of hiring a hitman to kill a student who he allegedly molested, is now set for trial, the Associated Press reports. 

Just two hours before Deonte Taylor was expected to accept a plea deal on July 8, he changed course and is headed to trial. He's charged with felony sodomy, conspiracy to commit murder and recklessly risking the infection of another with HIV. The police discovered that Taylor was HIV-positive in 2019.

Back in 2018, Taylor was charged with three counts of statutory sodomy after police said he took a 7-year-old boy out of class at Lusher Elementary School in the Hazelwood School District and sexually assaulted him. 

According to court documents, the authorities reported that the assault took place in 2015.

KSDK reports that while Taylor was in prison for sexually abusing his student in early 2019, he, along with his boyfriend Michael Johnson, hired a hitman to kill the child and the child's family.

Days before his release from the St. Louis County jail, John White says he was approached by Taylor to pull off the hit.

"He told me that it was a 10-year-old boy and his mother and grandmother and I kind of got interested like 'Are you serious? You want to hurt a baby?'" White explained. 

"The only specific part he asked was that it looked like an accident. Maybe carbon monoxide poisoning. Or either start a fire when everybody was asleep. And try to put it on the kid playing with matches."

After White was released from jail in Feb. 2019, he contacted Johnson and they first met in a parking lot in St. Louis.

"He's just saying 'I appreciate you doing this because Deonte needs to be home' and 'I want my baby home with me,'" White said. "He handed me the $500, he said uh 'I have to hurry up and get back to church because I'm the choir coordinator.'"

White never planned to go through with the job.

"I got a baby that just turned 10. And that's all that was going through my head-this could have been my baby,” he said.

White then contacted prosecutors and became a criminal informant in the case. 

Johnson is also charged in the case, but no trial date has been set.

It’s still not clear why Taylor decided not to accept the plea deal. 

Taylor’s trial will begin on Aug. 9. 

Original (April 19, 2019): A teacher's aide is accused of hiring a hitman to kill a 10-year-old student who he allegedly molested. 

The St. Louis man has been identified as 36-year-old Deonte Taylor, who is HIV-positive. St. Louis Today reports Taylor and his boyfriend, 66-year-old Michael Johnson, appeared in court Wednesday. They pleaded not guilty to allegedly conspiring to kill the child and his mother in an attempt to prevent them from testifying. 

On November 13, 2015, Taylor was working at Lusher Elementary School as a teacher's aide. He purportedly took the student from his class and forced him into another classroom where he abused him.

Evidence revealed Taylor's DNA was found on the boy's clothing and body. Investigators matched Taylor’s DNA to samples found on the student, confirming the worst.

Taylor faces three sodomy charges and has been in jail since November when the charges were first announced. Both men face charges of conspiracy to commit murder and witness tampering.

According to Fox 8, Johnson did not become involved with the case until February. The 66-year-old reportedly hired a hitman after Taylor gave him the order to do so. 

Between February 7 and 26, Johnson decided to go along with the plan concocted while Taylor was behind bars. The duo wanted the mother and son dead to prevent them from making any further revelations.

Johnson was supposed to pay the hitman once the job was complete. Court documents indicate the accomplice made several payments to the hitman, but there is no indication of how many. 

Fox 59 reports charges were filed in 2018 despite the incident occurring in 2015. Before the November 2018 court appearance, Taylor was hired as a fifth-grade teacher working in the Ferguson-Florissant School District. The district learned of the case and fired him immediately.

The student, who is now 10 years old, attends another school.