Convicted of ’96 kidnapping of UW-L student, La Crosse judge reduces sentence

City’s DA disagreed with the decision.

A convicted kidnapper gets a shorter prison sentence, 20 years after the crime in La Crosse County.

This week, Judge Elliot Levine reduced George Taylor’s prison sentences for kidnapping and sexual assault to a total of 48 years, instead of 65 years.

La Crosse District Attorney Tim Gruenke disagrees with Levine’s decision but the judge ruled that the rumors of other crimes might have influence Taylor’s original sentencing.

That’s why Taylor asked for a reduction, believing that he was sentenced too harshly for the 1996 abduction and assault of a La Crosse college student. 

“It went to trial and the judge gave him a very lengthy sentence, in part, because of the assault but also there was mention at the time of some other cases in other states,” Gruenke said. “Taking into account the new info that he was completely exonerated of cases he was suspected of doing when he was originally sentenced.”

Taylor was doing prison time in Waupun, Wis., for the ’96 kidnapping and raping, when Florida brought the murder charge against him.  

The Florida case was thrown out and eventually, DNA evidence cleared Taylor of the murder but he still felt that rumors of other crimes led a La Crosse judge to give him a longer sentence than he deserved.