COLUMBIA, S.C. — It was an unexpected conclusion to the murder trial of Taylor Wardlaw, as the Columbia woman pleaded guilty to killing her boyfriend moments before her trial was set to start.
On what was intended to be the trial's first day, Wardlaw, 31, decided to change to a plea. Led into court in restraints, she admitted guilt to the charge of killing her boyfriend, 26-year-old Terrell Sims.
After the plea had been entered, the judge sentenced Wardlaw to 20 years in prison.
On December 22, 2021, Wardlaw reported her boyfriend missing to the police. Eight days later, Terrell Sims' body was discovered in a bag near a creek on Monticello Road in Richland County.
"I felt she should have gotten more," remarked Terrell's sister, Rose Sims, after the trial. "I wish she got life to tell you the truth, about what she did."
Rose Sims believes the sentence is insufficient, considering the impact on her family and the absence left in Terrell's children's lives.
"They still be asking where their daddy is. And it's kind of hard to sit down and explain to them their daddy's gone. You can tell them that all you want, but for a 3-year-old and a 4-year-old, they are not going to understand," Rose said.
Wardlaw ultimately pleaded guilty to first-degree murder and possession of a firearm during a violent crime.
"My brother was trying to leave her, he didn't want to be with her anymore and she just couldn't accept it," Rose said.
Although the outcome was not what Rose wanted, she expressed a willingness to forgive.
"Nobody is perfect, and I'm not saying she's a bad person because she really wasn't, but it was what she did and what she done," Rose said. "It was the after-effect of what she did to my brother's body and what she did to him and then try to lie and tell different lies that weren't true."