Taylor Santiago (Lawrence County Sheriff’s Office).
A mom from Missouri who tried gunning down the fathers of her children — one of whom she killed — in a multistate shooting spree earlier this year will spend the rest of her life in prison after being sentenced Tuesday.
Taylor Santiago, 31, of Aurora, pleaded guilty in April to charges of first-degree murder, robbery, unlawful use of a weapon and endangering the welfare of a child in connection to the Jan. 23 attacks and slayings, which were investigated and reported by the Aurora-Marionville Police Department in Missouri and the Carroll County Sheriff’s Office in Arkansas.
Santiago confessed to shooting the fathers of her children and a woman who was dating one of them, who also died.
“At approximately 1:45 a.m., Taylor Santiago arrived at the Aurora Police and Fire Facility and called from the parking lot, reporting that she had just murdered her estranged husband, Troy Huffman, at her residence,” police officials alleged in a Jan. 24 press release. “Officers immediately took Ms. Santiago into custody and responded to her apartment, where they located a deceased male identified as Troy Huffman.”
While in custody, Santiago confessed to driving to Arkansas earlier in the day to shoot the other biological father of her children and a woman who was dating the man, per Wichita, Kansas, NBC affiliate KSN. She turned herself in after arriving back in Missouri following the double shooting, officials say.
Santiago told an AMPD detective during her police interview that she invited Huffman over to her apartment to see their son before he was killed. Santiago said that when he arrived, she told the child she was going to “take care of the bad guys” and had the youngster cover their ears. Santiago pulled out a .38 revolver and hid it behind her back before walking into a room where Huffman was and killing him, according to the Lawrence County Record.
Aurora Police Chief Wes Coatney told Springfield, Missouri, NBC affiliate KYTV he believed the overall motive for the shooting spree was related to custody issues between Santiago and the two male victims. Coatney said it was unclear why Santiago drove back to Aurora to turn herself in.
“I don’t know the answer to that,” he told KYTV. “I’m glad she did (turn herself in). I wish she would’ve come to us before she did all of this so we could’ve helped her.”
Santiago was living in an apartment building in Aurora at the time of the shootings, according to police officials. Her neighbor’s daughter was home at the time of the Huffman attack and described what she heard to her mother.
“This is really sad to happen right next door,” neighbor Karla Rodgers told KYTV. “She did hear some banging on the bathroom walls.”
Santiago’s endangerment charge stemmed from her daughter being present during the shooting in Arkansas. That incident left the father of Santiago’s daughter critically injured, while the child was unharmed.
“At first, she was very nice,” Rodgers said about Santiago, who allegedly threatened the neighbor last year. “I don’t know if something happened. I believe she had gotten into drugs.”
