Missouri Man Sentenced to 40 Years for Killing 23-Year-Old Amazon Driver After Shooting Her and Pulling Her From Delivery Truck

A 23-year-old Amazon delivery driver was simply doing her job when a routine delivery route turned into a deadly encounter on a rural Missouri road. Jasmine Sky Taylor was shot in the head with a pellet rifle while driving her delivery vehicle on February 5, 2025. The man responsible, Thomas Coy, later admitted to shooting her, removing her from the vehicle and leaving her in a roadside ditch. On November 2, 2026, Coy was sentenced to 40 years in prison after pleading guilty to second-degree murder and armed criminal action.

The shooting happened shortly before 4 p.m. along Lawrence County Road 2152, near Wentworth, Missouri. According to investigators, Taylor was driving her Amazon delivery vehicle when she approached the area near Coy’s home. Video footage from inside the vehicle reportedly showed her suddenly slumping forward in the driver’s seat as the truck continued down the road, eventually leaving the roadway and crashing into a fence. At first, the incident appeared to be a traffic accident. Taylor was taken to Mercy Hospital in Joplin, where medical staff later discovered a projectile lodged in her head and notified law enforcement.

As investigators pieced together what had happened, they reviewed the vehicle’s camera footage and questioned Coy. According to a probable cause affidavit, he confessed to shooting Taylor with a pellet rifle. He also admitted that after the vehicle crashed, he approached it, removed Taylor from the driver’s seat and placed her in a roadside ditch. Authorities said the shooting was not a robbery, and investigators indicated they had established a motive, but they did not publicly disclose the specific reason behind the attack. Neighbors reportedly told local media that Coy had previously complained about delivery vehicles traveling too fast along the road, although officials did not confirm that this was the motive for the shooting.

Taylor survived the initial incident and was transported to the hospital, where she remained under medical care for four days. She died on February 9, 2025, from her injuries. Her death devastated the people who knew her and raised disturbing questions about how someone could attack a stranger who was simply carrying out her work. The case also highlighted the dangers delivery drivers can face while traveling through unfamiliar neighborhoods and rural roads, often working alone and making frequent stops throughout the day.

Coy, who was 64 or 66 according to differing published reports, pleaded guilty in September 2026 to second-degree murder and armed criminal action. The guilty plea meant the case did not proceed to a full trial. At sentencing on November 2, a judge imposed a 40-year prison term. The sentence brings a major legal chapter to a close, although it cannot undo the loss suffered by Taylor’s family. Investigators’ account of Coy’s actions, including his admission that he removed her from the truck, made the circumstances of the killing particularly disturbing.

Jasmine Taylor was only 23 years old. She had been working as an Amazon delivery driver when her life was taken during an ordinary afternoon on the road. Her death was not the result of a traffic accident, as the scene initially appeared to suggest, but a shooting that investigators traced back to a man living nearby. With Coy now sentenced to four decades behind bars, Taylor’s loved ones are left to remember a young woman whose future was taken away while she was simply trying to earn a living.

Source: PEOPLE