It is been many years since Reginald Reed Jr., referred to as Reggie, final noticed his mom Selonia Reed.
Reggie Reed: After my mom used to be murdered, issues moved speedy … I could not in point of fact perceive, like, why would anyone kill her? Like, what did she do?
Reggie Reed: I think like I ignored out on an enormous a part of lifestyles that I’m going to by no means get again.
Reggie used to be handiest 6 years previous on Aug. 22, 1987. Some of the final issues he recollects is his mom purchasing him a chocolate chip cookie on the Hammond Sq. Mall in Louisiana. He advised police his mom kissed him when she left the home later that evening however the remainder, he says, is a blur.
Vladimir Duthiers | “48 Hours” contributor: While you consider that … what does that really feel like?
Reggie Reed: After I consider … how my mom’s lifestyles used to be shortened and the way my revel in used to be shortened, I think empty …
Vladimir Duthiers: If anyone says to you who used to be … Selonia, what do you are saying?
Reggie Reed: If anyone asks me who’s Selonia, I might say you are looking at her. (Emotional, takes to the air his glasses.) As a result of, in line with the outline, the reminiscences and what issues other people have shared, after I glance within the replicate, I see my mom.
Reggie’s reminiscences are on the middle of the memoir he is written about his mom’s homicide, “The Day My Mom By no means Got here House.”
Reggie Reed (studying from e-book): Inside of those pages, you’re going to to find the reminiscences of a 6-year-old boy whose mom used to be murdered … A fifteen-year-old younger guy looking for his position on the planet with out the steering and encouragement of his mom …
Reggie Reed: … the evening my mom went out and not got here house, lifestyles for me and my father mainly flipped the other way up.
Charles Muse, now retired, used to be the police officer who discovered Selonia’s frame after taking the preliminary lacking particular person’s document from her husband, Reginald Reed.
Charles Muse: Selonia’s frame … used to be in between the bucket seats of the auto together with her torso over into the backseat of the auto.
Lt. Barry Ward: She had 16 pinpoint-like stab wounds in her higher torso, shoulder, and neck … Her shirt have been torn off … Her pants have been got rid of from her. She have been sexually assaulted as smartly.
WHO MURDERED SELONIA REED?
Louisiana State Police Lt. Barry Ward would in the end be assigned to the case years later. He used to be handiest 16 years previous when Selonia used to be murdered.
Hammond Police Division 
Barry Ward: In 1987, I used to be a sophomore in Marshall County Top College in Western Kentucky.
When he in the end did select up the case record, he took be aware of the loss of blood within the automobile.
Lt. Barry Ward: It could counsel that she used to be murdered in every other location … after which … transported to the place her frame used to be later found out on the John’s Curb Marketplace.
That marketplace used to be about one-and-a-half miles from the Reed space on Apple Boulevard. On the scene, Muse spotted one thing else about Selonia’s bare frame.
Charles Muse: I did see a substance, uh, that have been positioned at the frame. … it used to be a … white liquid-type substance … on her torso and abdomen space.
Police believed the white lotion will have spelled out a phrase, however, if there used to be a message, it had change into illegible within the Louisiana warmth.
Lt. Barry Ward: The home windows have been rolled up. It used to be August on the time … it used to be very popular out.
Detectives bagged any possible proof, together with the butt of a cigarette — a Winston cigarette.
POLICE CHIEF (1987 video): Take particular care of that.
Police canvassed the world, however Ward says they did not to find any eyewitnesses or a homicide weapon.
Lt. Barry Ward: The next day on Monday the twenty fourth, a neighbor … went to his mailbox and found out a crucifix and a screwdriver …
Given the character of Selonia’s accidents, police in the beginning believed the screwdriver could be the homicide weapon despite the fact that it had no visual blood on it. It used to be early within the investigation and detectives checked out the entire angles, together with Selonia’s process at Voters Nationwide Financial institution.
Lt. Barry Ward: She used to be a teller within the industrial segment … She used to be described as being well mannered, type, had a pleasing smile.
Reggie Reed Jr. 
Selonia and Reginald, who used to be a Marine and later a automobile salesman, met right through their highschool years. Selonia used to be recognized for being dedicated to little Reggie, as everybody known as him. However the evening she disappeared, she left the 6-year-old at house together with his father, in keeping with what Reginald advised police.
Lt. Barry Ward: He and his son, Reginald Jr., have been gonna keep and play videogames whilst she went out to a neighborhood bar together with her female friend.
Officer Muse interviewed that good friend who denied she and Selonia had plans that evening. Reginald advised police he suspected Selonia had a “boyfriend” and admitted he and his spouse had “non-public variations.” However Ward says the police discovered no proof of an affair.
Lt. Barry Ward: In response to … the analysis that I had carried out, her co-workers, the folk that knew her, mentioned that she simply went to paintings and got here house … that she used to be all the time observed together with her little boy.
The day after her frame used to be discovered, investigators searched the circle of relatives house on Apple Boulevard.
Lt. Barry Ward: The executive of police mentioned that … when he went in … it smelled like bleach in the home.
Detectives seemed for proof that Selonia will have been killed there, however all they discovered used to be a freshly vacuumed carpet and the gold clasp of a necklace.
Reginald gave investigators permission to interview little Reggie, the one different particular person in the house the evening of the homicide. In police video, a detective questions Reggie as his father fidgets with a bean bag supposed for his son.
POLICE OFFICER: Inform me what you take into account about that evening.
Reggie become his father’s alibi. The boy mentioned he and his father performed videogames after which slept in combination in the similar settee mattress on that August evening.
POLICE OFFICER: Did anyone come over? Did anyone go away?
REGGIE REED JR.: (shakes head his head “no.”)
POLICE OFFICER: Everyone stayed house that evening?
REGGIE REED JR.: (nods his head “sure.”)
Louisiana State Police 
When Reggie is of the same opinion that “everyone stayed house,” his father seems at him.
REGINALD REED SR.: Everyone?
POLICE OFFICER: Everyone stayed house that evening?
REGINALD REED SR.: Do not be afraid, this — you recognize, she talks to you.
POLICE OFFICER: Do not — do not — do not be afraid.
REGINALD REED SR.: This – we simply talkin’
REGGIE REED: I do not need to communicate not more.
REGINALD REED SR.: She — she needs to invite you a couple of extra questions.
POLICE OFFICER: You alright? What is the subject child?
REGINALD REED SR.: He mentioned he do not wanna communicate not more.
POLICE OFFICER: Oh, you do not wanna communicate not more?
REGINALD REED SR.: He is simply emotional.
POLICE OFFICER: Yeah.
REGINALD REED SR.: It all.
POLICE OFFICER: OK. That is alright. Glance.
POLICE OFFICER: Did not I inform you earlier than that I am — I am your good friend?
REGGIE REED JR.: I would like my daddy.
POLICE OFFICER: Oh, he is right here child.
REGGIE REED JR.: I do not need to communicate. (cries)
POLICE OFFICER: OK, darling. I would possibly not communicate not more. You do not have to.
Vladimir Duthiers: I simply can’t consider what it is like as a 6-year-old to have to sit down there and —
Reggie Reed: Having a look at that, it is nonetheless laborious to imagine that that is me … gazing that video simply brings again so … such a lot of questions and — and ache as a result of … I see me crying.
Within the aftermath of Selonia’s homicide, her circle of relatives got here ahead with additional info — a few of it directed at considered one of Reginald’s buddies, Jimmy Ray Barnes. Seems Barnes smoked Winston cigarettes — the similar emblem present in Selonia’s automobile. And Selonia’s sister Gwen Smith mentioned that Selonia didn’t like Jimmy Ray.
Gwen Smith: And it sounds as if she knew Jimmy Ray’s voice ‘reason she began screaming … “come within. I do not believe him.” So she used to be fearful of him …
SELONIA REED’S RELATIVES TELL POLICE ABOUT CLOSE FRIEND OF VICTIM’S HUSBAND
Within the days after Selonia Reed’s homicide, there used to be one title police stored listening to: Jimmy Ray Barnes, a chum of Reginald Reed Sr.
Lt. Barry Ward: Jimmy Ray Barnes used to be an acquaintance of Reginald Reed. … He frolicked with him. He labored with him.
Ward discovered a couple of anxious incident at a neighborhood seashore the place Selonia used to be swimming with little Reggie simply days earlier than the homicide.
Lt. Barry Ward: They have been on inside tubes … Jimmy flipped Selonia … over … She did not really feel that it used to be a playful factor. She felt that it used to be, uh, planned and intentional. Uh, she used to be now not a excellent swimmer and, uh, she mentioned she struggled to make it to the … financial institution.
The following evening, her sister Gwen mentioned Selonia become nervous when a relative who used to be visiting Selonia noticed Jimmy Ray Barnes close to her house.
Gwen Smith: And she or he mentioned … Selonia … went into hysterics. … Like no, no … Do not move available in the market. Do not move available in the market.
Lt. Barry Ward: And inside of a couple of moments, Jimmy Ray Barnes walked across the nook of the home … Jimmy advised her that he used to be checking on Selonia … and he or she ran him off.
Ward would be told that Barnes, at the side of Reginald, got here underneath much more scrutiny two days after the homicide. A witness got here ahead to mention she had observed two males round John’s Curb Marketplace at the evening Selonia used to be murdered.
Lt. Barry Ward: She become suspicious and … later wrote down on a work of scrap paper, the registration code. … Because it seems … that used to be the automobile that Reginald Reed used to be recognized to, um, function in. That used to be his automobile.
Hammond Police Division 
Some two weeks later, police assembled a photograph array and confirmed it to the witness.
Lt. Barry Ward: The witness recognized the motive force as Reginald Reed and the passenger as Jimmy Ray Barnes.
Barnes used to be given a polygraph check and police on the time mentioned he handed. But it surely wasn’t lengthy earlier than Jimmy Ray left Hammond.
Reginald denied having anything else to do with Selonia’s homicide. However neighbors advised police the wedding used to be bothered. Members of the family say Selonia had accused her husband of bodily abuse and there used to be communicate of divorce. The police persevered investigating however prosecutors by no means introduced the case to a grand jury.
Lt. Barry Ward: There is a large number of circumstantial proof in 1987 that pointed to Reginald Reed and Jimmy Ray Barnes. … so far as a — a smoking gun … it – it — it used to be now not there at the moment.
Gwen Smith: I began feeling like not anything used to be gonna be performed about her homicide, and we might now not get justice.
Time handed, and Reginald persevered to are living in Hammond. He even ran for mayor in 1998.
He misplaced that race, however he and little Reggie stayed within the circle of relatives house which nowadays has fallen into disrepair.
Reggie Reed (within his former house): So that is it.
Vladimir Duthiers: What is it like so that you can simply come again right here? I do know you do not love to, however what does it really feel like?
Reggie Reed: I think numb. Yeah, I think numb … That is the place it began. You recognize, that is the halls I used to run. … That is the TV room. This used to be the TV room …
Vladimir Duthiers: While you have been taking part in Nintendo along with your father … the evening that your mom used to be murdered, used to be that right here?
Reggie Reed: That used to be on this room.
Reggie went on to wait school and later were given an MBA. He moved out of Hammond and started running for a pharmaceutical corporate. There have been no new traits on his mom’s homicide till 2011 when Lt. Barry Ward of the Louisiana State Police were given concerned.
Lt. Barry Ward: When I began interacting with Selonia’s circle of relatives, her sisters, I spotted how necessary it used to be.
Gwen Smith: … earlier than Barry Ward got here into … the image … I simply felt like … no one cared about Selonia’s case.
Lt. Barry Ward: This used to be simply the final alternative I felt earlier than extra witnesses kicked the bucket … that we’d have an opportunity to search out justice for this horrible crime that came about to Selonia.
Tangipahoa Parish DA’s Workplace 
So far as Ward may just resolve, the crucifix and screwdriver discovered inside of days of the homicide led nowhere. However the detective used to be interested in a number of lifestyles insurance coverage insurance policies Reginald had taken out on Selonia that paid out greater than $700,000. A few of the ones insurance policies have been taken out the similar month that Selonia used to be murdered.
Ward sought after to reinterview Reggie Jr. in 2012. Reggie used to be 31 years previous and dwelling in Texas. Ward despatched a Texas Ranger to start the wondering.
Reggie Reed: … he advised me why he used to be right here, and it used to be to … speak about … my mom’s homicide.
And the Ranger then advised Reggie one thing he mentioned he’d by no means heard earlier than.
Lt. Barry Ward: He used to be now not conscious that his father used to be a suspect within the homicide of his mom.
Reggie Reed: However I used to be like, the place’s this coming from? Like, it is been over 3 many years … You are speaking about my dad like killed my mother, like, significantly … I take into account asking, “is there any new proof that used to be surfaced?” … And it used to be not anything new.
It is true that the insurance coverage insurance policies have been found out by means of the unique detectives, however Ward had arranged them in some way that he felt used to be damning. The Texas Ranger requested Reggie about the ones insurance policies.
Reggie Reed: He confirmed me a graph, a timeline … it confirmed every insurance plans that have been taken out with reference to her loss of life.
Vladimir Duthiers: Did you unexpectedly say, I wish to resolve this or what?
Reggie Reed: It used to be eye-opening … reason I am like, smartly, that does not glance excellent … I were given to be told what, like what is all this?
Reggie struggled to make sense of all of it.
Reggie Reed: I did communicate to my dad about it over the telephone, and his reaction used to be … he — he took out insurance policies on everybody.
Reggie mentioned he reveals it laborious to sq. what the investigation printed with the loving father who raised him.
Reggie Reed: I glance again, I am like, guy, he in point of fact — he in point of fact did do a little nice stuff for me. He used to be an excellent supplier.
Tangipahoa Parish DA’s Workplace 
Ward took a deep dive into the case record and taken with that Winston cigarette butt present in Selonia’s automobile. He despatched it out for DNA checking out, one thing that used to be now not broadly to be had in 1987. There used to be a fit within the nationwide crime DNA database CODIS, however to not Jimmy Ray.
Barry Ward: It got here again to … a person by means of the title of Billy Ray Barnes.
Billy Ray used to be Jimmy Ray’s an identical dual brother, and the DNA manager had every other wonder.
Barry Ward: He let me know that an identical twins proportion an identical DNA.
Ward determined he needed to interview Jimmy Ray and it grew to become out that Jimmy Ray have been preserving onto some key data a lot of these years.
Barry Ward: Jimmy Ray Barnes did inform me … that Reginald Reed introduced him $50,000 to, quote-unquote, knock off his spouse.
NEW EVIDENCE HEATS UP A DECADES-OLD COLD CASE
In July 2012, Lt. Barry Ward went at the hunt for Jimmy Ray Barnes, who had change into a primary suspect within the Selonia Reed homicide case after his DNA used to be connected to the crime scene.
Ward discovered Jimmy Ray Barnes within the Atlanta space the place he mentioned Jimmy Ray advised him he’d fled Hammond as a result of he used to be terrified of Reginald Reed. Jimmy Ray Barnes mentioned again then, he’d been shot at 3 times and hit as soon as within the neck. He suspected the shooter used to be Reginald Sr. however had no evidence.
Lt. Barry Ward: Jimmy mentioned he used to be recognized to hold a gun. However you speedy ahead … 25, now 30 years … Reginald Reed used to be now an previous guy.
Barnes used to be able to speak about Reed with out a legal professional.
JIMMY RAY BARNES: I ain’t were given not anything to cover.
Reggie Reed Jr. 
Barnes advised Ward that a couple of days earlier than Selonia used to be killed, Reginald Reed requested him if he would “knock off his spouse.”
LT. BARRY WARD: Reginald requested you in case you would—
JIMMY RAY BARNES: Yeah.
LT. BARRY WARD: — quote, by means of your phrases, “knock off his spouse.”
JIMMY RAY BARNES: Proper. Proper.
LT. BARRY WARD: That imply — you took that to imply to kill her, to homicide her?
JIMMY RAY BARNES: Proper. Proper.
LT. BARRY WARD: What used to be your reaction to that?
JIMMY RAY BARNES: Hell, no.
LT. BARRY WARD: Did he speak about any cash with you?
JIMMY RAY BARNES: Yeah, he has. He mentioned cash.
Ward pressed Barnes to inform him what quantity of money.
LT. BARRY WARD: Greater than $5,000?
JIMMY RAY BARNES: Yeah.
BARRY WARD: Greater than $10,000?
JIMMY RAY BARNES: Yeah.
BARRY WARD: Greater than $50,000?
JIMMY RAY BARNES: $50,000.
BARRY WARD: He introduced you $50,000?
JIMMY RAY BARNES: Yeah.
BARRY WARD: … is {that a} bet or is that the quantity he introduced?
JIMMY RAY BARNES: That used to be the quantity he introduced.
However Barnes advised Ward that he would now not repeat the tale in courtroom.
JIMMY RAY BARNES: … I do not believe the legislation not more.
Ward faced Barnes about that polygraph check from the unique case record. Barnes allegedly had handed that polygraph, however Ward suspected Jimmy Ray secretly had requested his an identical dual Billy Ray to take that check.
LT. BARRY WARD: I talked to Billy … and he mentioned he took that polygraph check … And if Billy gave the impression of you and used to be puzzled over a homicide that you just took phase in and he does not know anything else about it, he is most certainly going to move that polygraph check. Would that be truthful to mention?
JIMMY RAY BARNES: I have no idea. I am not going to reply to that reason I — I do know I am the one that took the polygraph check.
Ward believed he had a forged case to in spite of everything convey fees. He had Jimmy Ray’s DNA hooked up to the crime scene and his videotaped commentary about Reginald providing him $50,000 to kill Selonia. However, Ward mentioned, prosecutors all the time sought after extra.
Lt. Barry Ward: I might get telephone calls over time from … prosecutors … who had requested me to reinterview members of the family … to find out additional info, check extra proof … it used to be busy paintings.
Then, in 2018, a newly employed prosecutor, Taylor Anthony, were given assigned the case.
Vladimir Duthiers: Why reopen a 35-year-old case? What used to be the cause?
Taylor Anthony: Neatly, why reopen it? It is a fascinating query … this used to be a case to me immediately after I checked out it … that there used to be a tale to learn.
Anthony used to be inspired by means of the entire investigative paintings performed by means of Ward, so he reached out, however Ward advised Anthony he used to be too busy and that he felt he’d been let down by means of different prosecutors.
Lt. Barry Ward: My preliminary reaction used to be to only get this man off the telephone.
Taylor Anthony: He mentioned, glance, I have already poured loads of guy hours into that case … and y’all, did not do anything else and … He mentioned … You are wasting precious time, child … have a pleasing lifestyles, mainly.
However Anthony used to be undeterred and promised Ward that, this time, issues could be other.
Lt. Barry Ward: I feel he noticed what I noticed … I feel that made the entire distinction on the planet …
Like Ward, Anthony used to be certain Jimmy Ray Barnes knew much more, so he and Ward took a street shuttle to Atlanta.
Lt. Barry Ward: And we have been in a position to find Jimmy. He used to be staying in a camper at his employer’s position.
Lt. Barry Ward: We pulled up early within the morning when the solar used to be arising and he used to be popping out of this camper … placing a belt in his pants. … And he mentioned, uh, whats up, “who y’all in search of?” … I mentioned, “you, Jimmy.” And he is going, “Oh, you, once more.”
However this time the brand new prosecutor had with him an settlement, licensed by means of a pass judgement on, giving Barnes whole immunity if he testified to the entirety he knew about Selonia’s homicide.
Vladimir Duthiers: So that you could the layperson, you introduced him a deal?
Taylor Anthony: So, I introduced him what I might say will be the golden price tag.
However Barnes rejected the be offering.
Taylor Anthony: He didn’t believe me. He didn’t imagine me. He didn’t need to communicate to us.
Ward and Anthony have been about to force again to Louisiana when Barnes mentioned one thing that took them by means of wonder.
Taylor Anthony: … as Barry and I have been … getting again within the automobile, Jimmy Ray Barnes came around to us and he mentioned, I would like you boys to grasp that I am the important thing to all of it. And he mentioned … in case you suppose you’ll be able to indict me for homicide, then do it.
Anthony used to be fast to take him up on that problem.
Lt. Barry Ward: A few weeks later … a grand jury in Tangipahoa Parish returned second-degree homicide indictments for each Reginald Reed and Jimmy Ray Barnes. … in an instant … we went to Reginald’s house … I knocked at the door, recognized who I used to be and that I had an arrest warrant for him for the homicide of his spouse … He … in point of fact had no emotion.
Louisiana State Police 
The date used to be June 21, 2019, greater than 30 years after Selonia’s homicide.
Gwen Smith: … when Reginald used to be arrested … it used to be like, it used to be like a burden simply were given my chest, like a burden used to be lifted off.
Reggie Reed: I were given a choice … that my father used to be indicted for second-degree homicide and conspiracy, at the side of a co-defendant for my mom’s homicide.
Reggie Reed Jr. 
Reggie Jr. publish his father’s $250,000 bail bond.
Reggie Reed: … my dad being my rock for such a lot of years, I felt the will to check out to assist him.
Vladimir Duthiers: Now that you’re each adults … did you ever ask him the ones questions that you’ve that you are wondering even now as we take a seat right here?
Reggie Reed: Yeah. I requested him — I requested him. And he — he — he maintains his innocence.
Sitting in every other Hammond prison mobile used to be Jimmy Ray Barnes. He now had a legal professional and requested to talk with Det. Barry Ward and Taylor Anthony.
Taylor Anthony: So, Barry and I went and met with him once more. … And in trade for him telling us the entirety he knew … he used to be introduced a deal to plead to accent after the truth to homicide and used to be given a five-year jail sentence.
The murder trial of Reginald Reed Sr. used to be scheduled for November 2022 and Jimmy Ray Barnes had agreed to testify. Reggie was hoping to listen to never-before-revealed main points of what had came about to his mom.
Reggie Reed: I need to know what came about.
WHY WAS SELONIA REED MURDERED?
In November 2022, the homicide trial of Reginald Reed Sr. started in Amite, Louisiana. He used to be represented by means of the mummy and daughter protection group of Vanessa Williams and LaToia Williams-Simon.
Vladimir Duthiers: What makes you suppose … that he didn’t homicide Selonia?
LaToia Williams-Simon: Their complete case is circumstantial.
Williams-Simon says the state’s case used to be vulnerable: there used to be no homicide weapon, no fingerprints or DNA tying Reed to Selonia’s murder.
LaToia Williams-Simon: I used to be at a loss for words as to how they have been in point of fact gonna turn out their case. … There is no direct proof.
Hammond Police Division 
However prosecutor Taylor Anthony believed his prosecution would ship justice to Selonia.
Taylor Anthony: The explanation I become a prosecutor is to struggle for other people like this … I see a girl … whose frame has been desecrated, violated, mutilated, and no one spoke up for her and fought for her. And there’s a quote that I really like, and it is going … “The useless can not cry out for justice. It’s the accountability of the dwelling to take action for them.” … And that is the reason my process.
Anthony advised jurors concerning the $700,000 from the insurance coverage insurance policies on Selonia’s lifestyles.
Vladimir Duthiers: So, what used to be your principle when you put a lot of these items in combination?
Taylor Anthony: My principle used to be that … Selonia and Reginald have been in a wedding that used to be about to come back to an finish … there used to be a historical past of abuse and that Selonia used to be bored with it and he or she used to be able to go away Reginald. … I feel … he used to be offended and he noticed a possibility for some cash. … I feel that is why he killed this girl.
Vladimir Duthiers: The case that they are presenting, which is that this guy takes out a lot of these lifestyles insurance coverage insurance policies on a tender, wholesome 26-year-old girl … what’s his rationale for having performed that?
Vanessa Williams: However they are lacking the largest a part of it.
Vladimir Duthiers: Which is?
Vanessa Williams: It wasn’t simply on her. It used to be on himself. It used to be at the kid. … It used to be circle of relatives insurance policies. So, it isn’t like he simply went and took out insurance policies on Selonia handiest.
Prosecutor Anthony used to be frank with jurors, telling them that the state would now not produce a homicide weapon or the precise location the place Selonia used to be stabbed. He taken with what the prosecution did have, together with that white lotion discovered on Selonia’s frame.
Taylor Anthony: … later police have been in a position to discover a bottle of lotion within the Reed family that matched that form of lotion that used to be on her frame.
The prosecutor additionally confirmed jurors {a photograph} of a few scratches on Reginald Reed Sr.’s neck taken at the day Selonia’s frame used to be discovered.
Taylor Anthony: They sought after to take pictures of his neck, and he used to be very hesitant …
Anthony mentioned Reed advised police two other tales about how he were given the ones scratches however after forensic checking out, it used to be made up our minds that none of Reginald’s DNA used to be discovered underneath Selonia’s fingernails.
LaToia Williams-Simon: They imagine that the killer is Mr. Reginald Reed. So, anything else that is going to contradict that they are gonna totally block out.
Williams-Simon pointed to Jimmy Ray Barnes’ lengthy prison document of arrests.
LaToia Williams-Simon: It could not be offered at trial.
Vladimir Duthiers: As a result of?
LaToia Williams-Simon: And the explanation why his prison rap sheet could not be offered at trial is as a result of those are not convictions …
However Williams-Simon says Jimmy Ray’s arrests have been for violent crimes.
LaToia Williams-Simon: False imprisonment and irritated attack, irritated battery with a perilous weapon, homicide … Those are issues that the jury had a proper to grasp, however on account of the legislation, they did not to find out.
Jimmy Ray Barnes in the end took the stand as a part of his plea settlement. There have been no cameras within the court. In a recording taken from Barnes’ police interview carried out by means of Ward earlier than the trial, he advised the similar tale as when he testified:
At the evening of the homicide, Barnes mentioned he promised to satisfy Reginald Reed Sr. within the parking space out of doors John’s Curb Marketplace the place Selonia’s frame have been discovered.
Louisiana State Police 
JIMMY RAY BARNES (recorded interview): After I were given there, he used to be getting out of the little blue automobile. The little blue automobile used to be parked there.
Barnes mentioned Reginald Sr. requested for his assist in transferring Selonia’s frame.
JIMMY RAY BARNES (recorded interview): I mentioned no, I wasn’t, I wasn’t getting fascinated by that. He sought after me to transport the frame, and I did not need to transfer, and I did not transfer the frame.
Barnes says that Selonia used to be totally clothed when he noticed her, and sitting within the passenger seat.
JIMMY RAY BARNES (recorded interview): I did see the frame in there. And uh, I panicked …
Taylor Anthony: My figuring out after the truth is that Jimmy Ray Barnes talked to Reggie [Sr.] and mentioned, “the place is the cash? You advised me $50,000.” … he says he by no means were given a penny of it.
Prosecutor Anthony contends that, after the boys drove away, Reginald Reed Sr. returned and “staged” the crime scene, stripping off Selonia’s garments, masking her with that white lotion, and leaving different proof to make it seem as a intercourse crime.
Vladimir Duthiers: And what does your dad say to that?
Reggie Reed: He says it is totally BS. He says … it is no method. We have been at house taking part in Nintendo.
Williams-Simon had her personal principle of what came about that evening.
LaToia Williams-Simon: The entire data that we have won about Jimmy Ray Barnes is that … he used to be borderline obsessive about Selonia … I imagine that possibly he encountered her, attempted to make a move at her that used to be … rejected, and that’s the reason the place you spot that anger, that rage, that hatred.
Sitting in the course of the trial, Reggie admitted that the relentless focal point on his mom’s homicide used to be scary, particularly as he watched that crime scene video which he had by no means observed earlier than.
Reggie Reed: … and it in point of fact struck a chord … by means of simply seeing my mom there, um, (crying) dead, and simply on my own, and useless.
Reginald Reed Sr. by no means took the stand and after not up to every week of testimony, the case went to the jury. Reggie Jr. braced for the decision.
AFTER THE VERDICT, REGGIE REED JR. STILL CRIES OUT FOR HIS FATHER
Taylor Anthony: … as a prosecutor, when the jury deliberates … it is painstaking. You are simply … ready and ready and ready.
A few of Reginald Reed’s brothers and sisters — Kennedy Reed, Belinda Reed Cox, and Claude Reed — have been ready as smartly.
Vladimir Duthiers: Claude, you do not imagine your brother murdered Selonia.
Claude Reed: No, I do not. I do not imagine Reggie (Sr.) did that.
Belinda Reed Cox: My brother’s now not a assassin. He is not.
However on Nov. 18, 2022, Reginald Reed Sr. used to be discovered responsible of second-degree homicide after the jury deliberated for simply over 3 hours.
Reggie Reed: … when he used to be discovered responsible, I think like he died with out demise (crying). … And I noticed myself as that very same 6-year-old crying out for my dad as I did in that [1987 police interview] video.
Reggie Reed: And I simply need it to finish.
Reggie attempted to recapture the instant his father used to be discovered responsible in his e-book.
Reggie Reed (studying from e-book): My father grabbed me up into a large hug. … I sought after to stick there ceaselessly … he pulled again for a second, seemed me within the eyes and kissed me at the brow. … We embraced over again, after which, they took him clear of me.
Taylor Anthony: I sought after to … inform him, I am sorry … for the lack of your mom. I am sorry to your father going to jail … I will be able to’t even consider the grieving procedure that he is were given to be going thru.
Reggie says sitting in the course of the trial used to be excruciating. But if it used to be over, he nonetheless sought after solutions.
Reggie Reed: That is my oldsters’ room.
Vladimir Duthiers: Lieutenant Ward has advised you that considered one of his theories is that your mom will have been killed on this room.
Reggie Reed: On this room … I simply return considering of the way in the best way, which she used to be killed. If she used to be killed right here, how is that conceivable that they could not to find anything else?
In mild of Lt. Ward’s data, Reggie now wonders if his father killed his mom whilst he used to be asleep within the subsequent room.
Reggie Reed: … The place used to be I? … did you permit the home once I fell asleep …?
Questions Reggie can not resolution as a result of he merely does now not take into account.
On Jan. 30, 2023, everybody piled again into the similar court the place Reginald used to be sentenced to lifestyles in jail with out the opportunity of parole. He didn’t be offering any roughly clarification or commentary and mentioned not anything.
Reggie Reed: You recognize I would like justice, however I did not suppose justice used to be gonna come at the cost of my dad going to jail for lifestyles.
Vladimir Duthiers: So, my query is, do you imagine that your father murdered your mom?
Reggie Reed: I have no idea.
Reggie Reed: Any other query, do I feel my dad had some involvement? … Possibly. I have no idea even though. I have no idea. … In order that’s the place I am simply, it is like a tug-of-war sport.
Reggie Reed: … simply realizing the kind of father he’s … I will be able to’t simply flip a web page and simply take a look at my father as a whole monster …
Selonia’s sister Gwen Smith all the time believed Reginald used to be Selonia’s killer. Despite the fact that she and Reggie Jr. are estranged, she nonetheless worries about him.
Gwen Smith: I simply roughly felt unhealthy for him, you recognize, as a result of … his mother used to be taken clear of him when he used to be a bit of boy.
Vladimir Duthiers: What do you wish to have other people to learn about this example … if you’ll want to sum it up for me.
Kennedy Reed: I do know something; my brother didn’t dedicate this homicide …
For Ward, who labored at the Selonia Reed case for a decade, the conviction used to be simply, and he appreciates that Jimmy Ray Barnes agreed to testify.
Lt. Barry Ward: Jimmy Ray Barnes used to be the important thing.
Barnes served his sentence for being an adjunct after the truth to homicide. He used to be free of jail and, in a while after, on Jan. 27, 2024, he used to be killed in a automobile coincidence. He used to be in Hammond to wait the funeral of his an identical dual.
Charles Muse: There are a number of circumstances all through my occupation that stick out to me. And that is most certainly the — the primary one.
Charles Muse, the Hammond police officer who discovered Selonia’s frame, is happy he were given to look the result of the case.
Charles Muse: I imply her loss of life, you recognize, did not simply move in useless. … I to find some peace in that.
Reggie Reed Jr. 
Vladimir Duthiers: You are saying that you just want you could possibly’ve gotten to grasp her higher, however then you recognize too, you will have to, that she’s dwelling thru you that she’s right here since you’re right here.
Reggie Reed: Completely … And I consider that she’s in a spot the place she’s constantly … gazing over me.
As for Reggie’s father, he calls Reggie from a Louisiana state jail a couple of times every week.
A “48 Hours” manufacturer used to be provide right through a contemporary name.
Charlotte Fuller | “48 Hours”: Do you suppose you were given an excellent trial?
Reginald Reed Sr.: No, after all now not. In fact now not. Wasn’t no proof.
Charlotte Fuller: What do you were given to let us know about your son?
Reginald Reed Sr.: Oh, outstanding … I thank the Lord for him each day that he used to be in a position to grasp some — one thing that used to be occurring, however that I might by no means go away him …
Reggie Reed Jr. 
At the moment, Reggie has his personal circle of relatives. His son Lathan is just about the age he used to be when Selonia used to be killed, and so they continuously play video games simply as Reggie did together with his father. And in January 2024, Reggie and his spouse Paula have been blessed with a toddler woman.
Reggie Reed: When our daughter used to be born, we each agreed there is not any different title that we must title her except for Selonia … you recognize give that title a possibility to are living lifestyles and be known in a good method.
Vladimir Duthiers: Wow, that is stunning.
Reginald Reed Sr. has filed an enchantment.
Produced by means of Paul Los angeles Rosa and Marie Hegwood. Charlotte Fuller is the sphere manufacturer. Sara Ely Hulse is the advance manufacturer. Richard Barber and Diana DeCilio are the editors. Anthony Venditti is the content material analysis supervisor. Nancy Bautista is the affiliate manufacturer. Anthony Batson is the senior manufacturer. Nancy Kramer is the manager tale editor. Judy Tygard is the manager manufacturer.
