The Day My Mother Never Came Home

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Speaker 4 My name is Reggie Reed.

Speaker 4 Salonia Reed is my mother. And Reginald Reed Sr.
is my father.

Speaker 4 My mother, she was the love of my life, my first love.

Speaker 4 And

Speaker 4 I was her everything.

Speaker 4 It was very rare I wasn't by her side.

Speaker 5 Take me back and tell me what you remember about that day.

Speaker 4 That day, we went to the mall. That's one of the things to do in Hammond, just go to the mall, even though if you're not buying anything, window shop, if you will.

Speaker 4 Went to the mall, came home,

Speaker 4 and

Speaker 4 my mom went out and She never came home.

Speaker 6 My people went off, and it was Reginald. And he asked me, had I seen Salonia?

Speaker 6 And I said, no, not since yesterday.

Speaker 4 I was a patrol officer for the Hammond Police Department. I was dispatched to a missing persons call on Apple Street in Hammond, Louisiana.

Speaker 4 The complainant, Reginald Reed, explained to me that his wife had left home the night before and had not returned and he was concerned and wanted to file a missing persons report.

Speaker 4 I had received a description of the car from Reginald that I started to drive up Range Road and I noticed the car.

Speaker 4 Walked up to the car and noticed Salonia's body inside the car.

Speaker 4 It was very,

Speaker 4 very, very obvious that she was deceased.

Speaker 9 Salonia was 26 years old at the time.

Speaker 9 When I watched the crime scene video and saw Salonia's body in that car,

Speaker 9 immediately I was sad. I was mad.

Speaker 9 It was pretty apparent to me right away that whoever did this homicide hated this woman.

Speaker 6 So I called Reginald back. I said, Reginald, have you heard anything?

Speaker 6 He told me, he said, yes. He said they found her

Speaker 8 in her car.

Speaker 6 And he said that she was dead.

Speaker 6 and that was.

Speaker 4 I was interviewed after she was murdered as a six-year-old.

Speaker 8 Okay, can you tell me your name? She named

Speaker 4 when I watched that video over and over again.

Speaker 10 Okay, the day before Sunday, what would you do?

Speaker 4 What I see is a six-year-old boy that

Speaker 11 Their life has been

Speaker 8 changed.

Speaker 4 He doesn't understand the magnitude of it yet.

Speaker 4 And you're asking me, you're trying to find out who killed my mother.

Speaker 8 Do you remember seeing her movie?

Speaker 8 You did?

Speaker 9 Anytime a young woman Saloni's age is killed the way she's killed, I think most people right away would assume the husband did it, right? And that's the easy way, that's the stereotypical way.

Speaker 9 But it's also not out of the realm of possibility that this was some killing for another reason.

Speaker 4 From that day on, my life changed forever.

Speaker 4 It just begs the question: why?

Speaker 5 Vladimir Dutier reports: the day my mother never came home.

Speaker 4 After my mother was murdered, things moved fast.

Speaker 4 Couldn't really understand, like, why would somebody kill her? Like, what did she do?

Speaker 5 It's been decades since Reggie Reed Jr. last saw his mother, Salonia.

Speaker 4 I feel like I missed out. on a huge part of life that I'll never get back.

Speaker 5 Reggie was only six years old on August 22nd, 1987. One of the last things he remembers is his mother buying him a chocolate chip cookie here at the Hammond Square Mall in Louisiana.

Speaker 5 He told police his mother kissed him when she left the house later that night. But the rest, he says, is a blur.

Speaker 5 When you think about that,

Speaker 5 What does that feel like?

Speaker 4 When I think about how my mother's life was shortened and how my experience was shortened, I feel empty.

Speaker 5 If somebody says to you, who is Salonia?

Speaker 5 What do you say?

Speaker 4 If someone asks me, who is Salonia, I would say, you looking at her.

Speaker 4 Because based on

Speaker 4 the description,

Speaker 4 the memories, and what things people have shared.

Speaker 4 When I look in the mirror, I see my mother.

Speaker 5 Reggie's memories are at the heart of the memoir he's written about his mother's murder, The Day My Mother Never Came Home.

Speaker 4 Within these pages, you will find the memories of a six-year-old boy whose mother was murdered.

Speaker 4 A 15-year-old young man searching for his place in the world without the guidance and encouragement of his mother.

Speaker 4 The night my mother went out and never came home, life for me

Speaker 4 and my father was basically flipped upside down.

Speaker 5 Charles Mews, now retired, was the police officer who found Salonia's body after taking the initial missing person's report from her husband, Reginald Reed.

Speaker 4 Salonia's body was in between the bucket seats of the car with her torso over into the back seat of the car.

Speaker 11 She had 16 pinpoint-like stab wounds in her upper torso, shoulder, and neck. Her blouse had been torn off.
Her pants had been removed from her. She had been sexually assaulted as well.

Speaker 5 Louisiana State Police Lieutenant Barry Ward would eventually be assigned to the case years later. He was only 16 years old when Salonia was murdered.

Speaker 11 In 1987, I was a sophomore in Marshall County High School in western Kentucky.

Speaker 5 When he eventually did pick up the case file, he took note of the lack of blood in the car.

Speaker 11 It would suggest that she was murdered in another location and then transported to where her body was later discovered at the Johns Kerr Market.

Speaker 5 That market was about one and a half miles from the Reed House on Apple Street.

Speaker 5 At the scene, Officer Muse noticed something else about Salonia's naked body.

Speaker 4 I did see a substance that had been placed on the body.

Speaker 4 It was a white liquid-type substance on her torso and stomach area.

Speaker 5 Police believe the white lotion may have spelled out a word, but if there was a message, it had become illegible in the Louisiana heat.

Speaker 11 The windows were rolled up. It was August at the time.
It was very hot out.

Speaker 5 Detectives bagged any potential evidence, including the butt of a cigarette, a Winston cigarette. He said it was probably clear of that.

Speaker 5 Police canvassed the area, but Ward says they didn't find any eyewitnesses or a murder weapon.

Speaker 11 The following day, on Monday the 24th, a neighbor went to his mailbox and discovered a crucifix and a screwdriver.

Speaker 5 Given the nature of Salonia's injuries, police at first believed the screwdriver might be the murder weapon, even though it had no visible blood on it.

Speaker 5 It was early in the investigation, and detectives looked at all the angles, including Salonia's job at Citizens National Bank.

Speaker 11 She was a teller in the commercial section. She was described as being polite, kind, had a nice smile.

Speaker 5 Here she is taking part in a community fashion show just one week before her murder. She's wearing

Speaker 5 Salonia and Reginald, who was a Marine and later a car salesman, met during their high school years. Salonia was known for being devoted to little Reggie, as everyone called him.

Speaker 5 But the night she disappeared, she left the six-year-old at home with his father, according to what Reginald told police.

Speaker 11 He and his son, Reginald Jr., were going to stay and play video games while she went out to a local bar with her girlfriend.

Speaker 5 Officer Muse interviewed that friend, who denied she and Salonia had plans that night.

Speaker 5 Reginald told police he suspected Salonia had a boyfriend and admitted he and his wife had personal differences. But Ward says the police found no evidence of an affair.

Speaker 11 Based on the research that I had conducted, her coworkers, the people that knew her, said that she just went to work and came home, that she was always seen with her little boy.

Speaker 5 The day after her body was found, investigators searched the family home on Apple Street.

Speaker 11 The chief of police said that when he went in, it smelled like bleach in the house.

Speaker 5 Detectives looked for evidence that Salonia may have been killed there, but all they found was a freshly vacuumed carpet and the gold clasp of a necklace.

Speaker 5 Reginald gave investigators permission to interview little Reggie. the only other person in the home the night of the murder.

Speaker 5 In this police video, a detective questions Reggie as his father fidgets with a bean bag intended for his son.

Speaker 1 Tell me what you remember about that night.

Speaker 5 Reggie Jr. became his father's alibi.
The boy said he and his father played video games and then slept together in the same sofa bed on that August night.

Speaker 8 Did anybody come over?

Speaker 2 Did anybody leave?

Speaker 8 Everybody stayed home that night?

Speaker 5 When little Reggie agrees that everybody stayed home, his father looks at him.

Speaker 8 Everybody?

Speaker 8 Everybody stay home that night?

Speaker 8 Don't be afraid, this, you know, we shouldn't. No, baby, don't be a, don't, don't be afraid.

Speaker 8 We just talk.

Speaker 8 She likes you just give him a question.

Speaker 11 You're right, what's the matter, baby?

Speaker 5 He said he didn't want to talk no more.

Speaker 6 Oh, you don't want to talk no more?

Speaker 8 Just emotional. Yeah.

Speaker 8 Okay. It's all right.
Look.

Speaker 8 Didn't I tell you before that I'm

Speaker 7 Okay, darling, I won't talk no more.

Speaker 8 You don't have to.

Speaker 5 I just can't imagine what it's like as a six-year-old to have to sit there and

Speaker 4 looking at that

Speaker 4 It's still hard to believe that that's me.

Speaker 4 Watching that video video just brings back so,

Speaker 4 so many questions and

Speaker 4 pain because I see me crying.

Speaker 5 In the aftermath of Salonia's murder, her family came forward with more information, some of it directed at one of Reginald's friends, Jimmy Ray Barnes.

Speaker 5 Turns out, Barnes smoked Winston cigarettes, the same brand found in Salonia's car. And Salonia's sister, Gwen Smith, said that Salonia did not like Jimmy Ray.

Speaker 6 Apparently she knew Jim Ray's voice because she started screaming, come inside, I don't trust him. So she was scared of him.

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Speaker 1 Running can't compete. That's why 90% stick with hydro a year later.
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Speaker 1 Go to hydro.com code fit and save up to 600 bucks on your next hydro. Hydro.com code fit.

Speaker 5 In the days after Salonia's murder, there was one name police kept hearing. Jimmy Ray Barnes, a friend of Reginald Sr.

Speaker 11 Jimmy Ray Barnes was an acquaintance of Reginald Reed. He hung out with him.
He worked with him.

Speaker 5 Lieutenant Ward learned about a disturbing incident at a local beach where Salonia was swimming with little Reggie just days before the murder.

Speaker 11 They were on inner tubes.

Speaker 11 Jimmy flipped Salonia over. She didn't feel that it was a playful thing.
She felt that it was deliberate and intentional. She was not a good swimmer, and she said she struggled to make it to the bank.

Speaker 5 The next night, her sister Gwen said Salonia became frightened when a relative who was visiting Salonia spotted Jimmy Ray Barnes near her home.

Speaker 6 And she said Salonia went into hysterics like, no, no, don't go out there. Don't go out there.

Speaker 11 And within a few moments, Jimmy Ray Barnes walked around the corner of the house. Jimmy told her that he was checking on Salonia,

Speaker 11 and she ran him off.

Speaker 5 Ward would learn that Jimmy Ray, along with Reginald, came under even more scrutiny two days after the murder.

Speaker 5 A witness came forward to say she had seen two men around John's curb market on the night Salonia was murdered.

Speaker 11 She became suspicious and later wrote down on a piece of scrap paper the license plate. As it turns out, that was the vehicle that Reginald Reed was known to operate in.
That was his car.

Speaker 5 Some two weeks later, police assembled this photo array and showed it to the witness.

Speaker 11 The witness identified the driver as Reginald Reed and the passenger as Jimmy Ray Barnes.

Speaker 5 Jimmy Ray was given a polygraph test and police at the time said he passed. But it wasn't long before Jimmy Ray left Hammond.

Speaker 5 Reginald denied having anything to do with Salonia's murder. But neighbors told police the marriage was trouble.

Speaker 5 Family members say Salonia had accused her husband of physical abuse, and there was talk of divorce.

Speaker 5 The police continued investigating, but prosecutors never brought the case to a grand jury.

Speaker 11 There's a lot of circumstantial evidence in 1987 that pointed to Reginald Reed and Jamie Ray Barnes. As far as a smoking gun, it was not there at that time.

Speaker 6 I started feeling like

Speaker 6 Nothing was going to be done about her murder and we would not get justice.

Speaker 5 Time passed and Reginald continued to live in Hammond. He even ran for mayor in 1998.
R.A.O. Reggie Reed, number eight.

Speaker 4 You can count on me.

Speaker 5 Thank you. He lost that race,

Speaker 5 but he and little Reggie stayed in the family home, which today has fallen into disrepair.

Speaker 4 So this is it.

Speaker 5 What's it like for you to just

Speaker 5 come back here? I know you don't like to, but what does it feel like?

Speaker 4 I feel numb.

Speaker 4 Yeah, I feel numb. This is where it all started.
You know, this is the halls I used to run. This is the TV room.
This was the TV room.

Speaker 5 When you were

Speaker 5 playing Nintendo with your father the night that your mother was murdered, was that here?

Speaker 4 It was in this room.

Speaker 5 Reggie went on to attend college. and later got an MBA.

Speaker 5 He moved out of Hammond and began working for a pharmaceutical company.

Speaker 5 There were no new developments on his mother's murder until 2011, when Lieutenant Barry Ward of the Louisiana State Police got involved.

Speaker 11 After I started interacting with Salonia's family, her sisters, I realized how important it was.

Speaker 6 Before Barry Ward came into the picture, I just felt like nobody cared about Salonia's case.

Speaker 11 This was just the last opportunity I felt before more witnesses passed away that we would have a chance to find justice for this terrible crime that happened to Salonia.

Speaker 5 As far as Ward could determine, the crucifix and screwdriver found within days of the murder led nowhere.

Speaker 5 But the detective was drawn to several life insurance policies Reginald had taken out on Salonia that paid out more than $700,000.

Speaker 5 Some of those policies were taken out the same month that Salonia was murdered.

Speaker 5 Ward wanted to re-interview Reggie Jr. in 2012.
Reggie was 31 years old and living in Texas. Ward sent a Texas Ranger to begin the questioning.

Speaker 4 He told me why he was here and it was to discuss my mother's murder.

Speaker 5 And the Ranger then told Reggie something he said he'd never heard before.

Speaker 11 He was not aware. That his father was a suspect in the murder of his mother.

Speaker 4 I was like, where is this coming from? Like,

Speaker 4 it's been over three decades. You're talking about my dad, like, killed my mom.
I'm like, seriously. I remember asking, is there any new evidence that will surface?

Speaker 4 And

Speaker 4 it was nothing new.

Speaker 5 It's true that the insurance policies had been discovered by the original detectives, but Lieutenant Ward had organized them in a way that he felt was damning.

Speaker 5 The Texas Ranger asked Reggie about those policies.

Speaker 4 He showed me a graph, a timeline that showed these insurance policies that were taken out close to her death.

Speaker 5 Did you all of a sudden say, I need to get to the bottom of this or what?

Speaker 4 It was eye-opening because I'm like, well, that doesn't look good.

Speaker 11 I got to learn what, like, what's all this?

Speaker 5 Reggie struggled to make sense of it all.

Speaker 4 I did talk to my dad about it over the phone and his response was

Speaker 4 he took out policies on everyone.

Speaker 5 Reggie said he finds it hard to square what the investigation revealed with the loving father who raised him.

Speaker 4 I look back, I'm like, man,

Speaker 4 he really did do some

Speaker 4 great stuff for me. He was a great provider.

Speaker 5 Ward took a deep dive into the case file and focused on that Winston cigarette butt found in Salonia's car. He sent it out for DNA testing, something that was not widely available in 1987.

Speaker 5 There was a match in the National Crime DNA database, CODIS, but not to Jimmy Ray.

Speaker 11 It came back to a man by the name of Billy Ray Barnes.

Speaker 5 Billy Ray was Jimmy Ray's identical twin brother, and the DNA supervisor had another surprise.

Speaker 11 He let me know that identical twins share identical DNA.

Speaker 5 Lieutenant Ward decided he had to interview Jimmy Ray, and it turned out that Jimmy Ray had been holding on to some key information all these years.

Speaker 11 Jimmy Ray Barnes did tell me that Razor Reed offered him $50,000 to quote unquote knock off his wife.

Speaker 5 In July 2012, Lieutenant Barry Ward went on the hunt for Jimmy Ray Barnes, who had become a prime suspect in the Salonia Reed murder case after his DNA was linked to the crime scene.

Speaker 5 Ward found Barnes in the Atlanta area, where he said Barnes told him he'd fled Hammond because he was afraid of Reginald Reed.

Speaker 5 Barnes said back then, he'd been shot at three times and hit once in the neck. Barnes suspected the shooter was Reginald but had no proof.

Speaker 11 Jimmy Jimmy said he was known to carry a gun. But you fast forward 25, now 30 years, Reginald Reed was now an old man.

Speaker 8 We are on.

Speaker 5 Barnes was ready to talk about Reed without a lawyer.

Speaker 5 Barnes told Ward that a few days before Salonia was killed, Reed asked him if he would, quote, knock off his wife.

Speaker 11 Reginald asked you if you would, quote, by your term, knock off his wife. And that mean you took that to mean to kill her to murder her

Speaker 11 what was your response to that hell no

Speaker 11 did he discuss any money with you yeah he is he discussed the money ward pressed barnes to tell him how much money more than five thousand yeah more than ten thousand yeah more than fifty thousand fifty thousand

Speaker 13 he offered you fifty thousand dollars

Speaker 5 is is that is that a guess or is that the amount he offered me off the amount he offered but barnes told ward that he would not repeat the story in court I don't trust the law no more.

Speaker 5 Ward confronted Barnes about that polygraph test from the original case file.

Speaker 5 Barnes allegedly had passed that polygraph, but Ward suspected Jimmy Ray secretly had asked his identical twin, Billy Ray, to take that test.

Speaker 11 I've talked to Billy, and he said he took that polygraph test.

Speaker 11 And if Billy looked like you and was questioned over a murder that you took part in and he doesn't know anything about it he's probably going to pass that polygraph test would that be fair to say

Speaker 14 i don't know i'm not going to answer that because

Speaker 14 i know i'm the one took the polygraph test

Speaker 5 ward believed he had a solid case to finally bring charges he had jimmy ray's dna connected to the crime scene and his videotaped statement about reggie offering him fifty thousand dollars to kill salonia But, Ward said, prosecutors always wanted more.

Speaker 11 I would get phone phone calls through the years from prosecutors who would ask me to re-interview family members, find out additional information, test more evidence. It was busy work.

Speaker 5 Then, in 2018, a newly hired prosecutor, Taylor Anthony, got assigned the case. Why reopen? a 35-year-old case? What was the trigger?

Speaker 9 Well, why reopen it? It's an interesting question. This was a case to me right away when I looked at it that there was a story to be told.

Speaker 5 Anthony was impressed by all the investigative work done by Lieutenant Ward, so he reached out. But Ward told Anthony he was too busy and that he felt he'd been let down by other prosecutors.

Speaker 11 My initial response was to just get this guy off the phone.

Speaker 9 He said, Look, I've already poured hundreds of man hours into that case and y'all didn't do anything. And he said, you're wasting your time, kid.
Have a nice life, basically.

Speaker 5 But Anthony was undeterred and promised Ward that this time things would be different.

Speaker 11 I think he saw what I saw. I think that made all the difference in the world.

Speaker 5 Like Ward, Anthony was sure Jimmy Ray Barnes knew a lot more. So he and Ward took a road trip to Atlanta.

Speaker 11 We were able to locate Jimmy. He was staying in the camper at his employer's place.
We pulled up early in the morning when the sun was coming up.

Speaker 11 And he was coming out of this camper putting a belt in his pants. And he said, hey, who y'all looking for? I said, you, Jimmy.
And he goes, oh, you again.

Speaker 5 But this time, the new prosecutor had with him an agreement approved by a judge giving Barnes complete immunity if he testified to everything he knew about Salonia's murder.

Speaker 5 So to the layperson, you offered him a deal?

Speaker 9 So I offered him what I would say would be the golden ticket.

Speaker 5 But Barnes rejected the offer.

Speaker 9 He did not trust me. He did not believe me.
He did not want to talk to us.

Speaker 5 Ward and Anthony were about to drive back to Louisiana when Barnes said something that took them by surprise.

Speaker 9 As Barry and I were getting back to the car, Jim Ray Barnes came over to us and he said, I want you boys to know that I'm the key to it all.

Speaker 9 And he said, if you think you can indict me for murder, then do it.

Speaker 5 Anthony was quick to take him up on that challenge.

Speaker 11 A couple of weeks later, grand jury in Tanswell Parish returned second-degree murder indictments for both Reginald Reed and Jamie Ray Barnes.

Speaker 11 Immediately, we went to Reginald's home. I knocked on the door, identified who I was, and that I had an arrest warrant for him for the murder of his wife.

Speaker 11 He really had no emotion.

Speaker 5 The date was June 21st, 2019, more than 30 years after Salonia's murder.

Speaker 6 When Reginald was arrested,

Speaker 6 it was like

Speaker 6 a burden just kind of my chest, chest, like a burden was lifted off.

Speaker 4 I got a call that my father was indicted for second-degree murder and conspiracy, along with a co-defendant for my mother's murder.

Speaker 5 Reggie Jr. put up his father's $250,000 bail bond.

Speaker 4 My dad being... my rock for so many years, I felt the need to try to help him.

Speaker 5 Now that you are both adults, did you ever ask him those questions that you have that you're questioning even now as we sit here?

Speaker 4 Yeah, I asked him. I asked him, and

Speaker 4 he maintains his innocence.

Speaker 5 Sitting in another Hammond jail cell was Jimmy Ray Barnes. He now had a lawyer and asked to speak with Detective Barry Ward and Taylor Anthony.

Speaker 9 So Barry and I went and met with him again.

Speaker 9 And in exchange for him telling us everything he knew, he was offered a deal to plead to accessory after the fact to murder and was given a five-year prison sentence.

Speaker 5 The homicide trial of Reginald Reed was scheduled for November 2022, and Jimmy Ray had agreed to testify. Reggie Jr.
hoped to hear never-before-revealed details of what had happened to his mother.

Speaker 4 I want to know what happened.

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Speaker 16 Crimes of is a weekly series that explores a new theme each season, from Crimes of the Paranormal, Unsolved Murders, and more.

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Speaker 5 In November 2022, the murder trial of Reginald Reed began in Ameet, Louisiana.

Speaker 5 Reed was represented by the mother and daughter defense team of Vanessa Williams and Latoya Williams-Simon.

Speaker 5 What makes you think that he did not murder Salonia?

Speaker 17 Their entire case is circumstantial.

Speaker 5 William Simon says the state's case was weak. There was no murder weapon, no fingerprints or DNA tying Reed to Salonia's homicide.

Speaker 17 I was confused as to how they were really going to prove their case. There's no direct evidence.

Speaker 5 But prosecutor Taylor Anthony believed his prosecution would deliver justice to Salonia.

Speaker 9 The reason I became a prosecutor is to fight for people like this. I see a woman whose body's been desecrated, violated, mutilated, and nobody spoke up for her and fought for her.

Speaker 9 And there's a quote that I love, and it goes, the dead cannot cry out for justice. It is the duty of the living to do so for them.
And that's my job.

Speaker 5 Anthony told jurors about the $700,000 from the insurance policies on Salonia's life. So what was your theory once you put all these pieces together?

Speaker 9 My theory was that Saloni and Reginald were in a marriage that was about to come to an end. There was a history of abuse and that Salonia was tired of it and she was ready to leave Reginald.

Speaker 9 I think he was angry and he saw an opportunity for some money. I think that's why he killed this woman.

Speaker 5 The case that they're presenting, which is this man takes out all these life insurance policies on a young, healthy 26-year-old woman, what is his rationale for having done that?

Speaker 17 But they're missing the biggest part of it. It wasn't just on her.
It was on himself. It was on the child.
It was family policies. So it's not like he just went and took out policies on Salonia only.

Speaker 5 Prosecutor Anthony was frank with jurors, telling them that the state would not produce a murder weapon or the exact location where Salonia was stabbed.

Speaker 5 He focused on what the prosecution did have, including that white lotion found on Salonia's body.

Speaker 9 Later, police were able to find a bottle of lotion in the Reed household that matched that type of lotion that was on her body.

Speaker 5 The prosecutor also showed jurors a photograph of some scratches on Reed's neck taken on the day Salonia's body was found.

Speaker 9 They wanted to take photographs of his neck, and he was very hesitant.

Speaker 5 Anthony said Reed told police two different stories about how he got those scratches. But after forensic testing, it was determined that none of Reed's DNA was found under Salonia's fingernails.

Speaker 17 They believe that the killer is Mr. Reginald Reid, so anything that goes to contradict that, they're going to completely block out.

Speaker 5 William Simon pointed to Jimmy Ray's long criminal record of arrests.

Speaker 17 It couldn't be introduced at trial. And the reason why his criminal rap sheet couldn't be introduced at trial is because because these aren't convictions.

Speaker 5 But William Simon says Jimmy Ray's arrests were for violent crimes.

Speaker 17 False imprisonment and aggravated assault, aggravated battery with a dangerous weapon, murder. These are things that the jury had a right to know, but because of the law, they didn't find out.

Speaker 5 Jimmy Ray Barnes ultimately took the stand as part of his plea agreement.

Speaker 11 Jimmy, will you please tell me?

Speaker 5 There were no cameras in the courtroom. So this recording is taken from Barnes' police interview conducted by Ward before the trial.
He told the same story when he testified.

Speaker 5 On the night of the murder, Barnes said he promised to meet Reed in the parking area outside John's Curb Market, where Salonia's body had been found.

Speaker 5 Barnes said Reginald asked for his help in moving Salonia's body.

Speaker 14 He wanted me to move the body, and I didn't want to move, and I didn't move the body.

Speaker 5 Barnes says that Salonia was fully clothed when he saw her and sitting in the passenger seat.

Speaker 14 I did see the body in there,

Speaker 14 and I panicked.

Speaker 9 My understanding after the fact is that Jimmy Ray Barnes talked to Reggie and said, where's the money? You told me $50,000.

Speaker 9 He says he never got a penny of it.

Speaker 5 Prosecutor Anthony contends that after the men drove away, Reed returned and staged the crime scene, stripping off Salonia's clothes, covering her with that white lotion, and leaving other evidence to make it appear as a sex crime.

Speaker 5 And what does your dad say to that?

Speaker 4 He says completely BS.

Speaker 4 He says there's no way we were at home playing Nintendo.

Speaker 5 William Simon had her own theory of what happened that night.

Speaker 17 All of the information that we've received about Jimmy Ray Barnes is that he was borderline obsessed with Salonia.

Speaker 17 I believe that maybe he encountered her, tried to make a pass at her, that was rejected, and that's where you see that anger, that rage, that hatred.

Speaker 5 Sitting through the trial, Reggie admitted that the relentless focus on his mother's murder was upsetting, especially as he watched that crime scene video, which he had never seen before.

Speaker 4 And it really struck a card by just seeing my mother there,

Speaker 4 lifeless,

Speaker 4 and just alone

Speaker 4 and dead.

Speaker 5 Reginald Reed never took the stand. And after less than a week of testimony, the case went to the jury.

Speaker 5 Reggie Jr. braced for the verdict.

Speaker 9 As a prosecutor, when the jury deliberates, it's painstaking. You're just waiting and waiting and waiting.

Speaker 5 Some of Reginald Reed's brothers and sisters were waiting as well. Kennedy Reed, Belinda Reed Cox, and Claude Reed.
Claude, you don't believe your brother murdered Salonia?

Speaker 4 No,

Speaker 4 I don't. I don't believe Reggie did that.

Speaker 6 My brother's not a murderer. He's not.

Speaker 5 But on this day, November 18th, 2022, Reginald Reed was found guilty of second-degree murder after the jury deliberated for just over three hours.

Speaker 4 When he was found guilty, I feel like he died without dying.

Speaker 4 And I saw myself at that same

Speaker 4 six-year-old

Speaker 4 crying out for my dad as I did in that video.

Speaker 4 And

Speaker 4 I just wanted to end.

Speaker 5 Reggie tried to recapture the moment his father was found guilty in his book.

Speaker 4 My father grabbed me up into a big hug. I wanted to stay there forever.
He pulled back for a moment, looked me in the eyes, and kissed me on the forehead.

Speaker 4 We embraced once more, and then they took him away from me.

Speaker 9 I wanted to tell him I'm sorry for the loss of your mother. I'm sorry for your father going to prison.
I can't even imagine the grieving process that he's got to have gone through.

Speaker 5 Reggie says sitting through the trial was excruciating. But when it was over, he still wanted answers.

Speaker 4 This is my parents, bro.

Speaker 5 Lieutenant Ward has told you that

Speaker 5 one of his theories is that your mother may have been killed in this room.

Speaker 4 In this room.

Speaker 4 I just go back thinking of the manner and the way which she was killed.

Speaker 4 If she was killed here,

Speaker 4 how is it possible that they couldn't find anything?

Speaker 4 I mean,

Speaker 4 where was I?

Speaker 4 Did you leave the house after I fell asleep?

Speaker 5 Questions Reggie cannot answer because he simply cannot remember.

Speaker 5 On January 30th, 2023, everyone piled back into the same courtroom where Reginald Reed was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Speaker 5 He did not offer any kind of explanation or statement and said nothing.

Speaker 4 You know, I want justice, but I didn't think justice was going to come at the price of my dad going to prison for life.

Speaker 5 So my question is: do you believe that your father murdered your mother?

Speaker 4 I don't know.

Speaker 4 Another question: Do I think my dad had some involvement? Maybe.

Speaker 4 I don't know, though. I don't know.
So that's where I'm just, it's like a tug-of-war game.

Speaker 4 Just knowing the type of father he is,

Speaker 4 I can't just turn a page

Speaker 4 and just look at my father as a complete monster.

Speaker 5 Salonia's sister, Gwen Smith, always believed Reginald was Salonia's killer. Although she and Reggie Jr.
are estranged, she still worries about him.

Speaker 6 I just kind of feel bad for him, you know?

Speaker 6 Because

Speaker 6 his mom was taken away from him when he was a little boy.

Speaker 5 What do you want people to know

Speaker 5 about this case? If you could sum it up for me.

Speaker 4 I know one thing, my brother did not commit this murder.

Speaker 5 For Barry Ward, who worked on the Salonia Reed case for a decade, the conviction was just, and he appreciates that Jimmy Ray Barnes agreed to testify.

Speaker 11 Jimmy Ray Barnes was the key.

Speaker 5 Barnes served as sentence for being an accessory after the fact to murder. He was freed from prison, and shortly after, on January 27th, 2024, he was killed in a car accident.

Speaker 5 He was in Hammond to attend the funeral of his identical twin.

Speaker 4 There are several cases throughout my career that stick out to me, and this is probably the main one.

Speaker 5 Charles Muse, the Hammond police officer who found Salonia's body, is pleased he got to see the outcome of the case.

Speaker 9 I mean, her death,

Speaker 4 you know, didn't just go in bang. I find some peace in that.

Speaker 5 You say that you wish you would have gotten to know her better, but then

Speaker 5 you realize too, you must, that she's living through you, that she's here

Speaker 5 because you're here.

Speaker 4 Absolutely. And I think about that she's in a place where she's consistently watching over me.

Speaker 5 As for Reggie's father, he calls Reggie from a Louisiana state prison once or twice a week.

Speaker 8 This call is not private.

Speaker 10 It will be recorded and may be monitored.

Speaker 4 Hey, Reg. Hey, how you doing?

Speaker 4 Good, how you?

Speaker 5 A 48 Hours producer was present during a recent call.

Speaker 17 Do you think you got a fair trial?

Speaker 17 No, of course not. Of course not.

Speaker 17 Was no evidence.

Speaker 17 What do you got to tell us about your son?

Speaker 8 Oh, remarkable. I thank the Lord for him every day.
That he was able to understand

Speaker 8 something

Speaker 8 that was going on, but that I would never leave him.

Speaker 5 These days, Reggie has his own family. His son Lathan is nearly the age he was when Salonia was killed.
And they often play games just as Reggie did with his father.

Speaker 5 And in January 2024, Reggie and his wife Paula were blessed with a baby girl.

Speaker 4 When our daughter was born, we both agreed there's

Speaker 4 no other name that we should name her

Speaker 4 except Salonia. You know, give that name an opportunity to live life and be recognized in a positive way.

Speaker 8 Wow, it's beautiful.

Speaker 5 Reginald Reed Sr. has filed an appeal.

Speaker 7 Join me Tuesday for post-mortem from 48 Hours, where we'll dive even deeper into today's episode and answer your questions about the case.

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