Trial set to begin in slaying of soldier

staff report

YOUNGSTOWN — Jury selection is scheduled to begin at 8:30 a.m. Monday before Judge R. Scott Krichbaum of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court for the trial of Donnie R. Reed, 49, who is accused of killing 22-year-old Army Pvt. Randy Davis on April 4 in Reed’s Burkey Road home.

Reed is charged with murder. If convicted, he could face 15 years to life in prison, plus additional time for committing the crime with a firearm.

At a preliminary hearing earlier this year, witnesses testified that Davis and a small group of other men were at Reed’s home when Davis asked Reed if he had any guns. Reed took Davis to a bedroom and witnesses heard a gunshot.

“He said, ‘[Expletive],’ I shot him. Call the cops,” Ron Davis, 23, Davis’ brother, said of Reed’s statement after they heard the gunshot.

Randy Davis, of Boardman and Youngstown, had been shot in the forehead and died.

Initially, Reed told police that he gave Randy Davis the gun, turned away and then heard gunfire.

Gunshot residue tests by the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Identification and Investigation, however, indicate that Reed — not Randy Davis — fired the gun, authorities have said.

Witnesses Wade Mitcheltree and Ron Davis both testified that there were no arguments between Reed and Randy Davis that night and no known prior animosity between them.