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Plea deal to send man to prison for 6 years
Defendant calls the fatal shooting a ‘terrible accident.’
YOUNGSTOWN — An Austintown man who was initially charged with murder in the fatal shooting of a soldier has pleaded guilty to the lesser charge of reckless homicide and been sentenced immediately to six years in prison.
Donnie R. Reed, 49, of Burkey Road, entered his plea and was sentenced Thursday by Judge R. Scott Krichbaum of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court in the April 4 death of Army Pvt. Randy Davis, 22, of Boardman and Youngstown.
The nonappealable sentence, which was agreed to by the prosecution and defense and adopted by the judge, will consist of three years for the gun specification, followed by three years for the reckless homicide. Reed had no prior criminal convictions.
Davis suffered a gunshot wound to the forehead from Reed’s World War II-era .45-caliber handgun in Reed’s residence.
“Having this haunt me night and day, I’ve had to relive this surreal tragedy constantly,” said a tearful Reed as he read from a hand-written statement.
“I am truly remorseful for this terrible accident, and I apologize to the Davis family wholeheartedly,” Reed said. “May God care for him throughout all eternity,” Reed said of Davis.
Kenneth J. Cardinal, assistant county prosecutor, called the plea agreement “a fair and reasonable resolution to an extremely difficult matter.”
Had the case gone to trial, Cardinal said, “The jury would have had to think long and hard” whether to convict Reed of murder or acquit him and thereby set him free.
Davis asked Reed if he had any guns, Reed led Davis to a bedroom, and witnesses heard a gunshot, witnesses testified at a preliminary hearing.
Conflicting statements were made about the April 4 events.
Davis’ brother, Ron, said Reed announced after the gun discharged he had shot Davis and asked his friends to call the police.
Reed initially told police he handed Randy Davis the gun, turned away and heard gunfire, but authorities said gunshot residue tests show Reed, not Randy Davis, fired the gun.
Witnesses said there was no known animosity between Reed and Randy Davis, and the men hadn’t argued that night.
Reed will get credit for the five months he has already been jailed.
He’ll become eligible for judicial release after being locked up for 3 1‚Ñ2 years. After prison, he’ll be on parole for three years.
Noting that Reed reportedly bragged about being “a hitman,” the victim’s mother, Debra Zuccaro of Youngstown, said she still believes the shooting was intentional.
“It seems such an injustice that my son got his brains blown out, and this guy gets six years,” she said, adding that some defendants whose actions don’t result in a death go to prison for 10 years or more.
“I just do not see how that can be any kind of an accident,” Zuccaro said, adding that the gun was difficult to shoot and that its safety had to be disengaged to fire it.
“There was no proof that my son touched the gun. There was no gunpowder residue on his hands,” Zuccaro said.
Zuccaro said nobody from the prosecutor’s office or the courthouse called in advance to inform her of Thursday’s scheduled pre-trial hearing for Reed, but Cardinal called her after the sentencing to inform her about what occurred.
Had she been notified in advance, Zuccaro said she and her family would have been present, and she would have delivered a victim-impact statement at the sentencing.
The pretrial hearing was scheduled for 8 a.m., but plea negotiations between the prosecution and defense didn’t result in an agreement and a sentencing until more than 2 1‚Ñ2 hours later.
milliken@vindy.com