Yesterday the man convicted in the nearly 40 YO case of the murder of Selonia S. Reed was sentenced to life imprisonment without the benefit of probation or parole by Honorable Judge William S. Dykes in Tangipahoa Parish, according to DA Scott M. Perrilloux.
Reginald L. Reed was arrested in June of 2019 and was found guilty by a jury in November of last year.
On Aug. 23, 1987, the body of 26 YO Selonia Reed was found in the passenger seat of her blue 1986 Chevrolet Sprint in an empty lot in Hammond. Her husband, Reginald Reed, was the primary suspect at the time, but he denied any wrong-doing and was not charged.
In 2011, Louisiana State Police reopened the case.
Witness accounts and DNA evidence of a cigarette left in Selonia’s car led them to believe Reginald hired Jimmy Barnes to murder Selonia.
Nearly three years later, the Twenty-first Judicial District Attorney’s Office requested Louisiana State Police and the Hammond Police Department detectives interview a source who was not questioned at the time of the murder. In addition to this interview, Assistant District Attorney Taylor Anthony and Louisiana State Police Trooper Barry Ward traveled to Atlanta, GA to interview Jimmy Ray Barnes. He confessed to his role in Selonia’s murder, pleaded guilty to Accessory After the Fact to First Degree Murder and was sentenced to serve five years with the department of corrections with credit for time served for the charge.