A man sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole for fatally shooting and killing a 26-year-old woman he mistook for a witness in his sex crimes trial after pleading guilty to first-degree murder, court officials said on Monday.
Harold Reid Jr. shot and killed Quintia Miller on October 3, 2022, at an apartment complex in Mocksville, North Carolina, according to Fox 8. According to officials, the victim was staying in the complex with her family when Reid went there and killed her.
Officers from the US Marshals’ Fugitive Task Force and the Davie County Sheriff’s Office were on their way to the complex for another reason when the shooting occurred. After the gunshots were heard, Reid was quickly apprehended on the scene by law enforcement.
Shavonne Barnes was identified as the actual target Reid had gone to the building to look for. The convicted man had gone to the location with the intention of preventing Barnes from testifying in his trial for a sex crimes case that week. However, he fatally shot Miller after mistaking her for Barnes, according to Fox 8.
“I saw Quintia lying face down, and…Reid Jr. laying on top of her,” Barnes said after the incident. “The attack should have never been her. The bullet was meant for me.”
Barnes told the news outlet that Reid molested her as a child and that she wanted to share her story to prevent others from falling victim to him.
“I knew from the point of his release, his goal was to kill me, and he made that very clear. I also watched him lay on the ground, and his words to me were…’I was coming for you,’” she recalled. “Not only did he violate me, but he’s also taken an innocent life because he’s a coward.”
Reid pleaded no contest to a first-degree sex offense, a statutory sex offense, and two counts of indecent liberties with a child in addition to the guilty plea for first-degree murder.