A man from Lindale will serve life imprisonment upon pleading guilty to two counts of murder on Friday.
David Reed, 41, was taken into custody after a brutal wreck in December 2020 that killed Shelby Duarte, 26, and Timothy Nelson Jr., 43. The pair following being hit by a truck driven by Reed.
A Texas judge sentenced a man to two life sentences in jail following his admission to using his pickup truck to ram into an RV trailer containing his pregnant former girlfriend. (Photo: Law & Crime)
Double Life Sentences
Reed pleaded guilty in the 241st District Court to the murders on Dec. 9, 2020. Judge Jack Skeen Jr. communicated the double life sentences and commanded Reed to serve them simultaneously.
Reed was first arraigned with capital murder of multiple people. He had initially been slated to start his trial on Monday prior to reaching a negotiation with prosecutors who took the death penalty off of the table.
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Murder of Multiple People
According to court records, in the previous week, Reed was accused of an additional murder charge. The new murder indictment lists merely Nelson as the victim. The initial capital murder arraignment listed Duarte and Nelson. Texas declared on Friday changes to remove Nelson from the original indictment to charge Reed with the two deaths individually. Reed pleaded guilty to the lesser charge of murder for each of the fatalities through such changes, reported Tyler Morning Telegraph.
Trying to Blow Himself Up
Reed was also attempting to detonate himself. He had loaded his vehicle with propane tanks. According to investigators at the scene, Reed drove his white pickup into a camper trailer that annihilated it. Due to the destruction, Duarte and Nelson were thrown 65 feet and hit the front of a house, reported KETK.
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