COLUMBUS, Ohio – A Franklin County judge had harsh words yesterday for the family of a teenager he sentenced to 17 years in prison for killing a man.
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“I do not forgive the members of your family,” Judge Patrick E. Sheeran told defendant Joseph Q. Reeder, 16. “In a very real sense, your life was a disaster waiting to happen, and it did.”
Reeder was 14 when he shot Anthony Hines, 64, on Feb. 4, 2013, at 3999 Elaine Place S. while Reeder was alone in the house with two younger siblings. Hines, of Dayton, had come to the East Side house of Reeder’s mother to buy marijuana, and Reeder said he killed him in self-defense.
Sheeran didn’t buy that argument. But he noted that children who are neglected and unloved by their families and enter the criminal-justice system rarely make something positive of their lives.
“I most sincerely hope you do,” the judge said.
Reeder entered an Alford plea on Feb. 2 to aggravated robbery, involuntary manslaughter with a firearm specification and tampering with evidence charges. In such a plea the defendant does not admit guilt but concedes that prosecutors have enough evidence to get a conviction.
Prosecutors had asked for 28 years in prison.
“This is not how I want to live my life,” Reeder said, sobbing, before Sheeran announced the sentence. Then, addressing the family of the victim, he said: “I’m really sorry. I truly am. No one deserves what you are going through.”