A South Carolina woman who brought her girlfriend a gun to confront a coworker before the coworker shot her in self-defense faces up to ten years in prison after pleading guilty to assault and battery.
Rock Hill police charged Brittney Nicole Reed, 34, with murder, conspiracy, and firearms charges during a summer 2024 shooting on Celriver Road at Riverwalk Parkway in the middle of the afternoon.
Circuit Judge Bill McKinnon accepted the plea Thursday in York County criminal court, deferring punishment until November.
Reed’s lawyer, Sabreena Barboza, informed McKinnon that she agreed to the plea offer.
Reed said nothing about the incident in court except to concur with the prosecutors’ account of the circumstances and plead guilty.
A gun, confrontation, and rounds fired.
Here’s how prosecutor Leslie Robinson explained to the judge what transpired on June 19 of last year, which resulted in one death.
Reed brought a gun to her girlfriend, Samarian Lindsay, after she argued with a male coworker at DHL in Rock Hill.
Lindsay and Reed exchanged texts and phone conversations, and Lindsay requested that Reed bring a “tool.”
According to Robinson, Lindsay gave Reed a picture of the coworker’s vehicle. Lindsay also texted another person, saying, “She might go to jail for shooting someone.”
Reed then arrived to pick up Lindsay from work at 3 p.m.
Robinson said Reed drove Lindsay to follow the coworker and cut him off in traffic at a nearby signal. Lindsay then got out of the passenger seat and approached the coworker’s vehicle, holding a revolver in front of her and covering it with a bag, according to Robinson.
Robinson testified in court that the coworker then took a revolver from his vehicle and shot Lindsay in self-defense. He hasn’t been charged.
According to Robinson, Rock Hill police detained Reed under the felony murder rule, which states that she allegedly participated in a criminal act that may have resulted in someone’s death.
There is no precedent in South Carolina for a homicide case with identical elements, therefore discussions with Reed’s lawyers resulted in the plea agreement, in which Reed admitted knowing there was a plan to confront the coworker, according to Robinson.
What will happen now?
Reed was released on bond in August 2024 and does not have to return to court until his November sentence.
According to court statements from Judge McKinnon and the case’s lawyers on Thursday, the conviction entails a sentence ranging from probation to ten years.
Reed’s lawyers and prosecutors will be able to present their arguments for sentencing at the November hearing.
According to the judge and lawyers in the case, prosecutors will withdraw the murder and other accusations only if the sentence is issued.
