A 56-year-old landlord in Michigan will spend the rest of his days behind bars for killing a couple who rented an apartment from him two years ago, fatally shooting the 34-year-old man before beating and strangling the 31-year-old woman.
Battle Creek Circuit Court Judge Sarah S. Lincoln on Friday ordered Chad Allan Reed to serve a sentence of life in a state correctional institution without the possibility of parole for the slayings of Joseph Soule and Jaclyn Lepird, court records reviewed by Law&Crime show.
A jury found Reed guilty of second-degree murder in October in Soule’s death and first-degree murder in connection with Lepird’s death.
Lincoln sentenced Reed to life without parole on the first-degree murder charge and 125 years — life with the chance for parole — on the second-degree murder charge. Lincoln also made the largely symbolic gesture of ordering Reed to serve the sentences consecutively, meaning one after the other.
The burned remains of the house where Chad Allen Reed’s victims were slain in October 2020. YouTube Screengrab Fox affiliate WXMI. Inset: Booking photo Chad Allen Reed from Battle Creek Police Department.
“We were very pleased with the decision. I mean, you can’t beat two life sentences. We’re very thankful that he will never be out to hurt another person again,” Lepird’s sister, Trinity McAllister, said in a statement to reporters after the sentencing hearing. “We’ll never have to see him again. We’ll never have to hear about him.”
As previously reported by Law&Crime, friends and family of the victims started to have concerns after not hearing from Soule or Lepird for about five days and contacted the Battle Creek Police Department.
Days after police checked on the home, Reed called into a police tip line where prosecutors say he first admitted to the murders.
The landlord told police that Soule had pulled a knife on him, so he drew a gun in self-defense and shot Soule dead. Prosecutors say Reed also admitted to chasing Lepird down after she saw him shoot her boyfriend. When she fled, Reed gave chase, shooting at her at least once before capturing her.
With Lepird cornered in the backyard, Reed beat her and then strangled her.
Prosecutors said Reed next took both of the bodies, wrapped them in clear plastic, and moved the bodies into his truck. He then threw a tarp and debris over them, followed by a series of large boards. Then, Reed parked the truck at a vacant garage roughly a block from his house.
Before Reed was arrested, police said someone had tried to burn down the residence-turned-crime scene no less than five times.
Jaclyn Lepird and Joseph Soule (Battle Creek Police Dept.)
In court, his public defender, Susan Mladenoff, argued Reed only acted in self-defense after Soule pulled a knife on him. But prosecutors at trial emphasized that it was Reed who attacked Lepird as she tried to flee from the scene because Reed did not want to leave any witnesses to his killing of Soule.
“He not only shot her, he chased her down. He hit her with a metal object,” Calhoun County Assistant Prosecuting Attorney Tamara L. Towns told jurors, according to a report from Grand Rapids, Michigan, Fox affiliate WXMI. “He tried to slit her throat. He then strangled her until a life went out of her.”
Court records show that Reed was convicted of fourth-degree criminal sexual conduct in 2003 and felony assault with a dangerous weapon in 2005.
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