Background: The 1100 block of Dogwood Lane in Birmingham, Alabama (Google Maps). Inset left: Melvin Morris (Birmingham Police Department). Inset right: Devonta Reddick (Eastside Funeral Home).
A man has learned his fate for murdering a man and significantly wounding his pregnant girlfriend during a home invasion in Birmingham, Alabama.
Melvin Charles Morris, 46, will spend the rest of his life in prison, Tenth Judicial Circuit Judge Stephen Wallace declared, per AL.com. Morris was convicted by a Jefferson County jury in July of felony murder and first-degree assault.
The grisly crimes stretch back more than five years, when, on Feb. 6, 2020, Devonta Reddick and his girlfriend, Sabrea Baylor — as well as their 3-year-old child — were asleep inside their home on Dogwood Lane. At about 6:30 a.m., Morris and at least one other man forced their way into the home, authorities said.
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What followed next was a haunting sequence of events, according to testimony from the 25-year-old Baylor reported on by AL.com. Reddick charged at the intruders, and Baylor followed, holding a weapon. Upon being shot at — and Baylor being struck in the leg — she returned fire. Reddick yelled for her to protect their child, and she ran to the boy”s bedroom and closed the door.
“Where that b— at?” a voice is said to have asked while walking toward her. Baylor and at least one suspect exchanged gunfire, with her being shot multiple times but also shooting Morris in the neck. The suspects left, and Baylor managed to run across the street to her grandparents’ house for help.
Birmingham Police Department officers arrived at the residence to find the 27-year-old Reddick unresponsive in the front yard. He was soon after pronounced dead. Baylor was treated for her wounds.
She gave birth to their child the very next day.
About six months later, Morris was arrested by U.S. marshals in Nashville, Tennessee, and transported back to jail in Jefferson County, Alabama. He was originally charged with capital murder and attempted murder.
Cameron Dejuan Blanding (Jefferson County Jail).
Three months after that, in November 2020, another arrest was made, this time for Morris’ alleged accomplice, then-28-year-old Cameron Dejuan Blanding. Jail records show that he was charged with capital murder and attempted murder.
Fast forward to October 2025, when Baylor spoke in court during Morris’ sentencing. If he had any remorse, he didn’t show it, the woman expressed, actually displaying the opposite.
“Mr. Morris laughed during the trial. He stared at me and showed no remorse,” she said, per the local website. “He laughed at our family. He laughed in our faces.”
Blanding is set to go on trial in June 2026. Morris was reportedly sentenced to two consecutive life sentences under the state’s habitual offender laws because he had already been convicted of two felonies.
Reddick was remembered by his sister, Karlisha Reddick, as “a very sweet person, always laughing and making jokes.”
She added: “He was always the person that kept the family together, that wanted everybody to be together. He was a really good man.”
