Insets: Joyce Grayson (Tillinghast Funeral Home) and Michael Reese (Connecticut Department of Corrections). Background: Halfway house in Willimantic, Connecticut, where Reese murdered Grayson (Google Maps).
A convicted sex offender who murdered a visiting nurse at the Connecticut halfway house where he was living was sentenced to a half-century behind bars.
Michael Carlos Reese, 40, pleaded guilty to murder on Friday and a judge sent him to prison for 50 years in the death of 63-year-old Joyce Grayson, the State”s Attorney for the Judicial District of Windham said in a press release.
Grayson, a longtime visiting nurse, went to a halfway house for sexual offenders in Willimantic on Oct. 28, 2023, to complete check-up on Reese. Instead of accepting her care, Reese strangled and beat her to death, and tried to sexually assault her.
Several friends and family members spoke at the sentencing hearing.
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“What the family wants the world to know is that Joyce was a saint. The family wants the community to remember Joyce and her name and not the defendant” attorney Kelly Reardon who represents the Grayson family told reporters afterward.
In addition to serving as a nurse for decades, Grayson also fostered some 35 children over the years and was honored as “Foster Parent of the Year” in 2017.
Grayson’s daughter told the court that her mom taught her to help people “no matter how hard it might be,” according to CTInsider.com. Reese killed Grayson while she was doing something she loved, her other daughter said.
“He deserves to sit in a cell away from his family and friends for the rest of his life,” she said.
Her friends and family noted how Grayson did not die in vain. Her death inspired a series of new laws that went into effect last year that gives home healthcare workers protections such as requesting a chaperone and access to information about the potential danger a client poses.
As Law&Crime previously reported, Grayson’s appointment with Reese was only supposed to last eight minutes. But the GPS tracker on her phone said it was still there nearly four hours later, according to a probable cause arrest affidavit obtained by Law&Crime. Its tracker shut off shortly before noon. The nurse had also missed all her subsequent appointments.
Grayson’s family members alerted cops.
Officers responded to the home but no one answered. The nurse’s car also was not there. Police learned Reese, who was on probation and was a sex offender with “violent tendencies,” was living at the halfway house, which was designed to reintegrate sex offenders into society. Officers called Reese’s probation officer, who told them his ankle bracelet was showing he was located inside the home and hadn’t shown any signs of tampering.
Meanwhile, police located the nurse’s car at a nearby business and a K-9 dog led officers back to the halfway house. Investigators received a call around 3:20 p.m. from the probation officer who said Reese’s ankle bracelet was being tampered with. An officer saw Reese running out the back door and took him into custody. He had a pairing knife, a crack pipe, three of the victim’s credit cards and the key fob for her vehicle on him, the affidavit said.
Cops then went into the home and found Grayson’s body in the basement.
“This is a deeply troubling case on many levels, and one of the worst cases I have seen in 27 years in law enforcement,” Willimantic police Chief Paul M. Hussey in a statement. “Our condolences go out to the family of the victim.”
According to records, Reese was convicted in 2007 of sexual assault in the first degree. He was sentenced to 25 years in prison but the sentence was suspended after he served 17 years. He was released on April 23, 2021. Reese was put on probation until 2031. He violated that probation on March 31, 2022, for failure to comply with treatment and substance abuse. A judge in January revoked Reese’s original sentence and sentenced him to six years in prison, but it could be suspended after six months served, along with nine years probation.
Reese was released from prison in March 2023 and entered a residential treatment program for “high-risk individuals convicted of sexual offenses.” He then transitioned to the halfway house in Willimantic after completing the program on Aug. 2, 2023.
“I want to commend both agencies on their diligent investigation into the death of Ms. Grayson,” State’s Attorney John F. Fahey said. “While no sentence ever brings a loved one back to their family, some sense of justice was done today, in large part due to the hard work and tireless efforts of the Willimantic Police Department and the Connecticut State Police Eastern District Major Crime Squad.”
