A Jamaican native who formerly lived in Westbrook was sentenced Tuesday in Portland to serve 40 months in prison for firing six gunshots into a Falmouth house in 2012, narrowly missing a couple sleeping in their bed.
Five of the six shots fired by 29 year-old Cory Reid went directly into the bed or were deflected to the bed without hitting the man and woman at 407 Route 1 in Falmouth at 2 a.m. on June 20, 2012.
Additional Photos
Reid’s ex-wife, who drove him to the scene of the shooting, told police that Reid was shooting at a man who lived there. The two men had a long-standing feud involving a woman and a stolen television, according to a prosecutor.
Reid had pleaded guilty in Cumberland County Unified Criminal Court in Portland on Oct. 2 to two counts of reckless conduct with a dangerous weapon as part of a plea deal in which two more serious felony charges – of attempted murder – were dismissed.
“He knew that there were people in the bed or believed that there were people in that bed,” the prosecutor, Deputy District Attorney Megan Elam, said at the sentencing hearing. “It’s a miracle that people were not at least hurt by those shots if not killed.”
Elam, calling Reid’s crime “grotesque,” asked the judge to impose a sentence of 10 years, applying the maximum sentence of five years for each of the reckless conduct charges in back-to-back terms.
Justice Joyce Wheeler said she had to assume in her ruling that there was not enough evidence to show that Reid knew that the man and woman were in the bed at the time of the shooting. She rejected Elam’s request for consecutive sentences, but imposed a harsher sentence than the minimum mandatory sentence of one year in prison requested by Reid’s attorney.
“There is nothing to indicate on the day in question that he knew where the bed was or who was in the bed,” said Reid’s attorney, Robert LeBrasseur, who said his client was only trying to frighten his rival.
Reid, an aspiring rap musician and father, also addressed the court, saying that he was abusing drugs, oxycodone and Klonopin, at the time of the shooting.
“I’d like (to) apologize, and say I’m sorry for what I did,” said Reid, dressed in an orange prison uniform. “I’m just thankful that no one got hurt.”
Reid was arrested the day after the shooting and has been in custody since. Falmouth police had broadcast a bulletin to other agencies asking for information about Reid, and learned he had been stopped for speeding in Windham in a silver Pontiac Grand Prix a couple of hours before the shooting.
Westbrook police found the car at Reid’s house on Roosevelt Trail and kept watch while Falmouth police drafted a search warrant.
When police searched Reid’s house, they say, they found drugs and a gun hidden in a bucket of chicken excrement, but it was not the gun that was used in the shooting. Witnesses told police that Reid had put the gun there to throw off police.
However, in the box that held the gun were shells that had been fired from a .45-caliber Glock, which the Maine State Police crime lab said was the gun used in the shooting. The Glock itself was never recovered.
Reid, who has lived in the United States since he was 7 years old, faces possible deportation to Jamaica after completion of his sentence.
Scott Dolan can be reached at 791-6304 or at:
sdolan@pressherald.com
Twitter: @scottddolan
Send questions/comments to the editors.
Success. Please wait for the page to reload. If the page does not reload within 5 seconds, please refresh the page.
Enter your email and password to access comments.
Hi, to comment on stories you must . This profile is in addition to your subscription and website login.
Already have a commenting profile? .
Invalid username/password.
Please check your email to confirm and complete your registration.
Only subscribers are eligible to post comments. Please subscribe or login first for digital access. Here’s why.
Use the form below to reset your password. When you've submitted your account email, we will send an email with a reset code.