Man, 49, indicted on murder charge

staff report

YOUNGSTOWN — Donnie R. Reed, the Austintown man accused of killing 22-year-old Army Pvt. Randy Davis on April 4 in Reed’s Burkey Road home, has been indicted on a murder charge.

If convicted, Reed, 49, could be sentenced to 15 years to life in prison, plus additional time for committing the crime with a firearm.

Davis, along with a small group of other men, were at Reed’s home when Davis asked Reed if he had any guns. Reed led Davis back to a bedroom and the witnesses heard a gunshot, witnesses testified at a preliminary hearing.

“He said, ‘[Expletive], I shot him,’” Ron Davis, 23, Davis’ brother, said of Reed’s statement after they heard the gun go off. “Call the cops.’”

Randy Davis, of Boardman and Youngstown, had been shot in the forehead and died.

Reed initially told police that he handed Randy Davis the gun, turned away and then heard the gunfire.

Gunshot residue tests by the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Identification and Investigation, however, indicate that Reed — not Randy Davis — fired the gun, authorities have said.

Ron Davis and another witness, Wade Mitcheltree, who was also at the house at the time of the shooting, both testified that there was no known animosity between Reed and Randy Davis and there were no arguments between the men that night.