MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Court dates have been scheduled for December for the sentencing phases of a man convicted of murdering a WVU student in Morgantown.
Shaundarius Reeder was convicted of first-degree murder in the 2020 death of Erick Smith, but the jury could not reach a unanimous decision on the question if Reeder should receive mercy, and be eligible for parole after serving 15 years in prison or not.
In June, the West Virginia State Supreme Court ordered that Reeder’s conviction should stand and a new jury to be empaneled in Monongalia County to hear arguments and rule mercy or no mercy.
A pre-trial conference is scheduled for Nov. 27 at 9 a.m., and the trial is scheduled to begin Dec. 5 at the Monongalia County Justice Center.
On Feb. 28, 2020, Reeder and co-defendant Terrell Linear were riding back to College Park Apartments to drop Smith and two others off when an argument erupted about money and cars. When they arrived, a fight between the three men took place in the parking lot before Smith went into his apartment building.
Linear and Reeder each got a gun from the car and went back into the building to find Smith. Linear told police he beat on multiple apartment doors so they could witness him kill Smith. When Smith opened the door, he was shot seven times by both suspects.
Forensic testing presented during the trial showed two of the bullets were fired by the black gun Linear was carrying and five, including the three removed from Smith’s body during the autopsy, were fired by the pink gun Reeder carried on the night of the killing.
Linear was convicted of first-degree murder with mercy in June of 2021 and is incarcerated.