Man, 78, pleads guilty to murdering woman, 26, whom he misidentified as someone who was going to testify against him in child sex crime case, police say



A North Carolina man pled guilty to murdering a woman in cold blood. Police say the 78-year-old man shot and killed the 26-year-old woman because he mistook her for another person who was going to testify that he molested her as a child.

Around 7:30 a.m. on October 3, 2022, Harold Reid Jr. went to the Rowan Pointe Apartments in Mocksville. Investigators believe Reid had a mission of murdering a woman who was set to testify against him regarding accusations that he committed child sex crimes when she was a girl.

Reid reportedly shot and killed 26-year-old Quintia Miller — who had dropped off her son at the school bus stop and was walking back to her apartment, according to a GoFundMe campaign. Miller was pronounced dead at the crime scene.

However, Miller was reportedly not Reid's actual target. Police believe Reid wanted to murder Shavonne Barnes — a woman who was set to testify the next day against the elderly man for allegedly molesting her as a child.

The Davie County Sheriff's Office said in a statement, "It is believed that he went to the Rowan Pointe Apartments looking for a person involved in the case against him to stop them from participating in the case. He apparently mistook Miller for the person he was looking for and confronted her, before shooting her."

Barnes told WGHP, "I saw Quintia lying face down. Reid was laying on top of her. The attack should have never been her. The bullet was meant for me."

Barnes said Reid committed sex crimes against her when she was between the ages of 10 and 12.

"I knew from the point of his release, his goal was to kill me, and he made that very clear," Barnes said.

"I also watched him lay on the ground, and his words to me were…'I was coming for you,'" she added. "Not only did he violate me, but he's also taken an innocent life because he's a coward."

Reid was immediately arrested after the shooting because officers with the U.S. Marshals Fugitive Task Force and Davie County Sheriff's Office just happened to be in the apartment complex that morning for an unrelated criminal investigation. Officers heard the gunshots, rushed to the victim, fired one shot at the suspect, and then took Reid into custody.

On Monday, Reid pleaded guilty to first-degree murder in the Superior Court of Davie County. He also pled no contest to four sex crimes that he was facing: first-degree sex offense, statutory sex offense, and two counts of indecent liberties with a child.

Reid will serve a mandatory sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Miller's family has been devastated by the tragic mistaken-identity murder.

"It has taken a toll on everybody. All the way down to my grandkids," Miller's mother, Sabrina Perry, told WXII-TV.

Miller leaves behind a 6-year-old son named Kamari.

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Woman, 67, and her adult daughter storm into middle school to confront relative's bullies, end up beating 3 students — none of whom bullied their relative



A woman and her adult daughter stormed into a South Carolina middle school Wednesday to confront students they believed were bullying their relative — and the duo ended up beating three students, none of whom bullied their relative.

Mamie Smith, 67, and her daughter Whitney Smith, 32, were jailed on charges of third-degree assault by mob and disturbing schools, the State reported. They both live on Goshen Road in Sumter, the Sumter County Sheriff’s Office said.

What are the details?

The women went to Ebenezer Middle School in Dalzell and buzzed at the front entrance — then told school staff they needed to go to the attendance office, the State said, citing the sheriff’s office.

Once inside, the pair then ran down a hallway and pushed a female student against a wall, hitting and scratching her face and head, the paper said.

Around 2:30 p.m. the school’s resource officer called the sheriff’s office for backup regarding a fight in progress, the State said, adding that another student also was pushed and hit, and a third student also was assaulted before authorities were able to detain the mother and daughter.

Emergency services took one of the students to a hospital; the other two students were released to their parents — one of them for the purposes of medical treatment, the paper said. Information on their conditions wasn't available, the State said.

Oops!

Not only did the women make a big mistake by entering a school and physically attacking students — but also, none of the students they attacked were bullying their relative.

“Our investigation showed that the students who were viciously attacked were not even the students who these subjects believed had bullied their family member,” Sheriff Anthony Dennis said, according to the State. “The fact is, the students who were reported as bullying these [women’s] family member [were] actually in the office being dealt with when this attack took place.”

What happened to the accused attackers?

Both Smiths were taken to the Sumter County Sheriff’s Office Detention Center where they were awaiting a bond hearing sometime Thursday, the paper said, citing the sheriff’s office.

If convicted on the third-degree assault by mob charge, they each face a maximum sentence of a year in prison; a conviction on the disturbing schools charge — a misdemeanor — is punishable by a maximum of 90 days in jail and a $1,000 fine, the State said, citing South Carolina law.

“This type of behavior is criminal and should never be considered ... the appropriate way to deal with matters,” Dennis added, according to the paper.

'It could happen to anyone': LA woman jailed for 13 days because of mistaken identity sues LAPD



A California woman claims she was held in jail for 13 days in what is being described as a case of mistaken identity. The Los Angeles woman filed a lawsuit for the arrest and said she suffered symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder because of the alleged imprisonment.

Bethany K. Farber said she was flying to Puerto Escondido, Mexico, on April 16 for a family vacation. She was about to board a flight out of Los Angeles International Airport when she was detained.

"I was about to board the flight just waiting at the gate," Farber told NPR. "Then TSA ended up calling me to the desk and then escorting me to the hall, where they immediately told me to put my things down and go against the wall and put my hands up."

Transportation Security Administration personnel escorted Farber to a private room, the lawsuit states, adding that she waited there for two hours before being informed that there was a warrant for her arrest out of Texas. Farber maintained that she had never been to Texas.

"Plaintiff informed the TSA officers who prevented her from boarding her flight that she had never been to Texas, and she certainly was not wanted for any crime there. Plaintiff repeatedly asked the TSA officers to check again, and further informed them that if there was in fact a warrant for her arrest it was identity theft," the lawsuit said.

"At no time did City Defendants ask Plaintiff for her driver’s license, date of birth, age, social security number or any other information which would have proven that Plaintiff did not have any warrant for her arrest in the State of Texas. ... By looking at a picture of Plaintiff and a picture of the other Bethany Farber, City Defendant’s would have realized Plaintiff should not have been arrested at all," the lawsuit claimed, according to NBC News.

The Los Angeles Police Department booked Farber at the Lynwood Women's Jail, where she was incarcerated for the next 13 days.

The lawsuit asserts that authorities were searching for a different Bethany Farber – who is a dark-haired 34-year-old woman from Texas and is wanted for property damage. The jailed Bethany K. Farber has long blonde hair and is younger than the Farber wanted in Texas.

Farber and the wanted woman -- also named Bethany Farber -- "had nothing in common besides their name.http://nbc4dc.com/EVVhFvZ
— NBC4 Washington (@NBC4 Washington) 1645658946

"Her family hired attorneys in Texas and LA and finally were able to show through Farber’s cell phone GPS that Farber was in California on the day prosecutors alleged the crime took place in Texas," KTTV reported.

"It could happen to anyone," Farber told the outlet about her alleged false imprisonment.

"This is an experience that no one should go through," she said.

Farber's lawyer, Rodney Diggs, said in a statement, "They did not check the basic information to determine that Bethany K. Farber was not the other Bethany Farber."

"The LAPD failed to do the bare minimum of their job, which they could have done by checking her phone, checking her birth date, checking her Social Security number, checking her fingerprints through live scan, or just checking photos of the other Bethany. But they didn't do any of that," Diggs told NPR.

Making things even worse, Farber's 90-year-old grandmother reportedly suffered a fatal stress-induced stroke while she was in jail. Farber was able to see her grandmother before she died, but said, "I missed a lot of her last days in the hospital."

KTTV reported, "The suit seeks $2.5 million for emotional distress and for every day Farber was incarcerated. Among those named, the City of Los Angeles, LAPD, and LAX police. None of them would comment on pending litigation."

Local Woman Wrongfully Arrested At LAX, Jailed For 13 Days Sues LAPD www.youtube.com

Tragic case of mistaken identity ends with man drugged and locked up in mental hospital for over 2 years for a crime he didn't commit



A man was wrongly arrested by authorities for a crime committed by someone else, locked up in a mental hospital for over two years, and forced to take psychiatric drugs in a tragic case of mistaken identity, according to a report from the Associated Press. Meanwhile, the actual criminal was reportedly already in jail.

Joshua Spriesterbach, 50, was said to have fallen asleep on a sidewalk while waiting for food outside a Honolulu homeless shelter in 2017. The homeless man was awakened by police officers, and he believed he was being arrested for violating the city's ban on sitting or laying down on public sidewalks. Instead, he was allegedly arrested for a crime he didn't commit.

Police mistook Spriesterbach for a man named Thomas Castleberry, who had a warrant out for his arrest for violating probation in a 2006 drug case. The Hawaii Innocence Project, a self-described "law clinic and non-profit with a mission to free prisoners who are factually innocent but who have been wrongfully convicted," claimed that Spriesterbach never met Castleberry, and never claimed to be the fugitive the police were searching for.

Spriesterbach pleaded for his innocence, but instead of his release, he was committed to the Hawaii State Hospital, which provides "inpatient psychiatric services for court-ordered individuals."

For two years and eight months, hospital staff and Spriestersbach's own public defenders refused to believe that he wasn't the man who police said he was. When Spriesterbach claimed that he wasn't Thomas Castleberry, the staff at the facility forced him to take psychiatric drugs, according to a petition filed in court on Monday asking a judge to vacate the arrest and correct Joshua Spriestersbach's records.

"Yet, the more Mr. Spriestersbach vocalized his innocence by asserting that he is not Mr. Castleberry, the more he was declared delusional and psychotic by the H.S.H. staff and doctors and heavily medicated," the petition reads. "It was understandable that Mr. Spriestersbach was in an agitated state when he was being wrongfully incarcerated for Mr. Castleberry's crime and despite his continual denial of being Mr. Castleberry and providing all of his relevant identification and places where he was located during Mr. Castleberry's court appearances, no one would believe him or take any meaningful steps to verify his identity and determine that what Mr. Spriestersbach was telling the truth – he was not Mr. Castleberry."

"Part of what they used against him was his own argument: 'I'm not Thomas Castleberry. I didn't commit these crimes. ... This isn't me,'" Spriestersbach's sister, Vedanta Griffith, told The Associated Press. "So they used that as saying he was delusional, as justification for keeping him."

Finally, one psychiatrist at the Hawaii State Hospital reportedly listened to Spriesterbach, and quickly found that he was not Thomas Castleberry. The psychiatrist did a few Google searches and made some phone calls to confirm that Spriestersbach was on another island when Castleberry was initially arrested, according to court documents.

The real Thomas Castleberry has been incarcerated in an Alaska prison since 2016.

When authorities realized their mistake, they quietly released Spriesterbach from the mental hospital in January 2020 with just 50 cents to his name, according to the report.

Spriestersbach's attorneys contend that the trainwreck of injustice could have easily been avoided if law enforcement simply compared the two men's photographs and fingerprints.

The Hawaii Innocence Project said the police, state public defender's office, state attorney general, and the state hospital "share in the blame for this gross miscarriage of justice."

Hawaii Public Defender James Tabe, Gary Yamashiroya, special assistant to the attorney general, and Matt Dvonch, a spokesman for the Honolulu prosecuting attorney's office, declined to provide the AP with a comment regarding the Spriesterbach case.

Spriestersbach, who now lives with his sister in Vermont, declined to comment on his stint at the Hawaii State Hospital.

Griffith said to this day, her brother is "so afraid that they're going to take him again."