Testimony begins in trial of man accused of shooting his father multiple times with AR-15.
Updated: Jul 25, 2023
A jury of seven women and five men began hearing testimony late Monday afternoon in the trial of Garrett Reeves, accused of shooting his father – Erath County auditor Kent Reeves - more than a dozen times with an AR-15 and 9 mm Glock inside the family’s home on April 9, 2022.
Investigator Garrett Koonsman with the Erath County Sheriff’s Office was the first to arrive on scene and told jurors he was met at the front gate by Lora Reeves, Kent’s wife and Garrett’s mother, who led him into the home where he found the victim lying on his left side on the living room floor.
District Attorney Alan Nash played body cam footage that showed Koonsman arriving to an eerily calm scene despite the victim’s grave condition.
As Koonsman waited for medical personnel to arrive, he tried to locate Garrett Reeves, who had fled the scene with his girlfriend.
Paramedic Colby Swearingen told jurors that he arrived to a bloody scene with multiple spent shell casings and a victim that was critically injured.
He told jurors that Kent Reeves had multiple gunshot wounds to the abdomen, but was breathing and conscious when he was rolled up in the rug he had fallen on and transported to a waiting ambulance.
Swearingen said that Kent was partially alert when he was loaded into the ambulance and said, “Get me the f*** out of here.”
OPENING STATEMENTS
In opening remarks to jurors, Nash said that Garrett Reeves had become “fanatical” about guns, fearing the government and outsiders and had begun carrying an AR -15 and 9 mm pistol with him at all times.
Calling the story “unusual” and “bizarre,” Nash told jurors that on the night of the shooting, the father and son were having a relatively calm discussion in the family’s home regarding Garrett’s lack of employment.
At some point that conversation became heated and turned violent, but what prompted that turn of events depends on who you ask.
In his opening remarks, Garrett Reeves’ court-appointed attorney Jud Woodley told jurors that his client acted in self-defense.
More on that will likely be presented to jurors when testimony resumes on Tuesday.
