|
|
||
|
13-YEAR-OLD SLAIN, SISTER WOUNDED dad charged in girl's death Father charged in slaying of 13-year-old Spotsylvania girl. Shooting stemmed from argument over drugs, relative says.
UPDATE: Dad given life sentence
Date published: 8/22/2007
BY ELLEN BILTZ Thirteen-year-old Kayla Reynolds was arguing about bad checks with her father early yesterday when the subject turned to drugs. Moments later, the Spotsylvania County teenager was dead on the front porch from a gunshot wound to the head, her pregnant half-sister was bleeding from a bullet to her face, and her uncle was calling police while her father drank a couple of beers. Spotsylvania authorities charged Kayla's father--44-year-old Earl Wayne "Butch" Reynolds--with first-degree murder and use of a firearm in commission of a felony in her death. Sheriff Howard Smith said Reynolds was being held without bond and would probably face additional charges in the wounding of the 19-year-old half sister, who was hospitalized in Richmond. Lewis B. Hague, the owner of the home on Belfonte Road near Lake Anna and a relative of Butch Reynolds, was on the porch with the father and two teens shortly before 1 a.m. and said he saw the shooting. "They were arguing about how he wrote some bad checks. Then [Kayla] said to him, 'You and another guy, y'all went out to smoke crack,'" Hague said. "That really set him off." Hague said he saw Reynolds take out his pistol and shoot both girls in the head. "It looked like it went in just under her ear and then out past her chin," he said of the 19-year-old's wound, pointing at his own face to demonstrate. Sheriff Smith said Kayla was shot in the back of the head. Investigators recovered a .32-caliber handgun at the scene, he said. Hague said he went inside to call 911. Reynolds followed him inside and sat down, he said. "He knew I was calling and he just didn't care. He had a beer or two and then just left," Hague said. "But he came back later and turned himself in." The older girl had a single gunshot wound to her chin and was bleeding badly when police arrived, Smith said. She was flown to the Medical Center of Virginia, where Smith said she was in stable condition yesterday afternoon. The woman, whose name was not released because she is a surviving victim, was two months pregnant. Smith said the unborn child is expected to live.
Are you an employee of the local DSS? Are you a member of the CPS staff? That is the only way I can imagine you could make a statement such as this - "There was never a family assessment after reports were made." Unless you work for the department, I don't see how you, nor anyone else on here, has any idea what kinds of reports may have been received or how they may have been handled.
applebaum80 I beg to differ you are so very wrong! There have been post that you have missed over the past few days but people DID notify CPS and NOTHING was done, that alone is a fact from some that knew Kayla very well. In 1975 the enactment of Virginia’s child abuse and neglect statutes began. The CPS is mandated by state law to investigate ALL alegations of child abuse and neglect. There was never a family assessment after reports were made.
It looks like they do not always follow the basic protocols outlined in Virginia Department of Social Services Manual ,That alone raises troubling questions about the training case workers receive in conducting investigations. You also said "SS does not have as much power or authority as the public might like to think." when in fact they do, CPS caseworkers have the legal mandated authority to investigate abuse and neglect.and if they need help then they go to plan B, dial 911.
THANK YOU. THANK YOU. THANK YOU. THAT NEEDED TO BE SAID.
i don't know many people who are always smiling and those who are are usually idiots. this was a kid (13) trying to deal with life and that is hard enough to do when you are grown, but this child had no mother or father (DRUGS ADDICTS DON'T MAKE GOOD PARENTS) to give direction/guidance and she was doing it on her own. of course, she was going to make mistakes - we all do.
we get that kayla wasn't happy. that is almost a given considering just what was written regarding the circumstances of her death. i think the principal was trying to give her some dignity in death by not commenting on the person she may have become at the time of her death. you can look at the picture and see that she looks much older than 13 - that comes from having a hard life.
|
|
||||||||||||||||
