DAVIE COUNTY, N.C. (WGHP) — A man has pleaded guilty after he shot and killed a woman in a tragic case of mistaken identity, according to court officials.
According to the Superior Court of Davie County, Harold Reid Jr. pleaded guilty on Monday to first-degree murder in the death of 26-year-old Quintia Miller at Rowan Pointe Apartments in Mocksville in October of 2022. He also pled no contest to four sex offenses he was facing: first-degree sex offense, statutory sex offense and two counts of indecent liberties with a child.
All of those charges were combined with the first-degree murder charge.
Officials say that Reid went to Rowan Pointe Apartments on the morning of Oct. 3, 2022 and shot and killed Miller, who was staying with family in the complex.
Officers with the US Marshal’s Fugitive Task Force and the Davie County Sheriff’s Office were at the apartments attempting to locate a wanted person in an unrelated matter when they heard shots fired and saw Reid. He was taken into custody on the scene.
He was due in court that week for a sex crimes case and investigators say he went to the apartments looking for Shavonne Barnes in order to stop her from testifying against him. He then mistook Miller for Barnes and killed her.
“I saw Quintia lying face down, and…Reid Jr. laying on top of her,” Barnes said at the time. “The attack should have never been her. The bullet was meant for me.”
Barnes told FOX8 that Reid molested her as a child and she wanted to tell her story to help prevent him from doing it to anyone else.
“I knew from the point of his release, his goal was to kill me, and he made that very clear. I also watched him lay on the ground, and his words to me were…’I was coming for you,'” she said. “Not only did he violate me, but he’s also taken an innocent life because he’s a coward.”
Miller’s friends and family said she had a beautiful smile and always had something nice to say to everyone. She left behind a six-year-old son and a community of friends, who honored her at Rowan Pointe Apartments the night she was killed.
Reid was sentenced to live in prison with no chance for parole.
