Bruce Reed and his attorney Kevin Nelson at a hearing in Lewis County Superior Court on May 13, 2019.
Bruce Reed, an Onalaska man who pleaded guilty to shooting and killing his wife in January, was sentenced Monday morning to more than 23 years in prison.
A majority of the hearing consisted of emotional statements from the victim’s family, who remembered her has an excellent nurse, mother, cousin and sister.
The sentence imposed by Judge Andrew Toynbee — 280 months for one count of first-degree murder with 112 days of credit for time already served — was an agreed recommendation between Deputy Prosecutor Paul Masiello and Reed’s attorney Kevin Nelson.
He was to be sentenced on a range of 240 to 320 months in prison. Masiello said the defendant had no criminal history to speak of, other than some dated offenses.
Toynbee said he was tempted to sentence Reed to the maximum sentence available, after hearing family members speak to the devastating effects of Francis Reed’s murder. However, he said, there were some other factors he had to take into account.
One of those factors was the fact that Reed had been cooperative with police, telling them what happened and even calling 911 to report he had shot his wife. First-degree murder cases can drag on for years, said Toynbee, but Reed’s willingness to plead guilty within months of being charged saves the victim’s loved ones from the pain of a lengthy process and trial.
Masiello said Francis Reed, 67, was shot more than once in the back and was running away as Bruce Reed, 68, fired an entire magazine at her with his semi-automatic handgun. She was found dead outside their residence.
Her gunshot wounds to the back were brought up more than once as family members addressed either Bruce Reed or Toynbee.
Cathy Braaten, Francis Reed’s daughter, spoke of the emotional fallout in the wake of the shooting and the difficulty in explaining the situation to her children.
“Bruce took a part of me that night. … My happiness is gone,” she said.
She described going to the Reeds’ house that night in January. It was dark and rainy she said, and her mother was still lying outside with a sheet covering her.
Since then, the only peace she’s found was during a trip to Mississippi, she said — her mother’s home state. That’s where she was laid to rest, Braaten said.
Family members went to the house in Onalaska where the shooting occurred, Braaten said. There, they cleaned blood and glass. Nine dogs still called the house home, she said.
To see the bullet holes inside the house makes her imagine the way her mother must have run when the gunshots started, she said.
Betty Stagnitta, Francis Reed’s sister, told Toynbee she hoped that he would sentence Bruce Reed to life in prison, but added that she trusted the judge to make the best decision.
“You have no idea how hard it was to plan my sister’s funeral,” she said, adding later: “I curse him every day to be haunted … with what she looked like.”
Toynbee said Reed would be at least in his 90s before he would have a chance to be released. He added that it’s likely he will spend the rest of his life behind bars.
In a memorandum filed by Nelson, he wrote that the two had a contentious relationship confounded by arguments about finances, a home remodeling project and Bruce Reed’s increased drinking.
The tension reached its peak Jan. 22, when the two engaged in another fight. Bruce Reed asked his wife to help him with a part of the remodel project.
“Bruce had been drinking again and Fran came unglued and started calling Bruce various derogatory names,” reads the memorandum.
“Bruce reached for the handgun, Fran challenged him, he pointed it at Fran, and pulled the trigger. When explaining the situation, Bruce told law enforcement that once he started pulling the trigger he just kept going until he was out of ammunition.”
Nelson noted during the hearing that Bruce Reed has expressed remorse for the shooting.
While he declined to make a comment during the hearing, Nelson said Bruce Reed wanted to extend an apology to both his family and Francis Reed’s family.
Reed was also sentenced to 36 months of community custody and to pay a $500 victim assessment fee and a $100 DNA fee.
