An Orcutt man accused of shooting his parents will be spending the next two decades in prison.
The Santa Barbara County District Attorney’s Office announced on May 8 that Brian Keith Reid pleaded guilty to one count of manslaughter and one count of attempted murder. Reid was facing a mandatory sentence of life in prison if he’d opted for a jury to decide his fate.
Reid, 42, was on trial for shooting and killing his father, 73-year-old William Forrest Reid, and injuring his mother with a handgun during a 2012 Labor Day barbecue at his parents’ house in Orcutt.
Reid’s trial began on April 13 in Santa Maria, with Judge Rogelio Flores presiding over the case.
The case went to the jury on May 7, but just as the jury began deliberating on May 8, both Senior Deputy District Attorney Kevin Duffy and Reid’s attorney, Senior Deputy Public Defender Robert Ikola, reached a plea deal. Upon accepting the deal, Reid admitted to killing his father.
Reid is facing a term of 24 years and four months, which he will serve in a state prison.
Duffy said Reid got the maximum sentence for manslaughter.
“He received the upper term of 11 years on that charge,” Duffy told the Sun, adding that Reid admitted to a gun enhancement, tacking on an additional 10 consecutive years to his sentence.
Duffy said that Reid received another consecutive sentence of two years and four months for trying to kill his mother with a “great bodily injury,” plus the gun enhancement added to that sentence.
Ikola did not return phone calls from the Sun.
By law, Reid’s required to serve 85 percent of his sentence, making him eligible for parole in 2033. His sentencing hearing is scheduled for June 22.
This article appears in May 14-21, 2015.