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Man Who Claimed He Had Been Hallucinating When He Shot His Wife To Death Gets 40 Years
Michael Edward Reis said in court that he was hallucinating that his daughters were dead in the backyard at the time he fatally shot his wife, Jennifer Alvarado Reis, even though no children were living in the couple’s Biloxi home.
A Mississippi man who claimed he shot his wife to death in the kitchen of their home because he was hallucinating after taking “too many” prescription drugs has been sentenced to prison for her murder.
Michael Edward Reis received a 40-year sentence for the murder of his wife Jennifer Alvarado Reis after pleading guilty to second-degree murder. Reis will serve 25 years behind bars, while 15 years of the sentence was suspended, according to The Biloxi Sun Herald.
Reis claimed that in the early morning hours of March 1, 2020 he started having hallucinations after taking “too many” prescription drugs and believed that his daughters were dead in the backyard of the couple’s Biloxi home, although no children were living with the couple at the time.
Investigators would later discover videos captured on Jennifer’s phone that captured Reis racing around the couple’s home, asking about his daughters and digging in the backyard before she was killed.
Reis allegedly believed his wife had harmed his children, according to WLOX.
After shooting his wife, he flagged down Biloxi police to tell them he had just shot someone.
The officers went to the couple’s home on Popp’s Ferry Road and found Jennifer dead in the kitchen from a single gunshot wound to the chest.
“Police located a pistol in the defendant’s car the night he approached them and concluded it was the murder weapon through forensic testing,” said Assistant District Attorney George Huffman.
Reis claimed that the shooting had been unintentional and said that he was being reckless with the gun when it went off.
“I am incredibly sorry for what I have done,” he said in court Thursday.
Judge Christopher Schmidt, who handed down the sentence, appeared to be unmoved by Reis’ claim that he had been hallucinating and pointed out in court that voluntary drug intoxication was not an excuse for murder.
“It is another senseless homicide that derives from the abuse of drugs,” Schmidt said during sentencing, according to the local paper. “And I don’t see that trajectory changing in our society.”
Prosecutors also read a statement from Jennifer’s son, Blake Sprouse, describing the incredible loss her family had suffered.
“These are thing that my family and I should never have been put through,” it read. “I can no longer call my mom and tell her all the great things in my life. … She could not wait to be a grandma. Unfortunately, that opportunity was stolen from her, and she will never be able to hold her grandbaby.”
