A young life was taken on a Sunday night in 2023 when 10-year-old Damarion Byrd was shot in the back while sleeping in his bed. Two years and a month later, a Baldwin County jury convicted two of the people responsible.
Shamonica Kiera Reaves, 35, and Rodracius Demaris Stephens, 41, were arrested March 6, 2023, and charged with felony murder. The community was left in shock.
“Our entire community is upset as well as all of our deputy sheriffs and all the first responders,” Baldwin County Sheriff Bill Massee said after the arrests. “It’s bad when we have anything happen to anyone in our community, but … when a 10-year-old child is killed in his bed sleeping, that’s a horrible crime.”
As previously reported in The Baldwin Bulletin, the shooting happened at approximately 1:30 a.m.
March 5, 2023, when 16 gunshots were fired into the single-wide mobile home on Harrisburg Road in Milledgeville where the child lived with his father.
Deputies responding to the scene discovered that Damarion had been shot while sleeping in his bed, but his father who was in another room had not been injured. The child was treated at the scene by Baldwin County Fire Rescue and Grady Emergency personnel, then taken by ambulance to Atrium Health Navicent Baldwin Hospital in Milledgeville, where he died a short time later.
Ocmulgee Judicial Circuit District Attorney T. Wright Barksdale announced the conviction in a Facebook post.
“The evidence showed that Reaves drove Stephens to the Harrisburg area,” he said. “Once in Harrisburg, Stephens walked behind the Byrd residence and fired 16 rounds at the home. It was a senseless and evil act that took the life of an innocent child.”
Superior Court Judge Brenda Trammell presided over the trial and sentenced Stephens to life without the possibility of parole plus 40 years to serve. Reaves was sentenced to life plus 20 years.
“As your district attorney, I pray the sentences handed down are statements to those thinking about participating in violent criminal behavior,” Barksdale said. “Law enforcement and the district attorney’s office will handle you accordingly.”
Barksdale was aided in the prosecution by ADA Savanna Neal, victim advocates Kendra Madison and Robbie Hill, along with investigators T.J. Hargrove and Clay Wiggins.
“A special thank you to the Baldwin County Sheriff’s Office, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation and the Milledgeville Police Department for their work on the case,” the district attorney concluded. “Justice would not have been served without their hard work.”