February 13, 2024

Sentencing Update: State v. Donnell Reed

Decatur, Ga.- A Stone Mountain man has been sentenced for his role in an armed robbery involving two additional defendants who worked together setting up and robbing a man in 2021.

On Friday, DeKalb County Superior Court Judge LaTisha Dear Jackson, who presided over the trial, sentenced Donnell Reed to 45 years to serve 35 in confinement with the remaining 10 years on probation.

Jurors returned guilty verdicts against all three defendants in the case on January 29, 2024. Donnell Reed, 30, was found guilty on charges of Armed Robbery, Aggravated Assault, False Imprisonment and Possession of a Firearm by a First Offender Probationer. His twin brother Darnell Reed, 30, also of Stone Mountain, was found guilty on charges of Armed Robbery, False Imprisonment, Aggravated Assault and two counts of Possession of a Firearm During the Commission of a Felony. Jurors also found Christin Scales, 24, of Atlanta guilty of Armed Robbery. 

Immediately following the guilty verdicts, Judge Dear Jackson sentenced Defendant Darnell Reed to 30 years to serve 20 in confinement with the remaining 10 on probation, and sentenced Defendant Scales to 15 years to serve 10 in confinement with the balance on probation.  

The convictions stem from an incident on October 6, 2021. According to the investigation, the male victim met Defendant Scales online and they made plans to meet up so that he could pay her for sex. When he arrived at the address on Parkview Court in Stone Mountain around 7 a.m., Defendant Scales instructed the man to park away from the building.  

As Defendant Scales and the victim were preparing to have sex, she kept delaying. The victim began to protest Defendant Scales’ stall tactics and tried to leave, but then Defendants Donnell and Darnell Reed emerged from one of the unit’s bedrooms armed with guns. Defendant Donnell Reed struck the victim with his gun and demanded the victim’s car keys. Defendant Darnell Reed then held the victim at gunpoint while his brother and Defendant Scales drove off in the man’s car. The pair then abandoned the car in a nearby residential area after rummaging through it.  

While the other two Defendants were gone, the victim took Defendant Darnell Reed by surprise and tried to grab the gun. As the men struggled, the gun went off, striking Defendant Darnell Reed in the finger and left thigh.  

The victim used that opportunity to escape, but Defendant Darnell Reed shot the man in the back as he ran out of the door. The victim yelled for help as he ran from the condominium prompting neighbors and a MARTA bus driver to call 911. Officers from the DeKalb County Police Department and Clarkston Police Department found the injured man at a nearby intersection.   

A neighbor’s surveillance camera captured Defendant Darnell Reed as he left the condo and limped across the parking lot to his mother and sister’s unit in the same complex. Defendants Scales and Donnell Reed picked up Darnell and took him to a nearby gas station. Defendant Donnell Reed called 911 and when the ambulance arrived, he and Defendant Scales left. Defendant Darnell Reed gave law enforcement officers conflicting stories about how he was shot.  

The victim was able to identify Defendant Scales and Defendant Donnell Reed in a photo line-up.   

The case was prosecuted by Senior Assistant District Attorney Elizabeth Tarver with assistance from Assistant District Attorney Li Sapp, District Attorney Investigator Jose Berrones, and Victim Advocate Desiree Livingston. Former DeKalb County Police Department Detective Edwin Perkins now with the District Attorney’s Office, led the initial investigation.