In 2015, he was linked via DNA to the 1997 cold case murder of a woman in Oklahoma, for which he was subsequently convicted and sentenced to death.
[2] Due to his parents' financial issues, he was forced to quit school after the ninth grade and take on a job as a farm laborer.
The results indicated that there were procedural errors in Reece's criminal case, causing his sentence to be reduced and leading to his parole in October 1996.
[4] Sapaugh managed to break free from the restraints and jumped out of the truck, sustaining severe injuries to her body in the process.
[5] Police became suspicious that Reece was involved in the disappearance of three teenage girls from Houston and the surrounding suburbs, one of whom was last seen alive and later found murdered near his workplace.
[9] He then offered to admit fully to the crimes in court to avoid the death penalty and guarantee he would serve his sentence in Oklahoma.
Authorities refused the deal, excavated the burial sites indicated on the map, and discovered the skeletal remains of Kelli Ann Cox and Jessica Cain.
Reece confessed to the murders of Laura Smither, Kelli Cox, Tiffany Johnston, and Jessica Cain but refused to admit a sexual motive for many of the crimes.
[10] Reece also confessed that on July 15, 1997, he was driving from Oklahoma to Houston when he stopped to buy some whiskey at a gas station in Denton.
[10] He claimed that he got into a physical confrontation with 20-year-old Kelli Cox, a student at the University of North Texas and strangled her in the ensuing fight.
[10] According to Reece's account, on July 26, 1997, he stopped at the Sunshine Car Wash in Bethany to clean his truck and accidentally sprayed Tiffany Johnston.
She was last seen alive after leaving a Bennigan's in the Clear Lake City suburb of Houston, and her car was abandoned on an interstate highway later that day.
[12] A few days later, he appeared before the Oklahoma County District Court, where a hearing was scheduled for October 10, 2016, after he waived his right to a speedy trial.
Reece's defense team filed a motion for a change of venue, claiming that the county courthouse offices contained asbestos dust that could negatively affect the health of the trial's participants.
Among the people present at the trial were Tiffany Johnston's relatives, law enforcement officers involved in the murder investigation, Sandra Sapaugh, and two other girls who claimed that Reece had kidnapped and raped them in the Houston area on July 3, 1997.
His defense attorney had advocated for an acquittal based on the supposedly broken plea agreement between his client and law enforcement officials.
[17] After the trial, prosecutors stated that Reece had given partially false information in his confession and failed to disclose both his true motives for the crime and the accurate details.