‘There were 11 shots. That’s troubling.’ Man sentenced for killing his cousin
Robert Moore Reynolds didn’t have many friends.
His cousin, Samuel Boren, was one of them.
It was as they were hanging out last year that Reynolds shot his cousin 11 times.
“I was completely out of my mind on drugs,” Reynolds told the court Tuesday, before he was sentenced. “I should never have had a gun or any kind of weapon. I was consumed that day by the darkest of my paranoid delusions.”
Reynolds, 28, pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and second-degree assault.
Then Pierce County Superior Court Judge Bryan Chushcoff gave him a mid-range sentence of 23 years in prison.
“There were 11 shots,” Chushcoff said. “That’s troubling.”
Court records say Reynolds used nitrous oxide, potent cannabis and psilocybin mushroom tea the day of the shooting.
Defense attorney Robert Freeby told the court that Reynolds had struggled for years with paranoia and depression and that his mental health challenges were “clearly exacerbated” by the drugs.
Reynold’s father told the judge that Boren, who also went by the last name Pappas, was one of his son’s very few friends.
“This was someone that he loved very much,” William Reynolds said.
The shooting happened March 25 when Pappas, Reynolds and another friend were at a South Hill home.
Charging papers say the three men smoked a joint, wrestled outside, then went back inside to clean up, where things escalated.
Reynolds armed himself and told the friend to get behind him and said that his cousin was there to hurt one of them.
Then he ordered Pappas to the ground. As Pappas advanced toward Reynolds, Reynolds fired.
The two struggled for the gun, and it fired again.
Pappas asked the others to take him to the hospital. And as Pappas took a step, Reynolds opened fire once again.
Later, Reynolds called his father and 911.
Deputy prosecutor Rosie Martinelli told the judge that Pappas’ death was preventable. Martinelli said Reynolds voluntarily took drugs and voluntarily armed himself with a gun.
Paige Boren told the court that Pappas was her only child and that he was gentle and sweet.
“Without Sam, my heart is shattered,” Boren said.
Their last conversation had been about growing old, and she remembered telling him that she worried about the idea of losing her eye sight.
How would she read?
Her son said he’d read to her.
Pappas was killed four days before he would have turned 24.
Mother and son had planned to bake a cake together, go on a hike, then out to lunch.
Instead, she said, she spent his birthday at a funeral home.
Boren told The News Tribune outside court that Pappas wanted to be a writer and that he’d been studying at The Evergreen State College.
Reynolds apologized to his family, especially to his aunt and uncle, when it was his turn to address the court.
“I always believed that the word ‘sorry’ was such a cheap word,” he said. “... Sorry will never be enough.”
Reynolds apologized for being a “failure and now a murderer.”
He said he felt like “the worst human being that ever walked the Earth” and that he did not expect forgiveness.
“I can only pray that God has mercy on my soul — if I even have one left.”
Chushcoff said that Reynolds is a victim of his mental illness and that he has a responsibility to get treatment.
“You know now where this leads,” the judge said. “... You have an issue. It’s real. It’s your responsibility to deal with it.”
This story was originally published February 20, 2019 at 9:16 AM.
