Barbour County woman charged with manslaughter sentenced in plea deal

GRAFTON, W.Va. (WBOY) — After years of a murder case moving in and out of the court system, a judge in Taylor County has sentenced Carli Reed, a Barbour County woman charged in 2019 with killing her husband, to 15 years in prison.

The final sentencing comes after nearly five years of legal action related to the shooting death of Reed’s husband, Marcus Fagons. Court documents from that time said that Reed admitted to shooting Fagons with a Glock pistol while he was lying on a bed.

Reed was initially charged in 2019 with first-degree murder, but the charge was downgraded to second-degree murder during the trial in 2020, where a jury found her guilty . She was sentenced five months later to 40 years in prison.

However, the case was reopened after it was discovered that the judge in the initial trial did not relay to the jury that the shooting may have been an accident, despite a request to do so from Reed’s lawyer. Due to the error, the Supreme Court of Appeals reversed Reed’s conviction and sentence in 2022 and turned her case back over to Barbour County Circuit Court.

In September 2023, Reed turned down the chance at a new trial and instead entered a guilty plea with the state for voluntary manslaughter, which gave her a chance at getting a minimum sentence of three years in prison and a maximum of 15 years. Reed will not be eligible for parole until she serves at least a third of her sentence, or five years.

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