On the night of October 8 leading into the early morning hours of October 9, 2009, 21-year-old Cherlyn Marie Reyes was at the apartment she shared with her boyfriend, Brice L. Webb, on Lincoln Way East in South Bend, Indiana. The couple had a history of domestic turbulence, and on this particular evening, they had been drinking when an argument erupted.
The dispute reportedly began after Reyes discovered call history on Webb’s cell phone suggesting he had been contacting other women.
The confrontation escalated physically, culminating in a violent encounter in the apartment’s bathroom. Just after midnight on October 9, police were dispatched to the residence following reports of a shooting. Officers discovered Reyes unresponsive on the bathroom floor, suffering from a single gunshot wound to the head. She was pronounced dead at the scene. Webb, who was 25 at the time, was present and allegedly told a witness, 'I just shot her,' though he later claimed to investigators that the shooting had been an accident.
Webb was taken into custody and charged with murder. During the initial investigation, authorities noted that Webb’s hand appeared swollen, consistent with punching an object or person, and court documents later revealed a cycle of prior abuse in the relationship. Prosecutors presented evidence that Webb had previously battered Reyes, including an incident while she was pregnant, though earlier charges had been dropped after she recanted her statements.
The legal proceedings against Webb spanned several years. In the spring of 2010, he was convicted of murder by a jury and subsequently sentenced to 95 years in prison. However, the Indiana Supreme Court overturned this conviction in March 2012, ruling that the trial judge had erred by not instructing the jury on the lesser included offense of reckless homicide. A new trial was ordered, which took place in April 2013. For a second time, a jury found Webb guilty of murder. He was also adjudicated as a habitual offender. In May 2013, the court sentenced him to 90 years in the Indiana Department of Correction.
