Repeat violent offender out on multiple felony bonds sentenced to 16 years behind bars for killing 23-year-old
HARRIS COUNTY, Texas - Teleatha Franklin had to buy her 23-year-old son Deon Reed the one thing no parent ever wants to buy for their child, a headstone.
"When I first got the headstone, I asked was it covered? Does it have a warranty, because I wanted to knock it down," said Franklin. "I hated to see my baby's name on a headstone."
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June 16, 2018, 24-year-old Shandon Donaldson and his accomplice, Andrew Smith, opened fire in a nightclub parking lot.
Reed, a stranger to the pair, was shot in the back and neck.
"It hurts, it really hurts. I still cry," Franklin said.
At the time of the murder, Donaldson was free from jail on six felony bonds.
"You could argue he shouldn't have been out to begin with, because he violated his conditions of bond multiple times," said Andy Kahn with Crime Stoppers. "He was even sentenced in one of the cases, he did time in the Harris County Jail, while he was out on bond."
Donaldson was out of jail in March 2020 after 185th Criminal District Court Judge Jason Luong lowered bond for the murder charge to $65,000.
"Not even a month later, there's a bond violation issued. Then he also gets charged with two other offenses, a DWI and felon in possession of a weapon," Kahan said.
MORE: 2 years later: 20 of the murder defendants free on multiple bonds now convicted, sentenced
Donaldson recently pled guilty to murder and got a 16-year sentence. His co-defendant got 30 years.
"That sentence was a slap in the face a joke," Franklin said.
"He's going to be parole eligible in a matter of years," said Kahan.
"My son doesn't get to come back in a couple of years, get out, run around, enjoying the rest of his life," said Franklin.