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Man to serve life term in wife's death

Matthew Eric Reid strangled his wife after an argument about laundry. Then he dismembered her as their children slept.

TAMPA - After strangling his wife in the Gibsonton mobile home they shared, Matthew Eric Reid took his kids to Wal-Mart, where he bought three large plastic tubs to put her in. At Home Depot he bought concrete mix and a mixing bucket.

Using a kitchen knife and a box cutter, he dismembered Rebecca G. Reid in the bathroom, pausing for cigarette breaks. He worked through the night, he said, while the kids slept. He turned on a fan so the concrete would harden around his wife's remains. Then he dumped them in the woods.

In court Monday, Reid, a 30-year-old Bible-college dropout with an IQ of 131, told a Hillsborough judge that he loved his wife "more than anything." They were best friends, he said. Their love was "the kind that only fairy tales are made of."

"It's an inhuman thing," Reid said of his crime. "It's a monstrous thing. But I'm not a monster. I'm not inhuman."

Despite pleas for leniency from Matthew Reid's family and a defense attorney, Circuit Judge Barbara Fleischer sentenced him to life in prison, saying she could not risk him walking free again. "You are a volcano, as far as I'm concerned," the judge said, one that may "erupt again."

Reid's family told the judge that he was "a people person" and "a wonderful man." A psychologist testified that Reid had an IQ on a par with most doctors, though he had suffered from eating disorders and bipolar disorder.

Reid was convicted in August of second-degree murder for the Jan. 19 death of his 28-year-old wife. Reid said he attacked her after an argument about the laundry. He said she had threatened to call police with made-up charges that he had abused her so he would land in jail and she would get custody of their two kids.

When Hillsborough sheriff's detectives came to Reid's mobile home to inform him his wife had been found dead, he nodded and replied, "Yes, I know. I killed her."

He then gave detectives a detailed confession, explaining that he had "lunged out and ... grabbed her around the neck" when she went for the phone. "I didn't know what to do, and so I just kept on squeezing."

He pondered calling police, he said, but feared his kids would wind up in state care. So he decided to dismember her. He told detectives it was an experience of "horror."

"Not only did I take, you know, her life, but I'm having to ... to cut her up," Reid said in his confession. "And she's my only love, you know."

While prosecutor Kim Seace asked for a life term for the killer, Assistant Public Defender Ken Littman argued for a lesser sentence, saying the dismemberment of Rebecca Reid's body should not heighten Matthew Reid's punishment. The defense attorney noted that Reid had no prior criminal record.

The judge said Rebecca Reid's dismemberment was not what prompted her to impose the life sentence. "I cannot take the risk of putting you out there," Judge Fleischer told Reid.

Matthew and Rebecca Reid met at a homeless shelter in Texas and had been married about five years, with a 4-year-old son and a 1-year-old daughter, when he killed her. He worked as a recruiter for the plastics industry and briefly attended Columbia Bible College in South Carolina.

Their children are being cared for by Rebecca Reid's family.

- Christopher Goffard can be reached at 226-3337 or goffard@sptimes.com