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Chad Allan Reed was convicted on Friday, October 6, 2023, of first-degree murder in the death of Jaclyn Lepird and second-degree murder in the death of Joseph Soule, his upstairs tenants in Battle Creek, Michigan. Reed claimed self-defense at his October 2023 trial in Calhoun County Circuit Court. The jury returned its verdict less than a day after receiving the case, also finding him guilty of three counts of felony firearm and one count of being a felon in possession of a firearm.

On Friday, December 8, 2023, Judge Sarah S. Lincoln sentenced Reed to life without the possibility of parole for Lepird's murder. Michigan Department of Corrections records list 62 years 6 months to 125 years for Soule's murder, two to five years for being a felon in possession of a firearm, and two years on each felony firearm count. Lincoln cited his criminal history, the treatment of the victims and their bodies, the effect on their families and his lack of remorse. Corrections records list him at the Macomb Correctional Facility.

Reed owned the two-story house at 203 Post Avenue in Battle Creek, Calhoun County, and lived downstairs. He was 53 when arrested in October 2020. Soule, 34, shared the upstairs apartment with his girlfriend, Lepird, 31. A Battle Creek police detective sergeant said Reed did not get along with them, argued with them about money and other things, and complained that they liked to party and kept him awake. Michigan Department of Corrections records show earlier prison terms, including a sentence in 2005 for assault with a dangerous weapon.

Soule and Lepird were last seen on Wednesday, October 7, 2020. Reed told police Soule pulled a knife during an argument that day and that he shot him in self-defense. Police said Reed told them Lepird tried to run, and he shot at her, chased her into the backyard, beat her and strangled her. His aunt testified that he told her all he could think when Lepird came through the door was "leave no witnesses." Prosecutors said he hit Lepird with a metal object and tried to slit her throat.

Police said the bodies were wrapped in plastic and kept for several days in Reed's pickup truck at the property, under debris and boards. When relatives came looking for the couple, Reed moved the truck into an abandoned home's garage nearby. A 911 caller reported that Reed may have been cleaning the couple's apartment with bleach. Trial testimony described drops of blood near the kitchen and pieces of flooring left by the trash.

The families reported the couple missing on Monday, October 12, 2020. Reed turned himself in and confessed to investigators on Thursday, October 15, 2020, when the bodies were found in his truck in the abandoned garage. Arraigned in Calhoun County on Monday, October 19, 2020, on six felony charges, including two counts of open murder, he pleaded not guilty. He was held without bond because of prior felonies in Michigan and Florida. A competency examination later found him able to stand trial.

In the recorded interview, Reed tells detectives Soule pulled a small black knife and he shot him immediately. He says he hid the handgun outdoors under leaves, then returned and found it gone. He asks to call his aunt; a detective tells him not yet but promises to call her before they finish. Near the end, Reed says he has told investigators everything, they should have enough to lock him up for good, and he expects to spend the rest of his life in prison.

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Part 2 of 2 of the recording described above.