For two murders, 35 years in prison

A young man has been ordered by the court to spend the next 35 years in prison for the shooting deaths last year of two men in the Utica Community near Seneca. Twenty-year old Steven Lee Reynolds pleaded guilty this morning to two counts of murder and two lesser charges. The judge approved a negotiated sentence announced by the prosecutor. The bodies of Timothy Wayne Caldwell and David Thomas Tranah were found in the yard of a Utica house, but Deputy Solicitor Lindsey Simmons described the crime scene as “a compound”—a place of drug and other activity known to law enforcement. According to Simmons, Reynolds had gone there the morning of September 10, 2018 to collect a debt. Reynolds attorney, Rodney Richey, portrayed Reynolds life in tragic detail, saying that he had started using marijuana and methamphetamine at the age of 10 years old and had spent much of his life roaming and fending for himself. Solicitor David Wagner said his office believes 35 years represented “a fair deal”, in part, because it removes from the street for a long time an individual who has been a problem. However, Candace Tranah, the widow of one of the victims, said 35 years are not long enough for taking the life of her husband. Mrs. Tranah said she won’t forget the sound of her late husband’s voice, nor what it was like to be around him.