MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – A plea deal has been reached with one of the two suspects accused of killing a West Virginia University student in Morgantown.
Terrell Linear, 22, of Fairmont, has pleaded guilty to first-degree murder. The agreement calls for Linear to be sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole in 15 years. A second charge of conspiracy to commit murder was dismissed.
The second suspect, Shaundarius Reeder, 21 of Fairmont, rejected an identical plea deal and is scheduled to go to trial next week.
Linear and Reeder allegedly shot Smith multiple times in the hallway of his College Park Apartments residence. According to the criminal complaint Linear told investigators he pounded on doors in the hallway “so people could watch” him kill the victim.
The criminal complaint stated all three arrived at the College Park Apartments in the same vehicle when a fight broke out in the parking lot. Smith ran into the building and was chased by the two suspects.
Linear and Reeder went back to the car to get two handguns and detectives say surveillance footage shows both men going back into the apartment hallway with guns.