Reyes Pleads Guilty To Laclede County Triple Murder:

Joshua Antonio Reyes

A Springfield man has pleaded guilty to killing his ex girlfriends parents and her boyfriend last October in Laclede County.

Prosecutors say Joshua Antonio Reyes, 23, was the ringleader in the triple murders of 51 year-old Jeff and 48 year-old Glenda Smith; and 25 year-old Zack Porter, Elkland on October 10, 2009.

Laclede County Prosecutor Anie Hemphill-Wright (courtesy Lebanon Daily Record)

Laclede County Prosecutor Angie Hemphill-Wright dropped three counts of armed criminal action and burglary charges against Reyes in exchange for his guilty plea. Reyes was sentenced to life without the possibility of parole for his part in the murder spree.

Deputies were first called to Miranda Smiths apartment on Tower Road a little after midnight Saturday (10-10-09) for a reported shooting. When first responders arrived they found twenty five year-old Zachary Bryan Porter with a gunshot wound to the chest. Porter was transported to St. John's hospital in Lebanon where he was pronounced dead.

Zack Porter (family photo)


While cops were trying to gather information at that crime scene Smith told authorities that she was concerned for her father and step-mother who she could not reach by phone.

A nephew of fifty one year-old Jeffry Smith and forty eight year-old Glenda Smith found them covered in blood on their living room floor in nearby Phillpsburg.

Jeffry and Glenda Smith (facebook)

Sheriff Richard Wrinkle says investigators believe the elder Smiths were gunned to death first and that Reyes then went to his ex-girlfriends apartment and gunned down Porter, who was her current boyfriend.

According to court documents, two other people were to be killed that night but the men got lost trying to find their home.



Laclede County Sheriff Richard Wrinkle

When the alleged murderers got to Miranda Smith's apartment in Lebanon Jacky Wong told investigators that he and Benjamin Stidham stayed in his dads truck while Reyes and Steven Pyykola went to the apartment, "because he had business to take care of with Zachary Porter for sleeping with Miranda."

Friends of Porters say that Reyes had allegedly been stalking their friend and his ex-girlfriend for a few weeks. They say that they begged him not to move out of their apartment and in with Smith on October 5th because they were concerned for his safety.

Sheriff Richard Wrinkle says that jealousy sparked the deadly rampage "she took everything he loved away from him, so he was going to take everything she loved away from her."

As part of the plea agreement Reyes will NOT have to testify against any of the other three alleged co-conspirators.




Jacky Wong

Pyykola, Wong and Stidham have been charged with three counts of first-degree murder, burglary and armed criminal action for their alleged involvement in the Porter/Smith murders.

Pyykola is scheduled to stand trial in March of 2011 in Camden County; Jacky Wong's trial is scheduled for this July.




Steven Pyykola

Sixteen year-old Benjamin Stidham's, who was certified to stand trial as an adult, case is scheduled to be heard this November in Camden County where it was moved on a change of venue.


Benjamin Stidham

Miranda Smith had asked the court for orders of protection from Reyes on at least three separate occasions, the most recent being filed on September 17, 2009. However, eleven days later she asked the court to lift the order, which was granted.