Convicted killer gets death penalty for ice cream shop murders

CLARKSVILLE, Tenn. (AP) -- A man already facing execution for<br>killing two fast-food workers in Nashville was sentenced to death<br>again today for murdering two ice cream shop employees.<br> <br>Paul

Wednesday, September 22nd 1999, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

CLARKSVILLE, Tenn. (AP) -- A man already facing execution for
killing two fast-food workers in Nashville was sentenced to death
again today for murdering two ice cream shop employees.

Paul Reid's murderous crime spree terrorized fast-food
restaurant workers across Tennessee in spring 1997. Seven murders
between February and April prompted some parents to forbid their
children to work at fast-food restaurants.

Montgomery County Circuit Court Judge John Gasaway set the
execution date for April 23, the third anniversary of the ice cream
shop workers' killings. Sentencing on the non-murder convictions
was set for Nov. 4.

"It's not going to bring them back but it's insurance that he's
never, ever going to do this to anyone else's child again," said
Connie Black, mother of 16-year-old victim Michelle Mace.

The jury -- brought from Memphis because of intense local
publicity about the case -- deliberated for about four hours over
two days.

Reid, 41, showed no emotion when the decision was read.

He was convicted Saturday of premeditated murder, felony murder,
especially aggravated kidnapping and especially aggravated robbery
in the deaths of Mace and Angela Holmes, 21.

The two were kidnapped the night of April 23, 1997, during a
robbery at a Baskin-Robbins ice cream shop in Clarksville, about 60
miles northwest of Nashville. Their bodies, with throats slashed,
were found the next day at a state park a few miles away.

Reid's attorneys claimed he suffered brain damage as a child and
argued he should be spared execution because of his "broken
brain." Prosecutors said he should die because of the cruelty of
the murders and his past crimes.

Reid was convicted in April and sentenced to death for murdering
two Captain D's workers during a robbery in Nashville in February
1997. Execution in that case was set for Feb. 16, the third
anniversary of those shootings.

He faces a third trial in November on charges he killed three
workers at a Nashville McDonald's in March 1997.