Reginald Kimbro (above in a mugshot from the Mansfield County Jail) entered guilty pleas to two counts of murder and four counts of rape.
A serial rapist entered guilty pleas to multiple counts of rape and murder in a Texas courtroom on Friday. Reginald Kimbro, 28, agreed to a plea deal at the last second that spared him from going to trial, according to court records. The plea deal also potentially spared his life by taking the death penalty off the table.
Instead, Kimbro was sentenced to three life sentences and an additional 60 years for the rape of six women, two of whom he now admits he went on to murder.
Four additional victims who did not press charges had also been willing to testify at his trial, according to prosecutors.
The two murder victims were killed within days of one another in April 2017.
Molly Jane Matheson, 22, had briefly dated Kimbro when the two were students at the University of Arkansas, according to the complaint filed by the Tarrant County District Attorney’s Office. She was found beaten and strangled to death on April 10, 2017, when her concerned mother went to check on her after she failed to show up for work.
Investigators later determined that Kimbro had washed Matheson’s body and her clothes to erase all traces of himself from her apartment. However, he left behind his underwear, which provided detectives with a DNA sample they could match at the scene.
Cell phone records and surveillance video also placed Kimbro at the scene, allowing police to arrest him on charges of rape and murder just a few weeks after Matheson’s tragic death.
Kimbro struck again while that investigation was underway by raping and murdering a stranger.
Megan Getrum, 36, was attacked while hiking at the Arbor Hills Nature Preserve on April 14, 2017. Her body was found days later in a nearby lake.
Detectives were able to link Kimbro to that murder through his DNA and through eyewitnesses who reported seeing him at the preserve on the evening that Getrum went missing.
Other victims of Kimbro’s violent sexual assaults began to surface in the years that the district attorney’s office and detectives spent investigating the accused murderer and rapist.
Prosecutors learned that “Kimbro had been accused of aggravated sexual assault in Plano in 2012, in South Padre in 2014, and again in 2014 in Alan. At the time of Matheson’s murder, none of those cases had been filed in their respective counties.”
The reason for that oversight is unclear, but after linking Kimbro to the crimes through DNA and CODIS, he was indicted for all three assaults and eventually convicted.
Kimbro received two 20-year sentences and one life sentence for those three assaults.
A sixth victim came forward to report a 2014 sexual assault in Collin County as well, resulting in another 20-year sentence for Kimbro.
“Reginald Kimbro is a serial rapist and a serial killer. He used his personality and charm to attract women or drugged them when that did not work,” said Assistant Tarrant County Criminal District Attorney Allenna Bangs. “He talked his way out of case after case until his violence culminated in the deaths of Molly Matheson and Megan Getrum.”
The death of Matheson led to the creation of Molly Jane’s Law. That measure, passed by the Texas legislature with a big push from Matheson’s parents, requires members of law enforcement to input any data obtained during the course of a sexual assault investigation into a national database maintained by the FBI.
“The women affected by Kimbro’s crimes are incredibly brave for coming forward with their experiences,” said Assistant Tarrant County Criminal District Attorney Page Simpson. “This plea allows the Matheson and Getrum families to finally hear him admit what he did and simultaneously ensures he cannot do it again.”
As part of his plea deal, the defendant has agreed to waive all appeals.
Kimbro will be back in court on Tuesday for victim impact statements.
Read the press release from the prosecutor’s office below:
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