Inset: Reba L. Wilson (Marion County Jail). Background: The Indiana home where Wilson opened fire toward a repairman in March 2024.
An Indiana woman has been sentenced to 10 years in prison after authorities say she pulled a gun on an appliance repairman she had hired to inspect her dryer, then fired at him during a dispute over a $70 service fee.
Marion County Superior Judge Charles F. Miller issued the sentence Monday for 45-year-old Reba LaJoy Wilson, ordering her to serve the term in a state correctional facility, according to court records.
Wilson received the sentence after pleading guilty to intimidation with the use of a deadly weapon and unlawful possession of a firearm by a serious violent felon. As part of the plea agreement, prosecutors dismissed additional counts of criminal confinement, criminal recklessness, and pointing a firearm at another person.
The case began with a March 2024 service call at Wilson’s Indianapolis residence, where self-employed appliance repair technician Nathaniel Baird had gone to inspect a clothes dryer that was not producing heat, Indianapolis NBC affiliate WTHR reported.
Baird said he identified the issue and informed Wilson that she owed his standard $70 house-call charge. Wilson refused, reportedly insisting the dryer remained covered by a warranty.
“She said, ‘I don’t want to pay that.’ I said, ‘Well, I don’t work for free,'” Baird told the station. “So, I went to leave, and she pointed a gun at me right in the front of her house and forced me to stay there and said, ‘You’re going to fix my dryer.'”
According to Indianapolis ABC affiliate WRTV, Wilson stood in front of the door while aiming a black-and-silver handgun at Baird, who acted as though he was returning to the repair before bolting for the back door. As he escaped, Wilson fired a round in his direction and yelled, “You’re lucky I don’t kill you,” the station reported.
Baird told WTHR he never looked back at Wilson, but “heard one shot” before she yelled “I’ll pop a cap in your a—!”
He escaped to his truck and called 911.
Investigators later obtained a search warrant for the home, where they recovered a black and silver Smith & Wesson handgun hidden beneath a couch and found a spent shell casing resting on top of a broken dryer door in the kitchen, Indianapolis CW affiliate WISH reported.
When she encountered police outside her residence, Wilson initially denied that anything untoward had taken place.
During Monday’s sentencing hearing, Wilson asked the court to impose home detention instead of prison, telling the judge she suffers from multiple sclerosis and needs access to proper medical care, WTHR reported.
The judge declined, reportedly describing Wilson as “unworthy” of community corrections. Miller emphasized that Wilson had eight prior convictions and that she had been wanted on an outstanding warrant for nearly a year before her arrest.
The post ‘Lucky I don’t kill you’: Woman shot at repairman for charging $70 service fee to fix dryer first appeared on Law & Crime.
