The Brunswick Judicial Circuit District Attorney’s Office announced the guilty plea and sentence of Reginald Tyron Stokes, age 41, of Oakfield, Georgia for one count of Malice Murder, one count of Criminal Attempt to Commit Murder, two counts of Possession of a Firearm during the Commission of a Felony, and one count of Possession of Firearm by a First Offender Probationer. On January 30, Stokes pled guilty in Appling County Superior Court and was sentenced by Judge Roger B. Lane to serve life in prison with the possibility of parole, plus a consecutive term of thirty-five years in prison.
The evidence in the case showed that Oneida Marie Hawkins, 48, of Baxley, Georgia was involved in a relationship with the defendant. On August 25, 2022, Ms. Hawkins’s daughter, Malika Shanae Harris, 26, of Baxley, was at the home of Ms. Hawkins with her four minor children, who were between the ages of 1 and 6. While Malika Harris and her children were asleep in a rear bedroom, the defendant entered the residence and shot Malika Harris in the head, killing her instantly.
The defendant then went outside of the residence and waited for Ms. Hawkins to arrive. When Oneida Hawkins arrived at her home, the defendant shot her in the head and then forced her to go inside. Thereafter, the defendant disposed of his handgun and fled to his parents’ home in Oakfield, Georgia where he told his parents that he had killed his girlfriend and her daughter.
Despite the defendant’s attempt to kill Ms. Hawkins, she miraculously survived. She continues to suffer, however, from a brain injury that was caused by the gunshot and the loss of her left eye.
According to District Attorney Keith Higgins, who prosecuted the case for the State, “This is a senseless crime in which four children lost their mother, and the surviving victim will be affected for the rest of her life. The District Attorney’s Office will do whatever we can to keep Mr. Stokes in prison for the rest of his life.”
