Ep 22 | WesTley Reid Transcript

Ep 22 | Westley Reid Transcript

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An innocent bystander hit and killed while doing his job as a Domino's delivery driver in Sedalia. Authorities say the driver who hit the delivery car is 26-year-old Westley Reid of Clinton. I was doing about 120 when I came up to the first intersection of Sedalia. I had two-fifths of liquor. If those cops would have backed off, turned their lights off and not pursued you, what would you have done? I would have drifted off into the back roads, found a spot to stash out for some hours. If you could change something about that day, what would it be? I wish they would have stopped so I could have stopped.

You are now listening to the podcast Voices of a Killer. I'm bringing you the stories from the perspective of the people that have taken the life of another human and their current situation thereafter in prison. You'll see that although these are the folks that we have been programmed to hate, they all have something in common. They are all humans like us that admit that they made a mistake. Will you forgive them or will you condemn them? They're currently serving time for their murders, and they give us an inside glimpse of what took place when they killed and their feelings on the matter now. Here are the voices of those who have killed.

Today on Voices of a Killer, we're talking to Westley Reid from Clinton, Missouri, whose upbringing could easily be described as normal. A good family, a quiet community, and everything a kid could ask for, but scratch the surface, and you'll find a life spiraling out of control, fueled by a cycle of addiction that eventually led Westley to where he calls us from today.

Westley's choices altered the course of several lives, especially that of Zachary Hancock-Bottom, the tragic victim of a high-speed chase involving Westley. We will explore the ethical complexities around law enforcement procedures in high-risk situations and ask the difficult questions. Should pursuits always be given the green light, even if they can lead to fatal consequences? And how does the media's portrayal of such events shape our understanding? If you're intrigued by the interplay between law enforcement tactics and the sanctity of human life, then buckle up as we speak to Westley on this episode of Voices of a Killer. 

This is a prepaid collect call from Westley Reid, an offender at the Jefferson City Correctional Center.

Westley, you're in prison for killing somebody in a high-speed chase, correct? Correct. You were running from officers and you wrecked and actually, someone got killed in the wreck? Yeah, correct. 

That area that that happened, Sedalia, Missouri, is that where you grew up? I grew up in Clifton, Missouri. It's a little bit southwest, I think, of Sedalia. Yeah. You grew up there all your life, your childhood and stuff? Yeah, I was born and raised in Clifton, Missouri. How would you describe your childhood? I had a good childhood. My parents were pretty good the whole time. I had everything I wanted and needed, you know? Yeah, you said they drank. Would you label them as alcoholics? Yeah, definitely. Were your parents abusive at all? Just on each other, yeah. So you witnessed violence in your family? Yeah. 

So your parents drank, did you get ahold of alcohol at a young age? Yeah. I started drinking wine and stuff around 12, 13 years old. Started stealing it out of the fridge. Were you drinking enough to get drunk? Yeah, I was definitely, yeah, I'd get hammered, yeah for sure. Did you feel like that set you on a path to go ahead and drink throughout your adulthood too? I mean, I'm sure it had a great effect on it. Yeah. Did you ever get into any other kind of substances, any hard drugs? I was a user of many kind of drugs, mostly m*** and alcohol, whiskey. What would be your drug of choice? Probably whiskey and then m***. You ever make whiskey in prison? No. 

So once you got out of your parents' house, how would you consider your life? Turbulent, lots of substance abuse, or was it normal or what? That's the thing. I never really got out of my parents' house, except for, you know, five months here, here and there, other than that, I was always there. I only left at 26, when I did what I did.

Clinton, Missouri serves as a seat of Henry County and is known primary for its outdoor recreational opportunities, including Truman Lake and the Katy Trail. Though the town boasts a population of just around 10,000, it is largely unremarkable, a small dot on the map of Missouri where life tends to move at a slower pace. 

Born and raised in Clinton, Westley's upbringing was ostensibly a good one. Described by himself as having "pretty good parents and everything I wanted and needed", one could be tempted to see his early life as fairly normal. However, the veneer of this normalcy belies a deeper struggle with substance abuse that began at an early age. Westley admitted to stealing alcohol from the family fridge when he was just 12 or 13 years old, and his affinity for substances didn't stop there. M***amphetamine and whiskey soon followed, with the latter becoming his drug of choice. Despite occasional stints away from home, Westley largely remained under his parents' roof, entrenched in a lifestyle rife with substance abuse all the way up to the age of 26.

Little did Westley know that a pattern of poor choices and addiction would eventually lead to a path that turned deadly, marking a tragic end to another person's life. 

So your crime is somewhat unique, I guess they all are, but you actually are in prison for accidentally killing someone while you're in a high-speed chase. Tell me about the day that happened. Tell me about the morning you woke up. Did you start using? What was that morning before this crime happened? What was the morning like? I woke up in a truck stop in a stolen truck with liquor bottles on the floor and drugs on the seat. And I guess I took a shirt, shut the door, covered the window. Went to sleep in a truck stop. I woke up. And I was messaging my mom. I got text messages here documented, but I was going crazy. I was losing my mind. I told her I was trying to go to an evader to get myself help. I was just totally going insane. The drugs were eating me out. What drugs? Drugs, m***amphetamine, and whiskey, and pills every once in a while.

So how did you get the stolen vehicle? I stole it from my uncle. Oh, so you took the vehicle from a family member? Yeah, a work truck, yeah. And they reported it stolen? Did they know it was you that stole it? After a while, yeah. My mom had turned me in, because I messaged her and stuffand she eventually found out that I was in my uncle's truck. I stayed in a truck stop a town away the night before. When it was all said and done, I went to Clinton. And then, my uncle's grandson sees me in the truck out by Walmart and he told me to give it back now, and I said, "I am", and I just took off and lost him. And went through Calhoun, went to Windsor, and stayed at a gas station for about an hour until I got ahold of my child's mom, and I got ahold of her and she told me to come on over. I could see Jace before they ate. 

Who's Jace? Jace is my son. Okay. He was three when I left. He's seven now. And you're still in the stolen vehicle setting this up? Yeah, I was trying to go see him in the stolen vehicle, yeah. I think she knew that. It helped turn me in, you know, helped get me to where they could get me.

But then I turned the corner to go to her apartment. And I saw the cops took off through a different apartment complex and went through some back roads through the back of Windsor, and then led into some back roads, county roads, hit county Missouri. Are the police in pursuit of you now? Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So how many cops are chasing you? There's two. Yeah. So what were you thinking? Like, why wouldn't you have stopped, knowing that you should just probably stop now? I had felony warrants out on me. What were the felony warrants for? For stolen trucks, weird recording accounts. 

So why are you stealing these vehicles? What's the purpose of stealing people's property? I don't know, man. I was f***ed up in the head. I was real messed up, drunk all the time, and just losing my mind. I just took the vehicles to get away sometimes. How would you steal these vehicles most of the time? Sometimes I would break the ignition down and sometimes there'd be keys in them. Are you just wandering around looking in vehicles and stuff like that and stealing opportunistic things? I mean, that's what I was doing, yeah, I guess you could say.

So are you working at the time? No, I was not. So how do you earn money to buy drugs and alcohol? I was robbing places. How would you rob them? I would use the stolen vehicles to go rob the different houses. Like you would break and enter? Were they there or were they not there? They were not there. How would you pick out a house to see if you could rob them? Just if it was, you know, quiet, not home. So would you knock and if nobody answered, what would you do? Break a window, kick down the door? I'd just come through the door. Sometimes they'd be unlocked and sometimes I'd have to use a screwdriver. What would you have done, did you have a weapon with you? No, never. What would you have done if a house owner, homeowner came out and was like, "Hey, what are you doing?" Or has that ever happened? That has never happened. 

And how many houses would you say you've broken into before you went to prison? Oh, numerous, over a handful. Around Sedalia and Clinton or outside of there? Just around. Yeah. Tell me what it's like being in somebody's houses. How long would you stay in there and what would you usually do? Go to the bedroom, try to look for jewelry, open up drawers? Just walk me through that. Just what you're saying, that's about it. That's something I didn't go into many details on that. Would you find stuff that you could go pawn? Yeah, sometimes I did. 

What other crimes would you do to get money? I sell drugs. I'd sell drugs, buy and sell, trade things, stolen merchandise, you know. All the things I shouldn't be doing. 

From stealing trucks to breaking into houses, Westley's life had spiraled into a vortex of compulsive robbery, all to feed a ravenous addiction to m***amphetamine, whiskey, and occasionally pills. Far from casual shoplifting, his actions bordered on audacious. He'd jack vehicles, even from family members like his uncle, and use them on a one-man crime spree across Clinton and Sedalia, Missouri. He'd stake out quiet homes, break in, and ransack them for everything he could pawn or trade. "I was messed up in the head," he admitted, highlighting a life teetering on the edge, underpinned by the dual impulses of substance abuse and theft.

Amid the chaos, Westley was more than just an individual in turmoil. He was a family man. The paradox couldn't be more stark. As he was making his plans to spend time with his loved ones, he didn't know that he would end up being involved in an incident that would rob himself and his family of a future together. This journey to visit his family would be abruptly interrupted by the flash of blue and red lights, the scream of sirens, and strained engines as the Missouri State Highway Patrol sprung into action. 

So you're in this high-speed chase Westley and they got two cops after you. You're trying to get away from them, whatever you gotta do to get away from them. Take me back to that day. So they're in hot pursuit of you and what happened? And I come out on 65 Highway and bore it down. I was doing about 120 when I came up to the first intersection in Sedalia and he was going from delivering pizza. When you say "he", you mean the victim in your case? Yeah, the victim, yeah. 

So whenever you saw this intersection, did you slow down at all or did you think, "I'm going to try to make it through the entire intersection going 120?" Yeah, I just wasn't thinking at that time. The whole time going down 65, I was just chugging the... I had two-fifths, two-fifths of liquor, one Evan Williams and one Fireball. You were drinking it while you were trying to get away? Yeah, I was chugging the damn bottle upside down, just getting it. So you thought that, "Hey, I'm about to go to jail, so let me just go ahead and get as drunk as I possibly can?" Right, that's what I was thinking. 

So take me back to that intersection. You're driving really fast. And this guy, this victim, is crossing the intersection and you strike him? Yeah, he's crossing the intersection. I struck him, T-boned him, and ejected him out of the vehicle. 

What happened to you in the crash? When you struck that victim, did you have a seatbelt on? No, I went underneath the truck. I had the wheels tilted all the way up, I remember. I went underneath the dash Indian style, crisscross, and got stuck in between the gas pedal and the brake pedal. And I was just stuck there. They had to cut me out. Yeah. 

So what was that like while they were cutting you out of the vehicle and those people that were basically cutting you out of the same people that are going to put you in cuffs and put you in prison. What was that like? He told me I was under arrest. I told him I'd already bought down some, or it's just a reward. Yeah, I had to tell the firemen to cut the seat brackets that actually free me from the truck. I remember that. How long did it take from the time you wrecked to the time that they started cutting you out of the truck? How long did that process take? Probably 15, 20 minutes. Were they being mean to you? I don't really remember. I can't recall. 

After they took you out of the vehicles, what injuries did you sustain? I just was life-flighted to MU Hospital. There I had stitches put in my left elbow. And I have a scar on my right knee, but to this day I suffer with pain problems every day in the joint, and knee pain, but other than that, I'm a walking miracle, you know, I should be dead. 

Whenever they were cutting you out of the vehicle, did they tell you that you had hurt somebody? Yeah, I believe so. What did they say? I don't recall. Yeah. I was too impaired.

Driving at 120 miles per hour down Highway 65, Westley struggled to maintain control of the stolen vehicle. I don't know whether you've tried to drive any vehicle above a hundred miles per hour, and we definitely don't suggest you do, but it can be a challenge while doing so even sober, let alone while frantically chugging two-fifths of liquor. Not only this, but two police cars were in hot pursuit. Now imagine the same scenario, but with the adrenaline and desperation struck into your body by the fear of being caught by police. This pressure must have felt like Westley was being hounded by a pack of wolves. Eventually, he sped into an intersection in Sedalia, Missouri, where his car T-boned another vehicle. Zachary Hancock-Bottom, the driver of that car, was ejected upon impact. 

What makes this account even more unsettling is that the first responders who would later cut Westley free from his contorted trap position under his dashboard were the same individuals who would handcuff him and inform him of his grim outcome. Zachary was dead because of the chase. While Westley sustained scars and everyday pain in his joints, an entire community was left to grapple with the senseless loss of Zachary. 

This brings us to a critical, troubling question. Had the police not been in an active pursuit, would Westley have been driving at such a deadly speed? Would Zachary Hancock-Bottom still be with us today? We'll delve deeper into this complex issue after the break.

Let me ask you this, because this is a serious question and this is debatable around a lot of issues when it comes to police chases. If you're being chased like you were, I want you to take me, think back to that day. The police sirens light up behind you. They are pursuing you. Obviously, the police want you to pull over. You run from them. If those cops would have backed off, turned their lights off, and not pursued you, what would you have done? I would've drifted off to the back roads, found a spot to stash out for some hours. I'd then possibly try to find a place to break into, to get some paint to paint the truck. I don't know. I tell 'em what I was thinking at that time. 

Do you think that if you would've saw the cops back off and not chase you when you took off, would you have driven 120 miles an hour or would you have just... No, I would've stopped, just gone about my way. So do you feel like them chasing you enhanced you to run and? Oh, most definitely. Cause I have a lot of trouble with, obvious it's a stolen car, they need to get you, but that's property, there's nobody in danger.

So there's a lot of controversy around this because, you know, if you had a child in the vehicle and that child was in danger, yes, we should pursue him possibly. But it was only me in the vehicle. Yeah, no, that's what I'm saying. I'm trying to think if we could have... Obviously, you're the reason that this person died, but when we really look into it, are you really the only reason? If you would have... I think it would be shortsighted to say that it's their fault altogether but what I'm getting at is if there's not another victim involved and it's just property thereafter, then certainly they can catch a drunk guy that's on m*** that can't think straight somewhere else down the line instead of chasing him like a crazy person. Am I making sense? Yeah, most definitely. I wish I had help to get out of here, but I don't.

Well, essentially your actions caused someone else to die, and it could be argued that the police assisted in that by chasing you. Like I said before, there was no victim involved in your case except for property crimes, so literally the police or joining in on a 120-mile pursuit, they could have easily killed someone, and I'm not trying to be anti-police, but I think I'm trying to make sense of, hey, how can we protect the public? Let's pick and choose who we're going to chase at 120 miles an hour, because if you're going 120 miles per hour, then the police got to be going at least 100, right? 

Regardless of who was at fault here, the fact remains that traveling at such a high speed was one of the determining factors in this tragic accident. The recklessness of police pursuing Westley through Sedalia at such a high speed has to be brought into question. The issue around high-speed pursuits is whether the maintenance of order has precedence over the enforcement of a law. It raises the question of ethics in policing and how police should act in conflicting circumstances.

In terms of police pursuits, the utility must be questioned because of the significant number of chases involving non-felons and the great potential for injury as a result of automobile accidents. Studies have shown that pursuits of even the most violent felons should be limited in certain circumstances where the potential for serious injury or death surpasses the benefit of apprehending the suspect. Not only this, but pursuits are glamorized in the media. It's often the hero cop speeding after the bad guys that gets the spotlight. Perhaps this image is the one that enters the cops' minds before they respond to the chase.

Police departments should adopt and enforce stringent pursuit policies in order to both enforce the law and maintain order. As this news report from FOX4 KC reveals, police that day threw everything they had at Westley. 

An innocent bystander hit and killed while doing his job as a Domino's delivery driver in Sedalia. His name, Zachary Hancock-Bottom. Authorities say the driver who hit the 27-year-old's delivery car is 26-year-old Westley Reid of Clinton. 

Details are gonna come more and more clear as time goes on. Andy Bell with the Missouri State Highway Patrol says Reid covered a lot of ground before speeding through a red light at this intersection. This was a wanted individual. He had felony warrants after his arrest. He's in a stolen vehicle. 

Henry County Sheriff's deputies spotted Reid in a stolen vehicle Sunday evening and began pursuit. They eventually lost sight of him in Benton County. When the suspect crossed into Pettis County, that's when a trooper picked up the chase down 65 Highway into Sedalia. 

Sedalia PD had attempted to spike the suspect and unfortunately it struck our trooper's vehicle. That slowed the trooper down a little bit. Bell says the trooper did not see the crash happen. As he was cresting that hill, he saw smoke from the impact. But he saw the debris and the dust and the smoke soon after. Reid struck Zach's delivery car and a stationary Pettis County Sheriff's Deputy's vehicle. The deputy was not injured. Zach was taken to an area hospital where he died. Reid was arrested for driving while under the influence of alcohol. He was taken to the hospital for his injuries. 

Unfortunately, Zachary lost his life not only due to the carelessness of police, but also due to Westley's intoxicated state while driving. Call it being in the wrong place at the wrong time, or even fate, regardless of your viewpoint, ultimately there was some level of responsibility that lay with Westley, and some of us would question that much of the police as well. 

We've already mentioned how Westley's alcoholism started at a young age and was so potent that it caused his downfall. I wanted to know whether he had managed to kick his addiction in jail and when he got out if he would still indulge in his vice of getting drunk. 

How much do you think you drank that day? Oh, I had at least drank one-fifth, at least probably a fifth and a half of whiskey. No exaggeration. Wow. Did you drink that much all the time? Yeah.

What does it feel like to be without alcohol now? Oh, it feels good. It feels good to wake up and not have to reach over and fill from my bottle and take a drink to make my mind think that I'm getting that right. You know, alcohol is a big part of your life. Obviously, you can't really get that in there unless you make it and I know that takes a long period of time, so most people don't go through that process just because the odds of getting caught with it are pretty high. 

So one day you're gonna be out on the streets, and there's alcohol everywhere you go, especially in Missouri. Gas stations, Walmart, grocery stores, they're around every corner, are you gonna drink again? No, I mean alcohol ruined my life, and I don't have no case to ever drink again in my life or drive. You can sincerely say that you would be out as a free man and you wouldn't grab a beer? Correct. What about drugs? No, they ruined my life, so.

At the end of the day, Westley was sentenced to nearly three decades behind bars. He pleaded guilty to a slew of charges, including class A felony for second-degree murder and the death of Zachary Hancock-Bottom. Westley was given 20 years for that count alone, plus an additional 12 years for driving while intoxicated. These sentences will run concurrently. He was also faced with additional time for tampering with a motor vehicle and resisting arrest. Five years and three years, respectively. These sentences are to run consecutively, not concurrently, stacking more years onto his time in prison. 

Listening to Westley recount the high-speed chase and the moments leading up to the tragic incident, one can't help but wonder, did he have a choice to stop when being pursued, or was he pressured into driving such a dangerous speed by police?

And then there's the question of fairness. Does Westley feel his 30-year sentence is a just consequence for his actions, or did he feel like he was being made an example of? We let Westley have his final say after the break.

They sentenced you to some concurrent terms like 25 years plus some jail time. I think it all equaled up to about 25 years, right? Something like that? 28 years with 85 percent mandatory. Do you think that's appropriate? No, I think it's too much. 

Did you get any backlash from the victim's family? No, I've not heard nothing besides a letter they wrote and the judge read it to me in court, which I don't recall anything about it. Was the letter aimed at telling you what you did wrong and how you hurt them, or what was the letter about? I don't recall. I can't really say. Okay.

If you could change something about that day, what would it be? I wish they would have stopped so I could have stopped. I wish I would have stopped, I guess is what I'm saying. Yeah, so what did that feel like, getting sentenced to that long of a prison sentence?

Didn't realize that I was going to spend a quarter of my life, at least, in prison. Obviously, like I said, you did wrong, but my question to you is, when you're sentenced to that long, what exactly was your reaction? I was just letting down myself, you know, I let my son down, let my family down, you know. I just knew I was gonna go away for a long time. How old is your son whenever this happened? He was three. Do you have a relationship with him now? No, she won't let me have nothing to do with it. Your baby's mother? Yeah. She won't let you have a relationship? No. 

Westley, how's prison been for you? It's been alright. There's been rough times, but right now it's pretty smooth sailing. So you say rough times. What makes prison for you rough? Just... Is it the psychological aspect? Or you're physically in danger? No, I'm definitely not physically in danger. Just more like mental, you know. Do you ever have breakdowns in there? I had one when I first got here, but other than that, no. 

So Westley, I appreciate you opening up to me. I know that sometimes saying something is a lot easier than doing and I hope that when you get out you can stay clean and definitely not get in a high-speed police chase. But I hope the best for you and appreciate you opening up to me, okay? Alright, thank you. Alright, Westley, take it easy, man. See you. 

On the next episode of Voices of a Killer.

This was senior night, a night that students were supposed to be honored, and now students are having to be escorted out of the parking lot under crime scene tape by police officers after one person was shot and killed. So you realize that when you saw it on the news, that you're in deep s***, probably. Yeah. What was the discussion like after you fired the weapon and y'all was driving away? I started crying. I thought my hand was in the air, but I guess it wasn't in the air. My intention was never to shoot anyone, okay? It was just to let out two shots in the air, but I guess the shots that I let out hit somebody. I never intended on hitting anybody. 

That's a wrap on this episode of Voices of a Killer. I want to thank Westley for sharing his story with us today. His ability to be open and honest is what makes this podcast so special so special. If you would like to listen to the raw recordings of these interviews, you can visit www.patreon.com/voicesofakiller. By becoming a patron, you can access not only this, but hours of bonus recordings, correspondence, and you can contribute to the way the show is produced. A big shout out to Sonic Futures who handle the production, audio editing, music licensing, and promotion of this podcast.

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Your feedback helps us improve and reach new listeners. Thank you for your support, and we can't wait to share more stories with you in the future. Thank you for tuning in. I'm your host, Toby, and we'll see you next time on Voices of a Killer.