Quanita and Quentin Reeves have spent most of their lives trying to forget about the horrors they endured the night of Feb. 13, 1994, in Bucyrus, Ohio, when a gunman entered their cousin’s house, shot and wounded them, and killed three others.
“We grew up scared of different things that other kids might not have been afraid of,” says Quentin, now 33, who battles depression and PTSD because of the shooting that took the lives of his aunt and two cousins. “You don’t know who you can trust.”
Leaving the case in the past has been more difficult because of the new Spotify podcast,Kim Kardashian’s The System: The Case of Kevin Keith,which rose to the number one spot on the charts after its Oct. 3 debut, beating out Joe Rogan’s andMeghan Markle’s chart-topping podcasts.
During the course of eight episodes, the mom of four delves into how exactly Keith, now 59, ended up in prison on charges related to the shooting and killing of three people including a 4-year-old girl, and seriously wounding three others, including Quanita and Quentin.
Quanita and Quentin Reeves.Reeves Family
Arrested on Feb. 15, 1994, Keith, then 30, was convicted shortly after, in May 1994, of three counts of murder and three counts of attempted murder. On June 1, 1994, he was sentenced to death.
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In 2010, after Keith had unsuccessfully appealed his case many times, then-Gov. Ted Strickland commuted his death sentence to life without parole, which gave him hope that he could one day be freed from prison.
“The whole situation sucks,” Kardashian says in the podcast, noting that she doesn’t think Keith “was given a fair shot.”
Kevin Keith.KevinKeith.org
One reason Kardashian is taking a fresh look at the case is because prosecutors never presented any physical evidence linking him to the crime, she says in the podcast.
For more on Quanita and Quentin Reeves' anguish about the deadly shooting that rocked their lives, pick up this week’s issue of PEOPLE, on newsstands Friday.
Kardashian first announced her support for Keith in 2019, when she wrote in a Tweet, “I heard about Kevin Keith’s case last year & the more I learn about it, the more I believe the world needs to hear what happened to him!”
Kevin Keith and Kim Kardashian.Ohio Department of Corrections; ZUMAPRESS.com
She has been in touch with Keith, who is being held at the Marion Correctional Institution in Marion, Ohio.
“I had the pleasure of meeting Kevin Keith through a video visit & was so impressed w/ the amazing programs he created in prison to help others inside better themselves!,” she wrote in another Tweet. “So much evidence has been uncovered proving Kevin’s innocence. I hope justice is served soon & he is released,” she tweeted.
Quanita and Quentin say they hope Keith never leaves prison and – want their side of the story to be heard.
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“The fact that they say they got new evidence or whatever, none of that really matters to me,” says Quanita, 35, also a mother of four. “What matters is that I know that Kevin came through that door and he shot me. My story will not change.”
She says she and Quentin said the same thing about the shooting in 2019, when they did an interview with theMansfield News Journal.
Quentin agrees that his story hasn’t changed, either, saying, “He did it. We saw him do it.”
A Chilling Night
At about 8:45 p.m. or so on Feb. 13, 1994, Quanita and Quentin, then 6 and 4, were at their cousin’s house in Bucyrus when they said Keith knocked at the door.
They both said Keith ordered everyone on the floor and then began shooting.
“I was scared,” Quentin recalls.
They both said they knew who Keith was. “We all knew who he was,” says Quentin. “He was my dad’s friend.”
Killed that night were the siblings' aunt, Linda Chatman, 39, their cousin, Marichell Chatman, 24, and her daughter, Marchae Chatman, 4. Quanita was shot twice in the stomach and once in the arm and Quentin was shot in the stomach. Marichell’s boyfriend at the time, Rick Warren, was also wounded in the shooting.
After Quanita was injured, she somehow got up and looked out the window.
Over the years, some people have pointed out that Quanita said a man named Bruce came to the house. But she clarifies that she got the name wrong, but not the face.
“I just told you the same story that I told them when I was six,” she says. “And the whole thing about Bruce, I may have said it was Bruce, but the picture was Kevin. I knew it was his face. I just got his name mixed up. You can mess up somebody’s name, but you can’t forget a face.”
Both siblings spent months in the hospital recovering from their wounds. Quanita has permanent nerve damage on her left side. Quentin had parts of his intestine removed and needed a colostomy bag at one point.
The mental and emotional scars from that night have also lingered. Both siblings suffer from depression, anxiety and PTSD despite years of counseling.
“Reliving it,” is difficult but hard to avoid, says Quentin. “You know, PTSD. I don’t sleep as much as I used to. I don’t sleep good.”
Their anxiety levels have worsened whenever Keith appeals a case – which has been often.
“I have nightmares every time this stuff comes out,” says Quentin.
Their fears and anxiety are worse than ever now that the question of Keith’s guilt or innocence has surfaced yet again, this time with a powerful ally at his side. “You’ve got a celebrity trying to get somebody out that’s already got someone out before,” says Quanita.
Kardashian helped free great-grandmother Alice Marie Johnson from prison in 2018, where she had been serving time for non-violent drug charges. She has also lobbied tirelessly for the wrongly convicted and those seeking clemency.
“What can we do?” asks Quanita. “He’s gotKim Kardashian. You think about him being free and then you got children and yourself…”
A Miscommunication
Quanita and Quentin, a home health aide and a factory worker respectively, haven’t had much experience with the national media – something else they’re dealing with now that Keith is in the news again.
Quanita blocked Ansaldi’s number, which is why she said she hadn’t heard from her, she tells PEOPLE. “I told [Ansaldi] a couple of years ago I didn’t want to speak to her again.”
At the end of the day, Quanita and Quentin just want Keith to stay behind bars. “It’s been 28 years. We still hearing about this,” says Quentin.
“We’re fed up,” he says. “The story ain’t changed. We just want justice to keep being served.”
Still, proving Keith’s innocence on the podcast will be challenging.
“In the 28 years since Kevin Keith’s conviction in 1994, the Crawford County Court of Common Pleas, the Third District Court of Appeals, the Ohio Supreme Court, the Ohio Parole Board, the Federal District Court, the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals and the United States Supreme Court have reviewed the trial testimony and any purported new evidence and have found ‘overwhelming evidence’ of Keith’s guilt,” Crawford County Prosecutor Matt Crall told PEOPLE in an email.
“Because of these findings, no court has found it proper to disturb the unanimous verdict of the jury to whom Mr. Keith was tried.”
source: people.com
