Dad In Jail With Accused Killers

Kenneth Reese believes being confined to the same jail as the boys accused of murdering his daughter is “mental cruelty.”

“This is ridiculous,” said Reese, whose daughter, Felicia Reese, was killed in a kidnapping-slaying Dec. 29.

Kenneth Reese was recently jailed on charges of driving drunk and two counts of driving with a suspended license. Reese is being held in the Spokane County Jail in lieu of $5,000 bail.

In the same jail are the two teens charged with killing his daughter.

Authorities said that cousins Kevin Boot, 17, and Jerry Boot, 16, forced Felicia Reese into a car at gunpoint, took $43 from her purse and shot her in the head.

Her body was found by a man walking on the Centennial Trail along Upriver Drive.

In an interview at the jail Thursday, Reese said he can’t afford to post bond. He also said he can’t bear to hear fellow inmates brag about their guns.

Even trying to read Western novels to pass the time is tough: “Every time I come to a scene where someone gets hurt, I think of my daughter.”

Reese filed a grievance Thursday when jail officials placed an accused murderer in his cell.

That was too much, he said.

“After all this write-up they put a murderer in with me,” he said. “They did that on purpose.”

Sheriff’s Lt. Clyde Ries denied the accusation.

Reese fears what he may do if placed in a holding cell with one of the Boots.

Lt. Ries said jail officers are under orders to keep Reese and his daughter’s accused killers separate at all times.

Reese believes he should be allowed to mourn outside of jail, especially because of the presence of the Boots. He said officers know he will be staying with his parents, near Elk, and that his case shouldn’t require any more jail time.

Ries said the actions of officers have been appropriate.

“If he’s trying to say he’s not there legally, that’s not true,” Ries said.

Although Reese may be distraught, authorities still must prosecute the cases against him, Ries said.

Reese, who has a long history of traffic violations in Spokane County, said he didn’t see his daughter for 12 years after he and her mother were divorced in 1980.

He said Thursday that he thought of her often during that time. In 1989, he even had his daughter’s name tattooed over his heart. Finally, he tracked Felicia Reese down and arranged a meeting with her two years ago.

They stayed in touch after that, he said.

At the jail, things got a little more tolerable for Reese by late Thursday afternoon. He’d gotten a new cellmate.

But, he complained, “I’m still in the same place as my daughter’s murderer.”