By Kaley Johnson
ORDER REPRINT→A serial rapist and murderer pleaded guilty Friday to killing two North Texas women, including a Fort Worth woman who was strangled inside her apartment near TCU in 2017.
Reginald Kimbro pleaded guilty to murdering the two women and raping four others during a plea agreement hearing in Tarrant County’s 213th District Court. His jury trial, in which he faced the possibility of the death penalty, was set to begin Tuesday.
Kimbro was given three life sentences — which he will serve without the possibility of parole — two for the murders of Molly Jane Matheson and Megan Getrum and another for the rape of a woman in South Texas. He also received 60 years for three rapes in Collin County.
Kimbro killed Matheson, a 22-year-old whom he had dated years before, in April 2017. According to authorities, hours after Fort Worth police questioned Kimbro in connection to Matheson’s death, Kimbro raped and killed Getrum, a 36-year-old Plano woman whose body was found in Lake Ray Hubbard on April 19, 2017.
Matheson’s mother found her body on April 10, 2017, in the shower of her Fort Worth apartment. She had been beaten, raped and strangled, and Kimbro had washed her body, clothes and bedding to destroy evidence, authorities said.
“Reginald Kimbro is a serial rapist and a serial killer,” said Assistant Tarrant County Criminal District Attorney Allenna Bangs in a news release. “He used his personality and charm to attract women or drugged them when that did not work. He talked his way out of case after case until his violence culminated in the deaths of Molly Matheson and Megan Getrum.”
On Friday morning, about 25 people sat in the Tarrant County courtroom when the hearing began at 9 a.m. Kimbro, wearing a green jumpsuit and handcuffs, sat before a computer screen. His three lawyers gathered around him.
Kimbro’s case involves charges across four Texas counties. Throughout the morning Friday, judges and court staff from each county spoke with Kimbro and his attorneys through Zoom. Kimbro’s charges out of Collin County were read out first by a Collin County judge on video. Those sitting in the courtroom — including Matheson’s parents — could not see the laptop screen, but could hear the echoed voices coming from it.
After Kimbro pleaded guilty to raping three women in Collin County, the judge sentenced him to 20 years in prison for each count, which was the maximum allowed by law.
Two of the convictions were for the rape of a woman at a party in Allen on Jan. 19, 2014, and the rape of another woman in McKinney in 2014.
A woman sitting in the front row — who was the victim in another Collin County case — made her way to the front of the courtroom to testify.
The woman, dressed in a white and purple blouse, sat beside the judge as she described how Kimbro raped and strangled her when she was 18 years old. The attack in 2012 impacted her entire life, she said.
“The body my soul was living in no longer seemed like a safe place,” she said.
She said when she reported the rape to police, detectives did not believe her. When she explained how Kimbro held her down, a detective told her to “get on the floor and show It to me,” she said.
When she heard about Matheson’s murder, the woman said, she thought, “it could have been me.”
When the woman made her way back to the bench, Matheson’s dad hugged her and told her he was proud of her.
At 10 a.m., Kimbro pleaded guilty to an aggravated sexual assault charge out of Cameron County. His sentence for the assault was life in prison. The charge stems from 2014, when Kimbro raped and choked a 20-year-old woman at the Isla Grand Resort.
At 10:30 a.m., he pleaded guilty to the murder of Getrum in Dallas County. The judge sentenced him to life for the woman’s rape and murder.
Getrum was a stranger to Kimbro, according to the Tarrant County District Attorney’s Office. She was taking an evening hike at Arbor Hills Nature Preserve near her home when Kimbro attacked her on April 14, 2017. Her body was found five days later.
At 11:08 a.m., Judge Chris Wolfe read Kimbro details about the Tarrant County murder charge, his rights as a defendant and the plea deal. A state prosecutor read the indictment accusing Kimbro of murdering Matheson. The charges of sexual assault in that case were dismissed as part of the plea deal.
The judge asked Kimbro if he pleaded guilty or not guilty to capital murder. Kimbro answered guilty.
One woman in the courtroom lifted her hands in celebration.
For Matheson’s murder, Kimbro was sentenced to his third life sentence without the possibility of parole.
The multi-county hearing was orchestrated by attorneys and prosecutors across the four counties, including Bangs and Page Simpson.
Throughout the investigation into the murders and rapes, four other victims were also identified, according to the Tarrant County DA’s office. The victims described being drugged, strangled and raped. For various reasons, those sexual assaults had not been previously reported to law enforcement, but all four women were prepared to testify against Kimbro.
In 2019, the Texas Legislature created Molly Jane’s Law, which requires law enforcement officers investigating sexual assault cases to put the information into a national database. Matheson’s mother and father led the charge for the law’s creation, which is geared to help law enforcers identify patterns of sexual assaults and identify serial offenders before they attack again.
Detectives linked Kimbro to each of his crimes with DNA and other evidence including cell phone records, surveillance video and witness statements.
Kimbro has waived all appeals.
The Matheson family also created the nonprofit organization Project Beloved, whose mission is to change the conversation about sexual assault and empower its survivors. The project’s name was inspired by a tattoo of the word “Beloved” that Matheson had.
Family members are scheduled to make statements in court Tuesday, on what would have been the trial date.
“The women affected by Kimbro’s crimes are incredibly brave for coming forward with their experiences,” Simpson said in a press release. “This plea allows the Matheson and Getrum families to finally hear him admit what he did and simultaneously ensures he cannot do it again.”
This story was originally publishedMarch 18, 2022 11:33 AM.