A Cypress man was convicted by jury on Tuesday, Sept. 15, of fatally shooting a 12-year-old boy in Long Beach in 2023 after apparently mistaking him for a gang member, authorities said.
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Reshawn Jonae Strother, now 24, was also convicted by the Long Beach Superior Court jury of three counts of attempted murder, conspiracy to commit a crime, unlawful firearm activity, carrying a loaded firearm in public, and assault with a firearm. Jurors deliberated for less than a day before reaching the verdicts following a week-long trial.
Most of the counts stem from the fatal shooting of Eric Gregory Brown III, who was walking with two teenage girls on Lewis Avenue near Hill Street the night of May 9, 2023, when Strother and his then-girlfriend, Destenee Scipio, now 24, pulled up in her car, according to evidence presented during court proceedings.
At a preliminary hearing in 2024, Detective Jesus Espinoza testified that two other people were also in the car and that two men, including Strother, got out, asked, “Where you from?” and opened fire on the youngsters, hitting Brown in the back of the head and a 14-year-old girl in the leg.
A 13-year-old girl walking with them escaped unharmed.
Police characterized the shooting as gang-related, but said Brown and the two girls were not involved with gangs.
Strother and Scipio had been staying at the Tower Motel near Pacific Coast Highway and Chestnut Avenue. Strother was out driving in Scipio’s car near Orange Avenue and Hellman Street on May 9, 2023, when he said someone opened fire on him and grazed the car, detectives said.
Strother returned to the hotel and, detectives said, wanting to retaliate. But Scipio did not want him to take her car to do so, according to text messages and video presented during the earlier hearing.
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Video from the hotel shows Strother grab Scipio by the throat and slam her onto the hood of the car, pinning her for several seconds before another man who apparently knew them intervened, after Scipio attempted to block him from getting into the driver’s seat.
Scipio testified against Strother in trial and told detectives they drove to Carson and Downey to pick up two other men, at least one she saw get into the car with a gun.
They then traveled to Lewis and Hill, where they happened upon the three children.
Strother and the other armed man were identified by detectives as gang members.
One of the attempted murder charges and the assault and possession charges stem from a shooting at a Los Angeles music studio in March 2023 when Strother fired into the studio and hit Scipio in the leg. Another man was injured in the melee.
Scipio’s public defender, in the 2024 hearing, argued that Scipio’s actions at the hotel and text messages show that she did not want Strother taking the car to carry out his plan. But a judge said she ended up getting in the car anyway, knowing what was going to happen.
She pleaded no contest to voluntary manslaughter in July 2025, court records show. She hasn’t been sentenced yet.
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Strother’s sentencing was scheduled for Oct. 7.