Murder of Reagan Tokes

On the night of February 8, 2017, Reagan Tokes, a 21-year-old psychology student at The Ohio State University, was abducted at gunpoint by Brian Golsby as she walked to her car after leaving her job at Bodega, a restaurant in downtown Columbus, Ohio. Golsby forced Tokes to drive him to multiple ATMs and gas stations, raped her in an alley, and eventually forced her to drive to Scioto Grove Metro Park in Grove City, Ohio. There, he made her undress and marched her into a field, where he shot her twice in the head, killing her shortly before midnight. Her body was discovered by a park visitor the following morning.

Golsby had been released from prison in November 2016 after serving roughly six years for a 2010 abduction and rape case in which he had pleaded down to robbery and attempted rape. Following his release, he was placed at a temporary housing program run by the EXIT Program (operated by NISRE Inc.) and was fitted with a GPS monitor, but officials at the housing program and his parole officer did not actively monitor him. Between January 24 and February 7, 2017, Golsby committed six armed robberies without being arrested or returned to custody, despite parole violations that were deemed "non-severe."

Investigators identified Golsby through GPS tracking data, a license-plate reader that captured Tokes's abandoned car, DNA from cigarette butts and a rape kit, and surveillance photos of him purchasing a gas can. He was arrested on February 11, 2017, and confessed to detectives, initially inventing a fictitious accomplice before later confessing to the murder to a friend and to the mother of his child while in jail.

Golsby's trial began March 5, 2018, in Franklin County, Ohio. Prosecutors presented forensic evidence, including DNA matches and testimony from a forensic pathologist describing the close-range gunshot wounds. He was convicted on all counts on March 13, 2018. The jury deadlocked on the death penalty, with four votes for life and eight for death, and Judge Mark Serrott sentenced Golsby to life in prison on March 21, 2018. Prosecutors later cross-appealed, arguing a jury-instruction error had improperly prevented a death sentence; Ohio's Tenth District Court of Appeals ruled against the state in September 2020, and the Ohio Supreme Court accepted a further appeal before it was withdrawn under a newly elected prosecutor.

The Tokes family filed a civil lawsuit against the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction (ODRC) and NISRE Inc., alleging negligent failure to monitor Golsby. Courts dismissed the claims against the ODRC, a decision the Ohio Supreme Court declined to review in 2019. The lawsuit against NISRE Inc. was later settled.

The case received extensive local and national media coverage, including segments on Dateline NBC, On the Case with Paula Zahn, and Criminal Confessions. It also led to the Reagan Tokes Act, an Ohio sentencing reform law signed by Governor John Kasich in December 2018, which introduced indefinite sentencing ranges for certain felonies and later prompted additional legislation addressing offender monitoring after release.