The Fourth District Appellate Court is upholding the 18-month prison sentence Jeffrey Reinking received for illegally returning to his son an AR-15 Bushmaster rifle that he later used in a Tennessee mass shooting that left four people dead.
The elder Reinking took possession of his son's firearms after his FOID card was revoked for a residency issue, but returned them to him when he moved out of state. He was later charged with unlawful delivery of a firearm.
Throughout the trial and posttrial process, the Morton man had alleged, among other things, that he had ineffective counsel, and that he had no way of knowing his son Travis had been admitted to Methodist Hospital for mental health treatment following an episode in a Morton CVS parking lot about two years before the shooting.
Tazewell County Circuit Court Judge Chris Doscotch rejected those arguments. In their decision upholding Doscotch's rulings, the appellate court judges complimented both him and Tazewell County prosecutors for their handling of the case and appeals process.
Travis Reinking is serving a life sentence with no possibility for parole for the shooting at a Nashville-area Waffle House in 2018.
