Kansas man sentenced to life in prison in murder, burning of Mandy Rose Reynolds

WACO, Texas (KWTX) - A nine-time convicted felon who shot and killed his cousin in April 2023, stuffed her body in a large storage container, drove to Robinson and set her body on fire was sentenced to life in prison Thursday.

Jurors in Waco's 19th State District Court deliberated about 40 minutes before heeding prosecutors' pleas to put Derek Joseph Daigneault behind bars for the rest of his life.

The jury deliberated about 35 minutes before convicting the 29-year-old career criminal in the shooting death of his 26-year-old cousin, Mandy Rose Reynolds, whose body was set ablaze in a plastic storage bin near a subdivision on Heston Circle, just east of Interstate 35. Reynolds' body was burned beyond recognition and police identified her after catching Reynolds' dog, a white Labradoodle named Titan, who was left at the scene and refused to leave the location where Reynolds' body was found.

The dog was microchipped, which allowed investigators to identify Reynolds as his owner.

After Visiting Judge Roy Sparkman sentenced Daigneault to life in prison, Reynolds' mother, stepfather and older brother gave victim impact statements relating how Reynolds' violent death has devastated them.

As Reynolds' brother was speaking, Daigneault shouted across the courtroom, accusing the brother of a crime.

Sparkman admonished Daigneault not to speak, but Daigneault continued to address his cousin, who was speaking from the witness stand.

After Reynolds' brother finished his statement, courthouse deputies quickly escorted Daigneault from the courtroom. However, a skirmish quickly broke out between Daigneault's brother-in-law, mother and sister, who watched the four-day trial from one side of the courtroom, and Reynolds' side of the family, who were seated on the other side.

Courthouse deputies, DA's office investigators and other officers in attendance rushed in to separate the families before placing Daigneault's brother-in-law, M.K. Herzberg, in handcuffs after he took a swing at someone on Reynolds' side of the courtroom.

Herzberg was released about 30 minutes later and allowed to leave the courthouse with no charges brought against him.

As deputies were leading Daigneault to jail, he told a KWTX reporter he wanted to make a statement. He reiterated that his cousin had committed a crime. When asked, "What about you?" Daigneault said, "I guess I'm just a murderer."

In closing statements Thursday, prosecutors Ryan Calvert and Alyssa Killin told the jury that even if Daigneault was not a nine-time convicted felon, with convictions going back to when he was 15, he deserves a life sentence for what he did to Reynolds.

"Like I told the jury, if they knew nothing else about Derek Daigneault other than what he did to Mandy Rose Reynolds - shooting her in the head, driving her body here to McLennan County and setting her on fire like a piece of trash - if that's all they knew about him, that alone would have been enough to justify a life sentence," Calvert said after the trial.

"But once we got into the punishment phase, the jury learned he had been in trouble his whole life, he was a multiple-time convicted felon, he had been in prison in Kansas before for violent offenses, they even learned he had shot another individual as a juvenile," Calvert said. "He is just an extremely violent individual, and he cannot be trusted with the safety of this or any other community. So life, we felt, was the only just verdict."

Daigneault's attorney, Jason P. Darling, thanked the jury for the effort they put in it. He said Daigneault, who must serve at least 30 years in prison before he is eligible for parole, will appeal.

Calvert said he was appreciative of the efforts of police investigators in Robinson, San Marcos and Wichita, Kansas, for their roles in bringing Daigneault to justice.

Daigneault was on felony probation with an arrest warrant out for him when he convinced Reynolds to drive from San Marcos to Kansas to pick him up. Reynolds allowed Daigneault to stay with her in an apartment in San Marcos for about a month before he shot her in the head, stuffed her body in a blue storage container, drove to Robinson and set the container on fire using an accelerant.

Investigators tracked Daigneault to Wichita, Kansas, where he led police on a high-speed chase for about 30 minutes, side-swiping a police cruiser before slamming into another car. He fled the wreck and ran into a busy grocery store, sending shoppers scrambling for their cars as police flooded into the store in pursuit.

Police found him hiding behind some canned goods on a bottom shelf after a brief search of the store.

During punishment phase testimony, prosecutors showed that Daigneault has previous felony convictions for aggravated burglary, attempted aggravated robbery, aggravated assault, possession of methamphetamine, attempted interference with law enforcement, criminal discharge of a firearm at a residence, fleeing officers, aggravated battery and criminal possession of a weapon by a felon.

He was sentenced to just more than nine years for the incident in Wichita that led to his arrest in Reynolds' murder in which he fled from officers before wrecking Reynolds' car.

Prosecutors proved \ was in possession of Reynolds' Honda Accord; her grandmother's gun, which proved to be the murder weapon; her dog, Titan; and her phone, with which investigators tracked his whereabouts.