COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Reagan Tokes was kidnapped, raped and murdered by a man who shouldn't have been free at the time of her death, according to Franklin County prosecutors.
The Ohio State student's family joined state legislators Wednesday to introduce a bill that would lessen the chances of anyone else dying the way they believe she did.
"It's devastating, as parents," Tokes' mother, Lisa Tokes, said. "You never get over it. It never goes away for us or for any other member of our family. … It's always with you."
The man charged with killing Reagan Tokes, 29-year-old Brian Golsby, was fitted with a GPS tracking ankle bracelet at the end of his prison sentence for a previous case of attempted rape and aggravated robbery. Since Feb. 11 -- two days after Tokes' body was discovered in Scioti Metro Park -- prosecutors have insisted GPS data shows he had been involved in several Columbus-area robberies prior to his encounter with 21-year-old Tokes.
If Golsby's parole officer had closely monitored that data at the time of the incidents, they said, he never would have had the chance to interact with Tokes at all.
According to WBNS-TV in Columbus, the Reagan Tokes Act would give judges greater discretion for sentencing in first- and second-degree felonies as well as violent third-degree felonies, compel the Ohio Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation to reduce parole officers' caseloads and to monitor parolees' GPS locations more closely in order to identify suspicious activity.
"It's shocking it wasn't monitored in a better fashion," Toby Tokes, Reagan's father, said.
Golsby pleaded not guilty to all 18 counts on which he was indicted, including Tokes' death and the series of robberies.
Tokes had been preparing to graduate from Ohio State University with a psychology degree at the time of her death. Four days before she died, she was tearing up at the thought of picking out a diploma frame.
Just applied for graduation in the spring and I low key almost cried walking out of my advisors office but it's all good go bucks
— Reagan (@reagantokes) December 6, 2016
