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7:45 p.m., Toombs County 911 Dispatch received a call about an unresponsive child. The caller shared that they were driving to the emergency room from their residence with the child and needed an ambulance to meet them on the route.
The child was later identified as 4-year-old Reese Hughes. Toombs-Montgomery EMS met the caller and Reese at the Enmarket in Lyons, located at the intersection of West Liberty Street and South Victory Drive, where they immediately took Reese and began working to try to save her life. Unfortunately, she was pronounced dead shortly after arriving at the Memorial Health Meadows Hospital in Vidalia.
Toombs County Sheriff Jordan Kight requested assistance from the Georgia Bureau of Investigation Region 12 Office to probe the case. Through the investigation, suspicion arose that Reese was beaten to death, which led to the arrest of her mother, Taylor Marie Hughes, 29, of Lyons, and Taylor Hughes’s boyfriend Seth Hunter Brown, 26, of Lyons.
The couple both went before Chief Middle Judicial Circuit Superior Court Judge Robert Reeves for their first appearance in court on March 17, 2025, where Judge Reeves informed the pair that bond would not be considered at the current time. Hughes requested a court-appointed attorney while Brown stated he would hire his own counsel, and with no further business to attend, the hearing was adjourned.
Brown and Hughes were each indicted by the Toombs County Grand Jury on April 22, 2025, on two counts of malice murder and two counts of cruelty to children in the first degree.– one for each body part (abdomen and head) which was struck during the incident. The couple also were charged with four counts of felony murder – a count each for “maliciously causing cruel and excessive physical pain by striking the child” in the head and abdomen, and a count each for harming the child’s brain and intestines, ultimately leading to her death. Two additional counts of aggravated battery were also charged to the couple because of these injuries.
On Thursday, July 17, 2025, Hughes entered a formal guilty plea to the court for her role in her daughter’s murder as she failed to protect Reese from the abuse from Brown. Prior to the plea, Hughes told investigators critical information about the case and agreed to testify against Brown, who potentially faces the death penalty, in the upcoming trial. Middle Judicial Circuit Chief Superior Court Judge Robert Reeves accepted the guilty plea and sentenced Hughes to serve life imprisonment with twenty years added concurrently.
During their meeting on April 20, the Toombs County Grand Jury indicted Brown on an additional two charges for offenses that happened between February 1, 2025, and March 14, 2025, with two different children than Hughes. Brown now faces an additional count of cruelty to children in the first degree for hitting a child in the legs with a belt and one count of aggravated sodomy for an incident involving a third child. Both incidents were discovered through investigations of Reese Hughes’s death.
Brown will now enter a formal plea for these new charges to determine his next steps in the judicial process.
Raymonia Shooting
Hakeem Donte McRae is facing five counts of aggravated assault and one count of criminal damage to property after shooting at five people at the Raymonia Apartment Complex, located at 1208 Easter Drive in Vidalia, on October 21, 2024. Darrius Jamile Corouthers – one of the individuals that McRae was allegedly shooting at – also faces a count of aggravated assault and possession of a firearm during the commission of a crime.
McRae and Corouthers will now enter their formal pleas to the court to determine whether they will move on to a trial or sentencing.
Vehicle Break-Ins
James Edwin Clements, Jr., is charged with four counts of entering an automobile, as he is accused of breaking into four Akins and Sons trucks in Lyons on August 23, 2025.
Clements will now enter a formal plea to the court to determine his next steps in the judicial process.
Other Indictments
Additional indictments issued during the April 14 meeting of the Toombs County Grand Jury were: Ryan Anthony Crawford – burglary in the first degree Carl Jerome Hunt, III – aggravated assault; battery Delvinnear Jaquez Jordan – aggravated assault; battery Jason Shane Hattaway – possession of buprenorphine Michael Christopher Kirkland – aggravated assault; false imprisonment Samuel Kurt Miller – aggravated assault; possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony; theft by receiving stolen property; possession of a firearm by a convicted felon Nato Vashaun Baker – aggravated assault Tyreke Travon McKinnon – aggravated assault (two counts); possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony Michael Terrell Smith – possession of methamphetamine Kayla Renee Alston – possession of fentanyl; possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony John Barry Metzger, Jr. – burglary in the first degree; aggravated battery; theft by taking These individuals will now enter formal pleas to the court to determine whether they move on to trial or a sentencing hearing.
