Sentencing has been handed down to former Akron rideshare driver Mohamed Reeda, convicted of rape and kidnapping, reports Cleveland19. Summit County Court of Common Pleas Judge Alison Breaux ordered Reeda to serve a prison term of 20 to 24 years for his crimes.
Reeda, who was found guilty in February of the current year, targeted women in Akron from late 2022 through March 2023. He was arrested by Akron Police on March 30, 2023, as outlined in a detailed report from News 5 Cleveland. Utilizing his position as a rideshare driver, Reeda would lure females under pretenses—offers of safe transport or employment—before committing his assaults.
Survivors of Reeda's crimes spoke out during the sentencing, with one victim, Stacey Smith, whose identity she consented to reveal, expressing, "The things that I go through on a daily basis, it just, I don't know, it really bothers me. I can't even say, I can't even put into words how I feel really," according to an interview with News 5 Cleveland.
Reeda exploited moments of vulnerability as he actively went "off the grid," shutting off his rideshare app to seek out potential victims, FOX8 News reports from interviews with Akron detectives. Reeda's conviction is the culmination of an investigation that exposed a series of nighttime attacks by a man in a car targeting women alone on the streets.
Following his release from prison, Reeda will face strict sex offender registration requirements, with Judge Breaux designating him as a Tier III sex offender—this requires him to register his address with local law enforcement every 90 days for life and places him on the state's violent offender registry for 10 years. This information comes from the Summit County Prosecutor's office, shared in a news release obtained by FOX8 News.
