UPDATE: Three life sentences handed down to man who killed couple and their unborn daughter

FARGO, N.D. (Valley News Live) - A man will spend the rest of his life in prison without the possibility of parole after gunning down a couple, killing them both, as well as their unborn child in November 2021.

37-year-old Anthony Reese opened fire at a factory in north Fargo on Nov. 17, 2021 just minutes after a work dispute at Composite America located at 401 27th St. N. Co-workers say Reese was escorted out of the building, but gunshots rang out moments later after documents say Reese grabbed a firearm from his car.

43-year-old Richard Pittman and 32-year-old April Carbone, who was 35-weeks pregnant, were killed. Carbone was due to give birth to a daughter the couple had already named Layla just days after Christmas.

“April was three years clean and leading her best life. When she became pregnant, she was so excited about the thought of it that every time I heard from her, it was as if she hadn’t told me about her pregnancy,” April’s father, Bill testified in court Monday afternoon.

The couple hadn’t lived in North Dakota long, moving from the East Coast in 2019 in search of a better life.

“There is no future for April, there is not future for her unborn child, there is not future for Richard. You have, in an instant, taken an entire future away from our family,” Richard’s aunt Richelle Cromwell told Reese in court Monday.

“You have left me without a child and a grandchild. My life will never be the same. You took it. I will never forgive you and I don’t know if God will,” Paula Cromwell, Richard Pittman’s mother tole Reese via Zoom at his sentencing hearing Monday afternoon.

Officials say there was a work dispute between Reese and Pittman that November afternoon and Reese was ordered to go home for the day. Instead, police say he grabbed a gun from his car and came back inside the factory with a gun..

“Anthony (Reese) had said he wanted to make Richie suffer, so he shot his unborn baby. I just don’t understand taking innocent lives over nothing,” Kayla Lancor, a good friend of the victims told Valley News Live in an interview after the shooting.

“He was kind, loving and always willing to help anyone. all he tried to do is help you. You killed my son, you killed my grandchild and her mother. You’re a coward. Not fit to live in society,” Pittman’s mother said. “You’ll be in a dark hole constantly asking yourself, ‘Why did I do this?’ You’ll have a long time to think about it. Your only friend is the devil.”

“The court’s not aware of any triple murder case in our community’s history at least the last three recent decades,” Cass County Judge Wade Webb said.

An emotionless Reese didn’t address the courtroom Monday.

“It’s senseless.”: Friend remembers couple, unborn child killed in N. Fargo

Copyright 2022 KVLY. All rights reserved.