'I'm so in love' accused Waffle House shooter writes in letter to Oprah about Taylor Swift

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WZTV) — The state rested its case against accused Antioch Waffle House shooter Travis Reinking before noon Wednesday. The move follows the defense grilling an investigator to read two letters Reinking is believed to have written to superstars Taylor Swift and Oprah Winfrey.

Reinking faces a 16-count indictment, including at least four murder charges. Authorities say he unleashed 30 rounds of ammunition at an Antioch Waffle House in April 2018, killing Akilah DaSilva, De'Ebony Groves, Taurean Sanderlin, and Joe Perez and leaving multiple others injured.

Since Reinking entered a not guilty plea by reason of insanity, his defense attorneys argued forMetro Police Detective Desmond Sumerel to be able to read the jury two letters found in Reinking's safe. After a heated exchange between prosecutors and Reinking's attorneys, Judge Fishburn ruled that he would allow the letters to be read aloud.

One of the letters addressed to Oprah Winfrey was mailed and returned to Reinking in 2017.

The letter opens with:“Oprah. I am writing to you because I am in love with Taylor Swift and I don’t know if I am delusional or not. I started writing Taylor on June 2, 2015. The letters were about dreams I was having.”

Reinking writes that he started having feelings for Taylor Swift after she mouthed the word "hello" to him at one of her concerts. But then, he says the tables turned.

“She started being cruel and lied about everything. She catfished me on the internet," Reinking wrote.

Later adding:“She says things like she’s hooking up with other guys. She’s hooking up with girls. She wants to be in a relationship with more than one person. She calls me names like Donald Trump.”

In the letter, Reinking went on to accuse Swift of hacking his computer and stealing his scientific ideas. He wrote that he went to Swift's home in LA only to find a place that looked like it was under construction or abandoned, and that he told his parents he was going to meet Swift one night.

“She (Taylor Swift) catfished me on the internet. Made me fall in love with her and then started being nasty to me," Reinking wrote.

He also said, "I tried to meet her one night and I told my parents about it. They called ERS on me and had me forced to get mentally evaluated. I was kept against my will for 6-7 days. The doctors without a root cause told me that I was schizophrenic.”

Reinking claimed that he reached out to police and the Federal Bureau of Investigation about people hacking his computer.

“Maybe this is someone else on the internet like the government," he wrote, adding later in the letter: "I want to know why she is hacking me and stealing from me. I want to be able to give her help.”

In his letter to Winfrey, Reinking said she was friends with Taylor and he wanted to figure out what was going on. He also expressed his love for the pop star.

“I’m so in love with Taylor and I’m chasing her the only way I know how," Reinking wrote.

In a separate letter addressed to "Taylor," Reinking questions her about Instagram posts and asks if she has a twin.

“Taylor, I’m really confused right now. I don’t know if it was you in the pictures on Instagram or someone who looks like you. Do you really have a twin sister? Which one am I really in love with then?”Reinking wrote.

"If there is Taylor with different identities, then who are those different people?" he added.

The two letters accompanied several other papers and items left in Reinking's safe like:

• Reinking's lease
• Two passports
• Loose papers
• Medical information
• Pictures
• BMW tag and keyfob from a reported stolen car out of Brentwood
• Title for another vehicle
  
• Social Security Administration letter
• Birth certificate
• Notebooks
• Checkbook
• Diploma

Investigators took the safe as evidence from Reinking's Mountain Springs apartment, which was sparse with any furnishings but filled with multiple guns, boxes of ammunition and devices like laptops and cameras.

Reinking entered a not guilty plea by reason of insanity in February 2019. A forensic psychologist taking the stand Wednesday says Reinking hasschizophrenia.

Nashville District Attorney Glenn Funk’s office is seeking a punishment of life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Stay with FOX 17 News as the trial continues.