Murders of Byrd and Melanie Billings | |
---|---|
Location | Pensacola, Florida, U.S. |
Date | July 9, 2009 |
Weapons | Gun |
Deaths | 2 |
No. of participants | 8 |
Motive | home invasion |
Accused | see Perpetrators |
Charges | first-degree murder and home invasion robbery |
The murders of Byrd and Melanie Billings occurred on or around July 9, 2009, in Pensacola, Florida, United States. Byrd Billings, 66, and his wife, Melanie, 43, were found shot to death on July 9, 2009. [1] The suspects, dressed in "ninja garb," [2] stole a safe and other items during the break-in at the sprawling Billings home west of Pensacola. Nine of their children were home at the time, but were not hurt by the intruders. [1] The family's attorney said that the safe contained jewelry, family papers, and prescription medications. [3]
Byrd Starling Billings divorced his second wife Cynthia Reeve Billings in January 1993. [4] Four months later, he married his third wife, Melanie Anne Billings (née Brock) [4] [5] who already had two biological children from previous relationships, Ashley Markham [6] [7] and Nicole "Nikki" Billings (died in 2008). [6] [8] [9] Melanie was 17 years old when she gave birth to Ashley and 19 years old when she gave birth to Nikki. [7]
Byrd Billings reportedly had two biological children also (not with Melanie Billings). [10]
They had a total of 16 children, including each other's stepchildren and adoptive children. [11] [12] [nb 1] One source said 13 of the children were adopted. [15] Before the couple's murder, three of their adopted children, many of whom had special needs, had died. [10]
At the time of their death, Melanie Billings owned a used car lot and Byrd Billings had a company named Worldco Financial Services. [5] [16] Byrd Billings was also a used car dealer and former strip club owner. [5] [17]
Seven men were charged with first-degree murder and home invasion robbery, and an eighth suspect was charged with being an accessory after the fact. [13]
In October 2010, Leonard Patrick Gonzalez Jr. was on trial for first-degree murder facing a possible death sentence in Escambia County Circuit Court in Pensacola. [18] The Billings had 16 cameras located around the residence to help them observe their children, and some of the video footage was shown in court. [18] Gonzalez was identified in one video by Frederick Thornton, one of his accomplices, as the person who shot Byrd Billings. [18]
On February 17, 2011, it was announced that Gonzalez was to be sentenced to death for the first-degree murders. On April 10, 2014, Gonzalez's conviction and sentence of death were affirmed on direct appeal by the Florida Supreme Court. [19]
A total of eight people were convicted for planning and participating in the crimes. The five criminals who entered the Billings' home, the two criminals who drove the getaway vehicles, and the criminal who helped dispose of the stolen property, were all found/pled guilty and received the following sentences: [19] [20]
Life imprisonment is any sentence of imprisonment for a crime under which the convicted criminal is to remain in prison for the rest of their natural live span. Crimes that warrant life imprisonment are extremely serious and usually violent. Examples of these crimes are murder, torture, terrorism, child abuse resulting in death, rape, espionage, treason, illegal drug trade, human trafficking, severe fraud and financial crimes, aggravated property damage, arson, hate crime, kidnapping, burglary, robbery, theft, piracy, aircraft hijacking, and genocide.
A home invasion, also called a hot prowl burglary, is a sub-type of burglary in which an offender unlawfully enters into a building residence while the occupants are inside. The overarching intent of a hot prowl burglary can be theft, robbery, assault, sexual assault, murder, kidnapping, or another crime, either by stealth or direct force. Hot prowl burglaries are considered especially dangerous by law enforcement because of the potential for a violent confrontation between the occupant and the offender.
The NETA Association is the name of a gang that began in the Puerto Rico prison system and spread to the United States mainland. Although Puerto Rico has many small street gangs claiming its poorer neighborhoods, NETAS is by far the largest and most dominant, controlling the illegal drug trade in the island's prison system.
PC Sharon Beshenivsky was a West Yorkshire Police constable shot and killed by a criminal gang during a robbery in Bradford on 18 November 2005, becoming the seventh female police officer in Great Britain to be killed on duty. Her colleague, PC Teresa Milburn, was seriously injured in the same incident. Milburn had joined the force less than two years earlier; Beshenivsky had served only nine months as a Constable in the force at the time of her death, having been a Community Support Officer before.
The Metropolitan Detention Center, Brooklyn is a United States federal administrative detention facility in the Sunset Park neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York City. It holds male and female prisoners of all security levels. It is operated by the Federal Bureau of Prisons, a division of the United States Department of Justice.
Channon Gail Christian, aged 21, and Hugh Christopher Newsom Jr., aged 23, were from Knoxville, Tennessee, United States. They were kidnapped on the evening of January 6, 2007, when Christian's vehicle was carjacked. The couple were taken to a rental house. Both of them were raped, tortured, and murdered. Four males and one female were arrested, charged, and convicted in the case. In 2007, a grand jury indicted Letalvis Darnell Cobbins, Lemaricus Devall Davidson, George Geovonni Thomas, and Vanessa Lynn Coleman on counts of kidnapping, robbery, rape, and murder. Also in 2007, Eric DeWayne Boyd was indicted by a federal grand jury of being an accessory to a carjacking, resulting in serious bodily injury to another person and misprision of a felony. In 2018, Boyd was indicted on state-level charges of kidnapping, robbery, rape, and murder.
Ryan Keith Skipper was an American man from Polk County, Florida, who was murdered on March 14, 2007, in what authorities declared a hate crime. Skipper's body was discovered on March 15 along a roadside in Wahneta, Florida. Two men were arrested in connection with the crime: William David Brown Jr., and Joseph Bearden, 20 and 21 years old at the time of the incident, respectively. The men were charged with first-degree murder and robbery.
State of Nevada v. Orenthal James Simpson, et al, Case Number: 07C237890-4. was a criminal case prosecuted in 2007–2008 in the U.S. state of Nevada, primarily involving the retired American football player O. J. Simpson.
Terry Anthony Blair was an American serial killer who was convicted of killing seven women of various ages in Kansas City, Missouri, although investigators believed that there were additional unidentified victims.
The Barack Obama assassination plot in Tennessee was a plot by Paul Schlesselman and Daniel Cowart to assassinate Barack Obama, who was then the 2008 Democratic Party presidential nominee. The two men—both Neo-Nazi white power skinheads—spoke of killing Obama during a planned murder spree of 88 African Americans in Tennessee, 14 of whom were to be beheaded, many of whom were young students at an unidentified, predominantly black school.
On May 30, 2009, 29-year-old Raul Flores Jr. and his daughter, nine-year-old Brisenia Ylianna Flores, were murdered during a home invasion in Arivaca, Arizona. The perpetrators were Shawna Forde, Jason Eugene Bush and Albert Gaxiola, all members of Forde's vigilante nativist group, Minutemen American Defense (MAD). Gina Gonzalez, the victims' wife and mother, was wounded but survived the attack after exchanging gunfire with the intruders, wounding Bush.
Graham v. Florida, 560 U.S. 48 (2010), was a decision by the Supreme Court of the United States holding that juvenile offenders cannot be sentenced to life imprisonment without parole for non-homicide offenses.
On April 28, 2010, James Sanders was fatally shot in Edgewood, Washington, while showing a diamond ring that was listed for sale on Craigslist.
On July 30, 2010, three inmates escaped from the Kingman Arizona State Prison, operated as a for-profit medium-security prison in Golden Valley by Utah's Management and Training Corporation. It was owned by the Mohave County Industrial Development Authority. A female accomplice assisted the escape. Over the next three weeks, local law enforcement captured prisoners Daniel Renwick in Colorado; Tracy Province in Wyoming; and finally, with the U.S. Marshals, John McCluskey in Arizona, along with the trio's accomplice Casslyn Welch.
The murder of Hadiya Pendleton occurred on January 29, 2013. Pendleton, a 15-year-old girl from Chicago, Illinois, was shot in the back and killed while standing with friends inside Harsh Park in Kenwood, Chicago after taking her final exams. As a student at King College Prep High School, she was killed only one week after performing at events for President Barack Obama’s second inauguration. First Lady Michelle Obama attended the funeral for Pendleton in Chicago.
The Blackwater River Correctional Facility is a private state prison for men located in Milton, Santa Rosa County, Florida, which was opened in 2010 by the GEO Group under contract with the Florida Department of Corrections. This facility houses about 2,000 inmates at a variety of security levels.
Lukace Kendle is an American man who was convicted of second-degree murder with a firearm and attempted second-degree murder for a 2012 shooting that killed Kijuan Byrd and left Michael Smathers paralyzed. He was sentenced to the maximum penalty of life in prison without the possibility of parole, plus another consecutive 30 years in prison.
On June 18, 2018, 20-year-old American rapper and singer-songwriter Jahseh Dwayne Ricardo Onfroy, known professionally as XXXTentacion, was murdered in Deerfield Beach, Florida. Onfroy was fatally shot and killed by 22-year-old Michael Boatwright after being robbed in his car by Boatwright and his accomplices Trayvon Newsome, Dedrick Williams, and Robert Allen outside RIVA Motorsports, an upscale seller of motorcycles and watercraft in Deerfield Beach. Authorities charged the four men with first-degree murder and robbery with a firearm.
Robert Wesley Knighton was an American serial killer and spree killer who, after serving time for kidnapping and manslaughter in Missouri embarked on a four-day, two-state killing spree along with Lawrence Lingle Brittain and Ruth Renee Williams. Brittain and Williams both pleaded guilty and testified against Knighton in exchange for leniency, and have since been released from prison. Knighton was convicted of two murders in Oklahoma and executed in 2003.
15 to Life: Kenneth's Story is a Canadian-American documentary film, directed by Nadine Pequeneza and released in 2014.