Thread: Sheriff: Up to 8 involved in Fla. couple's slaying

been tell'n you folks... Florida is WILD and only getting worse

Sheriff: Up to 8 involved in Fla. couple's slaying

Victims had adopted 12 kids; cameras captured 'ninja' assailants

updated 6:53 p.m. ET, Mon., July 13, 2009

PENSACOLA, Fla. - Byrd and Melanie Billings had a growing brood of adopted children with autism, Down syndrome and other disabilities, and took care to make their nine-bedroom house a safe place for them, wiring it with surveillance cameras in every room.

It was those cameras that captured images of the masked men who shot the wealthy couple to death in a break-in executed with chilling precision.

Authorities made three arrests over the weekend, but the mystery around town only deepened Monday, when Sheriff David Morgan said that as many as eight people in all may have been involved and that the crime appeared to have "numerous motives," though robbery was the only one he would mention.

"Mr. Billings was well-to-do. He was an entrepreneur and he opened his home to the community. You are asking me to speculate on a motive. That could have been one reason," Morgan said, likening the killings to the 1959 slayings of a Kansas farm family that were chronicled by Truman Capote in the book "In Cold Blood."

The video from last Thursday showed three armed, masked men arriving in a red van, entering through the front of the house and then returning to the vehicle. Others dressed in what the sheriff called "ninja garb" went in through an unlocked utility door in the back. They were in and out in under 10 minutes.

The sheriff would not say what, if anything, was stolen.

'Well-planned and methodical'
Some of the nine children in the house at the time were sleeping, but several others saw the break-in, authorities said. One left the house and went to get a neighbor, who called 911.

"I think you'll find this particularly chilling and here's why: We have a team that enters at the rear of the home and another that enters at the front of the home," Morgan said. "It leads me to believe this was a very well-planned and methodical operation."

Morgan said, however, that there was no indication anyone had unlocked the door for the intruders, explaining, "I believe it was a matter of course in this community that they felt comfortable enough to leave the door unlocked." He also said he knew of no connection between the men under arrest and the Billings family.

The Billingses owned several local businesses, including a finance company and a used-car dealership. They lived in Beulah, a rural area west of Pensacola, near the Alabama state line, in a house set deep in the woods. They had 16 children in all — 12 of them adopted.

In a 2005 story in the Pensacola New Journal, the couple said they wanted to share their wealth with children in need, but didn't imagine their family would grow so large.

"It just happened," said Melanie Billings, who was 43 when she died. "I just wanted to give them a better life."

The surveillance system was installed to help the couple keep track of their children as they wandered through the large house and yard, said Susan Berry, principal of Escambia Westgate School in Pensacola, which some of the children attended.

Getaway driver
Tips from the public led police to the van on Saturday. Day laborer Wayne Coldiron, 41, turned himself in on Sunday, and Leonard P. Gonzalez Jr., 35, was arrested the same day in a neighboring county. They were charged with murder and home invasion.

Authorities also jailed Gonzalez's father on a charge of evidence tampering. Police said the 56-year-old tried to paint over and hide damage on the van.

The elder Gonzalez told investigators that he was the getaway driver and waited in the van while the others broke into the house and burglarized it, according to court papers. Authorities said he also told them several other men were involved.

'Generous with everyone'
Byrd Billings, 68, was a man with big twinkle-eyed smile, Berry said. At one school function, his big hand enveloped hers, leaving a neatly folded check for the school in her palm. She wouldn't say how much the check was for, but she couldn't believe how big it was.

"They weren't only generous with their children," Berry said. "They were generous with everyone that touched their children's lives."

When Melanie Billings picked up her children from school, she would stretch out her arms, and "the kids would run to her, the ones that could," Berry said. "They would go as fast they could with their arms in the air for Mom to take them."

For one daughter's prom, the couple created a Cinderella scene. The girl's dress was white, her date wore a white tuxedo with a pink tie, and the couple emerged from a white limousine.

"The beam on Byrd and Mel's faces, and on the parents of the young man, is something I'll never forget," Berry said. "It was picture-perfect."

Ashley Markham, an adult daughter of the victims, said she plans to carry on with her parents' legacy.

"My mother always told me some people grow up wanting to be doctors or lawyers or teachers. She wanted to be a mommy," Markham said in a statement. "Her lifelong dream was loving her babies and being a voice for them."

A funeral service has been planned for Friday morning at the Liberty Church, with visitation planned for Thursday night.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/31887541/ns ... and_courts

The C.B.S. evening news reported that most of the people involved were day labors who had done work at the house. Nothing was said about legal status of those involved. Does anyone in Fla. have any info on this for us?

7 charged with killing Fla. couple, stealing safe

By MELISSA NELSON and BILL KACZOR, The Associated Press
7:04 p.m. July 14, 2009

PENSACOLA, Fla. — An ex-convict who taught self-defense to children. A day laborer who served prison time for killing a man in a fight. An Air Force staff sergeant attached to an elite special operations unit.

Somehow, authorities say, they ended up part of a loosely connected group of seven men charged in the shooting deaths of Byrd and Melanie Billings, a wealthy Florida Panhandle couple known for adopting children with special needs.

The suspects, some dressed as ninjas, stole a safe and other items during the break-in Thursday at the sprawling Billings home west of Pensacola.

Nine of the couple's 13 adopted children were home at the time. Three saw the intruders but were not hurt. Authorities would not say what was in the safe or what else was taken.

Some of the masked men entered through the front door, while others slipped in through an unlocked utility door in the back. They were in and out in under 10 minutes. The crime was captured by an extensive video surveillance system the Billings used to keep tabs on their many children.

"It was a very well-planned and well-executed operation," said Escambia County Sheriff David Morgan.

The last three of the seven suspects were arrested Tuesday, though Morgan said there still might be more arrests. State Attorney Bill Eddins said robbery was the main motive for the crime.

Adult daughter Ashley Markham – one of four Billings children from previous marriages – sobbed Tuesday as she hugged Morgan, who said he kept a promise made to her the night of the slayings.

"It is my honor today to tell you, Ashley, your family we have found them and they are in custody," Morgan said.

The suspects ranged in age from 16 to 56, and several were day laborers who knew each other through a pressure washing business and an auto detailer they worked for. One, Donnie Ray Stallworth, was with the Air Force Special Operations Command with an aircraft maintenance squadron at Hurlburt Field near Fort Walton Beach. It wasn't clear how he knew the others.

"We're dealing with a group of folks with rare exception – of course, there's a couple of people who are not – that again are basically day laborer sorts, folks that get odd jobs, part-time jobs and they drift," Morgan said. "With the exception of Mr. Stallworth you don't have any career-minded people in this group."

Morgan called 35-year-old suspect Leonard Gonzalez Jr. a "pivotal person" in organizing the crime, but stopped short of identifying him as the mastermind. He was charged Sunday with murder.

In court Tuesday, he read a statement proclaiming his innocence.

"The sheriff intentionally thrust me into the public's eye without any charges being filed and also intentionally placed me in a suicide ward to make me look even guiltier," Gonzalez said.

News clippings provided a very different picture of Gonzalez, a former National Guard member and martial arts expert who taught self-defense classes for women and children. In 2007, he and his wife founded a martial-arts course that taught children to defend themselves against sexual predators.

Gwinn Corley, a spokesman for a community group that gave Gonzalez and his wife an award for their program, said they brought their six young children to self-defense presentations.

"We were impressed with them," Corley said. "He was talking about children and their respect for their elders. They both seemed to have a passion to teaching the arts to abused women and kids, they had a vision for how to give free self defense."

But records show Gonzalez, who was arrested Sunday in the Billings case, served time in Florida State Prison on burglary and forgery charges in the mid-1990s.

His father, Leonard Gonzalez Sr., was also arrested. The 56-year-old was charged Sunday night with evidence tampering after authorities said he tried to cover up some damage on a red van seen on surveillance video pulling away from the house. Officials said the damage was unrelated to the crime. Tips from the public led police to the van Saturday.

The elder Gonzalez owned a pressure washing business and may have visited the Billings property once before. Another man arrested and charged with murder Sunday, day laborer Wayne Coldiron, 41, sometimes worked for him and also may have visited the property, Morgan said.
Coldiron, who appeared in court Tuesday and said he had lost his job as a plumber, served two years in a Tennessee prison in the early 1990s after killing a man during a fight. He also served nearly two years in prison in Florida on an aggravated assault charge.

The other four suspects were arrested Monday and Tuesday.
Authorities in neighboring Okaloosa County arrested 31-year-old Gary Sumner, another day laborer who was in a county jail on an unrelated traffic charge. On Tuesday, three more men were arrested: Stallworth, 19-year-old Frederick Lee Thornton, and a 16-year-old whom officials are not naming because he is a minor.

Eddins, the prosecutor, said he would seek first-degree murder indictments from a grand jury against all the suspects, including Gonzalez Sr. He would not say whether he will seek the death penalty.

Escambia County Judge Tom Johnson refused to set bail for the younger Gonzalez and Coldiron at the request of State Attorney Bill Eddins.

Johnson set their arraignments for Aug. 6. Bond for the elder Gonzalez had already been set at $500,000. The suspects arrested Monday and Tuesday are due in court this week except for Stallworth, who must be extradited from Alabama, where he was arrested.

The Billings family attended the hearing Tuesday but made no statements. Some were in tears afterward.

Friends, meanwhile, struggled to understand how the couple could have been killed in such a horrific way.

"Melanie and Byrd both would give you the shirt off their back and maybe they were too trusting," said Patsy Brown, who had known Melanie Billings for 22 years.
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Associated Press Writer Tamara Lush in Miami contributed to this report.
(This version CORRECTS the spelling of suspect Frederick Lee Thornton's name.))

http://www3.signonsandiego.com/stories/ ... dex=131631