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It was a robbery that was more than a year in the making.

Leonard Patrick Gonzalez Jr. had his sights set on a safe in the home of Byrd and Melanie Billings that he believed contained $13 million. To get the riches, he assembled a crew of small-time drug pushers and thugs to help him burst into the home on a sprawling lot in Beulah, take the safe and run.

But the heist spiraled into far more.

Shortly after entering the home, two members of the crew say, Gonzalez Jr. shot and killed Byrd Billings. Moments later, Gonzalez Jr. fatally shot Melanie Billings. Nine adopted children, all with special needs, also were in the home.

On Monday, Gonzalez Jr.'s trial on two charges of first-degree murder and a charge of home invasion is scheduled to begin in Escambia Circuit Court.

(snip)

http://www.pnj.com/article/20101024/NEWS01/10240316/Billings-slayings-Gonzalez-Jr-first-on-trial
 
Gonzalez's bragging likely spawned mafia hit rumors

It became a rumor that defined the darker side of an already dark event.

The idea of the "Mexican Mafia" being involved in the Billings slayings arose out of Leonard Patrick Gonzalez Jr.'s initial interview with homicide investigators at the Escambia County Sheriff's Office. Not charged with a crime at that time, Gonzalez Jr. promised the deputies that the murders were a part of something more sinister.

(snip)

http://www.pnj.com/article/20101024...ez-s-bragging-likely-spawned-mafia-hit-rumors
 
Billings murder trial: Daughter testifies about frantic call for help from boy who could only scream

The Associated Press

PENSACOLA — The adult daughter of a slain Florida couple testified Tuesday about a frantic telephone call with a younger sibling who was unable to talk as their parents were being killed by armed intruders.

Ashley Markham said the young boy with an unspecified disability could only scream into the phone. She told him to hand the phone to another of the couple's nine adopted children with special needs, a young girl. Markham said she told the girl to run to the home of a nurse who lived on the property and call for help.

"I had a missed call from my mom, I called back and J answered the phone. He wasn't saying anything, he was just screaming. I was asking if he could just let me talk to mom and dad," Markham said.

Nurse Ashley Spencer sobbed as she took the stand and told jurors about how the young girl knocked on her door, begged her to come to the home where she found the bodies of Byrd and Melanie Billings.

Spencer entered through a side door and discovered a trail of blood and bullet holes that led to the couple's bedroom, where she found Byrd Billings face down in one pool of blood and Melanie Billings in another with gunshots through her face and chest.

more here

http://www.nwfdailynews.com/news/scream-34280-daughter-testifies.html
 
http://www.pnj.com/article/20101026...cide-trial-Gonzalez-was-broke-prosecutor-says

Billings homicide trial
Kris Wernowsky • kwernowsky@pnj.com • October 26, 2010

"Earlier in the day, State Attorney Bill Eddins said during his opening statement that Gonzalez Jr. was broke.

That's why he hatched a plan to rob a man he believed held millions of dollars inside his Beulah home."

(snip)

"Two witnesses – Tony Eisa and Lonnie Smith – testified that Gonzalez Jr. tried to recruit them to help in the robbery.

His father’s ex-wife Carol Brandt is also expected to testify that she was present when Gonzalez Jr. spoke about robbing the Billingses’ home."
 
http://www.pnj.com/article/20101026...icide-trial-Witnesses-refused-to-join-robbery

Billings homicide trial: Witnesses refused to join robbery
Kris Wernowsky • kwernowsky@pnj.com • October 26, 2010

"Two men who refused to participate in the robbery of Byrd and Melanie Billings’ home said that Leonard Patrick Gonzalez Jr. courted them in the months before the couple was killed.

Gonzalez Jr. visited his friend Tony Eisa at a home in Gulf Breeze. Eisa testified today."

(snip)

"Lonnie Smith spoke of similar overtures. During a meeting at a Pensacola Beach condo owned by co-defendant Pamela Long Wiggins, Smith said that Gonzalez Jr. and Hugh Wiggins discussed hiring him for a security job.

“It had something to do with taking a safe,” Smith said.

Similar to Eisa, Smith said he received several phone calls from Gonzalez Jr., but he didn’t answer them."
 
http://www.pnj.com/article/20101026...-trial-Accomplice-talks-about-his-recruitment

Billings homicide trial: Accomplice talks about his recruitment
Kris Wernowsky • kwernowsky@pnj.com • October 26, 2010

"A man who entered a plea in the murders of Byrd and Melanie Billings testified today that Leonard Patrick Gonzalez Jr. was the leader of their gang during the robbery turned double murder.

Frederick Lee Thornton Jr., 20, told the jury about his recruitment into a mafia-style gang led by Leonard Patrick Gonzalez Jr. that would rob homes and get away with massive amounts of money."
 
Opening arguments in Gonzalez trial

State Attorney Bill Eddins gave the opening statement today for the prosecution in the trial of Leonard Patrick Gonzalez, Jr. who is on trial for the July 9, 2009 murders of Byrd and Melanie Billings during a home invasion. He is facing the death penalty.

(snip)

http://ricksblog.biz/?p=12973
 
Observations from Gonzalez trial

It was a masterful stroke for the prosecution team of John Molchan and Bill Eddins to have the Billings’ daughter, Ashley Markham, testify first. They even figured out a way to get her closer to the jury by having her stand in front of them and point out the house on an aerial photo. After she testified, Markham was allowed to stay in the audience.

On the other hand Patrick Gonzalez is alone. Neither his mother, Terri Poff, or his wife Tabatha stayed in the courtroom after they testified.

(snip)

http://ricksblog.biz/?p=12975
 
Gonzalez manipulated the gullible

The only question: Does he get the death penalty or life in prison without parole?

The trial is a prelude to what seems a sure verdict of guilty, guilty, guilty for Leonard Patrick Gonzalez Jr.

Tuesday's testimony had bad omens for the man charged with killing a Beulah couple in the home where they cared for children with disabilities.

(snip)

http://www.pnj.com/article/20101027/NEWS01/10270334/1037
 
With his life on the line, Leonard Patrick Gonzalez Jr. blamed the media, an attention-starved sheriff and a politically motivated prosecutor for his double murder conviction.

The 36-year-old man found guilty of the July 9, 2009 murders of Byrd and Melanie Billings testified for about 30 minutes at a sentencing hearing on Wednesday.

Gonzalez Jr. winked and smiled at his wife Tabatha as he passed in front of where she sat.

Unlike the trial in October where he was allowed to wear a suit and tie, he wore the lime green jumpsuit that is the calling card of high-risk inmates at Escambia County Jail.

Circuit Judge Nick Geeker will decided Feb. 17 if he will follow the jury’s recommendation to put Gonzalez Jr. to death after it convicted him of two counts of first-degree murder and one count of home invasion.

(snip)

http://www.pnj.com/article/20101209/NEWS01/101209014/Gonzalez-Jr-testifies
 
url]http://www.weartv.com/newsroom/top_stories/videos/wear_vid_12604.shtml[/url]

*snip* Leonard Patrick Gonzalez Jr./Convicted of 2 Murders: "I think it was all set up. I think the people who did it were set up too."
As for who exactly did the setting up, Gonzalez Junior wouldn't say.
But he did mention that over a year before the murders, he helped Byrd Billings with his home security system and said Byrd was targeted for murder because he worked in the car business. BBM
 
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