Billings case: Tuesday, July 14

“We Have Found Them”
Tuesday, July 14

Sheriff Morgan creates a new stir on Tuesday morning about the involvement of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Drug Enforcement Agency.

It begins during a live interview with Meredith Vieira of the “Today Show.” When asked whether robbery was the motive for the murders and home invasion, Morgan replies, “We believe again that is a motive. We are developing other motives as this case progresses. And motives, to be very honest with you, will be outside the purview of the Escambia County Sheriff’s Office. “

Then Morgan expands, “We held a joint meeting yesterday with many of the federal agencies in Pensacola and we have turned that information over to them. Our part in this investigation will effectively come to a close with the end of the murders investigation.

CNN national correspondent Ed Lavandera on CNN’s “America Morning” reports, “What remains baffling in this case is that authorities are saying that a robbery is perhaps just one of the motives. But piecing together why this family was targeted is still a mystery.”

CNN plays a clip of Sheriff Morgan saying, “A motive is robbery. But there are other motives we believe that will develop.”

Lavandera reports that federal authorities have been enhancing those video images to learn what happened during the four minutes that five men broke in to their home.
And he offers his theories on possible motives:

“There are many people who just don’t believe that this was a random crime. So the appearance of it, a daytime intrusion like this and a camera in a house that’s heavily fortified with a security system and cameras, you know, there is reason to believe that they were targeted.”

FAMILY RESPONDS
As the media starts to dig into the lives of Bud and Melanie Billings and search for motives for their murders, Ashley Markham has another press release:

“We would like to start by thanking everyone for their support, especially the good people of Escambia County and the surrounding community. We would also like to thank the investigative agencies involved in this matter.

The family cannot begin to find the words to adequately express the pain and disbelief of these last few days. To know there are people among us capable of this type of violence and with this magnitude of hate and evil in their lives is sickening.

Our Mom and Dad only had love in their lives. Since the day they met, 19 years ago, they knew they were soul mates. They chose a life that many people did not understand.

Together they decided to adopt a child, which turned into the adopting of many children. They had a calling to adopt, and to provide love to children that most did not see as normal. To my Mom and Dad their children are perfect. In their eyes their children had no disabilities and presented no challenges. They saw them as angels that God provided to them and Mom and Dad knew they would love them eternally. Mom and Dad had the ability to provide their children with lives full of fun, joy, patience and love. Though they have 17 children, love was never scarce, never withheld. They loved and cherished each child as much as a person is possibly capable.

My mother always told me some people grow up wanting to be doctors or lawyers or teachers. She wanted to be a mommy. She had patience that is simply undescribable. If you would have had the chance to meet her, you would know the radiance of her spirit. She never met a stranger. Her life long dream was loving her babies and being a voice for them.

Our father is the smartest person I have ever known. He taught through example. He had a passion for life and was absolutely crazy about my Mom. There was not a day that went by that he failed to tell her how much he loved her. Our Mom and Dad spent most of their time together. They shared the daily duties of getting the children ready for school, getting the children off the bus in the afternoon, always preparing and eating dinner as a family.

Instilling values and traditions in their children was very important to them. Those who have met any of the Billings children now how well behaved and well mannered they are. Our parents taught us to love despite differences in people.

Christmas has always been the favorite holiday in the Billings home. Our mom never left anything out. Every year, on Christmas Eve, there was one present opened by each child, and then Christmas morning started about 4:30 a.m.

My mother and father touched many, many lives around the country and we plan to carry on their legacy. We, the children, have experienced a loss that is unimaginable. As a family we will pull together and take each day, one day at a time drawing strength from each other. Our most important concern right now is fulfilling the wishes of my parents. In the event anything ever happened, their wishes were to keep the children together and show the children the love they would have shown them. The family is completely capable of following through with these wishes.

We are coping as a family and request that everyone continue to pray for our strength. We ask that everyone please keep our privacy in mind while we grieve. Again, thank you for all the support. We hope that all people use our parents as an example.

We know that our parents are watching over us now and are reunited with their three angels. Mom and Dad will give us the strength to make it through the hard times, and with their love we hope to make the world a better place, just as they did during their short time on earth.”

OPENING SECOND SAFE
State Attorney Investigator Corey Aittama and Assistant State Attorney Bridgette Jenson meet with attorney Crystal Spencer and members of the Billings family at the Billings residence to open the second safe, a large green gun-type safe, that was in the second floor utility room. Also present are ESCO Investigator Tom Watts, Sgt. Buddy NeSmith, Sgt. Stan Wehemeier and CST Christine Purcell.

Ashley tells the investigators that the safe combination, 72-48-20, was written on the inside of the top left drawer of the chest in the master bedroom closet.

Spencer opens the safe and all items are removed, photographed and inventoried by the ECSO. The contents include miscellaneous documents, jewelry, a sealed computer hard drive and a lock box with $164,500 in cash in $100 bills–40 rolls in $5,000 increments, 5 in $2,000 increments and 45 loose $100 bills.

INVESTIGATORS DON’T LET UP
Investigators Barber and Ward meet Ashley and Blue Markham at Markham Auto Sales and seize the office computer. The two then go to Gulf Breeze and attempt to locate additional video surveillance which might have shown the business or parking lot of the antique shop owned by Pam Long. They are unsuccessful.

Investigator Bobby Guy works on the paperwork to upgrade charges against Leonard Gonzalez from tampering with evidence to open counts of homicide. Guy and Watts interview Leonard again.

He admits that the red Dodge van that was recovered is his son Patrick’s. It had not left his yard in several days. He says that he painted a few spots on the van because of rust and had parked it on the side of his shed because he was working on it. Leonard tells Guy and Watts that Wayne Coldiron had helped him work on the van. He also admits that he went to the Dollar store to purchase the paint.

PRESS CONFERENCE
Arrests of Florence, Thornton, Stallworth
Sheriff David Morgan opens the noon press conference honoring the men and women at the Escambia County Sheriff’s Office that worked around the clock to solve the Billings murders. He says that over the past five days that he had seen the worse in man with the killings of Boyd and Melanie Billings and the best in man in how his department rallied to work on this investigation.

Morgan turns to Ashley and Blue Markham, who are standing with Spencer on his right.
He reminds Ashley what she had asked him to do when they first meet after the tragedy. Markham had asked the sheriff to do whatever he could to find the people who committed the crime.

“It is my honor today to tell you, Ashley, and your family, we have found them and they are in custody,” Sheriff Morgan tells Ashley. He hugs her as she begins to cry.

Sheriff Morgan excuses the Markhams and goes into press conference mode. He reports the arrests of three more people in the Billings murder case–Fredrick Lee Thornton, Donald Ray Stallworth and an unnamed juvenile, age 16. All seven suspects will be charged with open counts of murder, including Leonard Patrick Gonzalez, Sr. The juvenile will be charged as an adult.

He says that Sumner, Thornton, Stallworth and the juvenile all are from Okaloosa County and worked together at 5th Dimension Auto Detailing. The Sheriff identifies them as friends of Patrick Gonzalez, who has been named the organizer of the crime.

Morgan says that Wayne Coldiron has worked some for a pressure washing business owned by the elder Gonzalez and that Coldiron may have been on the Billings property at one time to do some pressure washing.

“We’ve got the primary individuals and suspects in custody today,” Sheriff David Morgan says. He adds that an eighth person is believed to have aided and abetted the crime and authorities know that person’s name and location. Investigators know who the actual gunmen were, Morgan says, but he would not tell reporters.

Morgan tells the reporting the suspects trained for the crime on the Palm Court property of suspect Leonard Gonzalez, but he wouldn’t discuss other details about it. He says they were on the Billings property for about 10 minutes, a little more than four of which were spent in the home.

“There are a couple of individuals that have a prior military background in this group,” Morgan says. “It was a very well-executed operation.”

He declines to comment on the safe’s contents, if it has been recovered or what else might have been taken from the home.

“The big break was the video surveillance system that the Billings family had in the home and on that compound,” Morgan says, but he declines to say whether the murders were captured on the tape.

The sheriff takes time to recognize his investigative team. “I want to give credit where credit is due. If you have point in your life when you have a moment that you can stand and serve with people of greatest, you are truly blessed. I can tell you that in the past five days, I have stood in the presence of greatest.”

Morgan has Captain Bruce Woods, Sgt. Buddy Nesmith, Sgt. Rusty Hoard, Lead Investigator Tom Watts, Investigator Zack Ward, Investigator Lee Tyree, Investigator Tama Barber, Investigator Bobby Guy, Investigator Terry Hardy, Victim Advocate Robbie Leverette, Analyst Breina Hammond, and Investigator Chris Baggett stand next to him at the podium.

State Attorney Bill Eddins says that he will seek first-degree murder indictments against the seven when their cases are presented to a grand jury. Some will be charged with premeditated murder, others with felony murder, meaning they will be accused of murder during the commission of a robbery.

“It’s premature for me to speak to the death penalty at this time,” said Eddins. “The death penalty is such an ultimate penalty. We have a process in the office that is very deliberate that we go through that takes some weeks before we make a decision regarding the death penalty.”

Eddins is not as open to other possible motives as Morgan has been. He says the primary motive was home invasion and robbery.

“They did take items that you would normally expect to be taken in a robbery.” However, Eddins doesn’t say what was in the safe. He expects to take the cases before a grand jury within a few weeks. At that time, more information will be released as the court documents are filed.

“I am hopeful that the matter is concluded now.”

Again Morgan isn’t ready to close the books on the Billings case. He hints at there being a bigger scope to this case involving businesses outside the state and country. However, for his department, Morgan believes that they have solved the Billings murder case and that it will be up to the Feds to pursue other leads.

“It involves other businesses, other states, other countries. The individuals we have arrested for this crime are involved in other areas and other crimes.”

Asked whether the suspects had expressed remorse, the sheriff said, “Everyone expresses remorse when they’re caught.”

PATRICK SPEAKS OUT
Patrick Gonzalez Jr. has his first court appearance and makes the most of it. The hearing is done via teleconference. Patrick is at the jail with a court-appointed attorney. In a small, cramped courtroom in the Blanchard Judicial Center in downtown Pensacola sits Escambia County Judge Thomas Johnson, Blue and Ashley Markham, Crystal Spencer and several other family members. The media stands around the edges of the courtroom.

Gonzalez appears on the widescreen television. Ashley sees the man accused of killing her parents.

“I think the entire case is based on hearsay and circumstantial evidence and the confession of a mentally-challenged person with a long history of making false statements,” says Patrick. “In those confessions, I am not guilty of the crimes for which I`m being charged.”

Gonzalez tells Judge Johnson that the Sheriff’s Office lied about his weight on paperwork so that he would better fit the suspect description and has thrust him into the public eye without considering all of the possibilities.

“I’ve cooperated with the investigators from the very beginning,” he said. “From the very beginning the investigators and the sheriff have focus their sights entirely on me, pushing me into the media before evidence was even gathered.”

“I am also socially prominent with work I’ve down in Project FIGHT BACK,” he says. “I’ve trained over 20,000 local children in abduction awareness and kidnap prevention and a few weeks ago won the Seville Sertoma Club’s Service to Mankind Award.”

He says that he was placed in a suicide ward at the Escambia County Jail without cause.

“With the exception of the statements that have been made, coerced, bullied or manipulated out of a mentally ill person, there is no hard evidence that links me to the scene of the crimes that occurred July 9,” says Patrick.

“I respectfully ask the court that due to a lack of hard evidence, my family situation and as well as community activism, to release me on my own recognizance or greatly reduce my bond and allow me to prepare to defend myself against these heinous charges, which is my constitutional right.”

Instead Judge Johnson, citing a criminal history that includes seven arrests and a stint in state prison, orders Gonzalez to be held in jail without bond.

“I’ve read the arrest report and I find that there is sufficient evidence which gives me great concern for our community,” Judge Johnson says.

The Sheriff’s Office doesn’t respond to Gonzalez’s claims. Eddins’ response is terse.

“I look forward to meeting Mr. Gonzalez in court.”

Copyright © 2009 Rick Outzen